Time to check your legals?
So, what is a Legal Check Up?
Just like a health check-up with a doctor, you and your business need regular legal check-ups to keep across any early signs of current or potential legal issues.
When you have a legal check-up, a lawyer or other trained professional talks with you about your current business structure, people involved in the business, current business model, and your strategy moving forward, as well as anything that’s keeping you up at night!
Whilst an accountant or bookkeeper can give you some insights into financial compliance, they aren’t legally trained and so aren’t able to give a clear picture of all legal obligations of you and your business.
The best kind of legal health check is tailored specifically to your business and your industry. And they should be a relaxed and relatively enjoyable experience with someone that you trust.
What happens during your Legal Check Up
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Step 1 - Book in the check up
Find a time that suits you to have a cuppa and a chat with a friendly Checklist Legal Lawyer
Pay your deposit to book the time in and get access to our Legal Check Up Checklist and other resources.
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Step 2 - Check in with our friendly business savvy lawyers
We chat with you about your business and run through core areas as well as your questions.
Relax and enjoy talking about your business and getting a plan in place.
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Step 3 - Your checklist for action
We get back to you with a tailored checklist for your business and an action plan for future milestones.
We’ll also send you our remaining invoice for payment.
Huzzah! 💃🏽🎉 Your check up is complete and you have a plan of attack for your next business steps and feel confident moving forward.
Why get a legal check up?
There are lots of reasons it can be helpful to get a legal check up
Confirm whether your current strategy and model are in line with good industry practice and compliance requirements
Find out whether any recent updates in the law affect you and your business
Understand your obligations as your business grows and changes
Be ready when opportunities appear
Plan ahead to match your business compliance as you gow
Ensure you as a business director and manager understand the risks and potential personal liability you have
Hear about trends across other businesses
Avoid wasting time with your own “google lawyering”
Reduce risks in the way you operate as a business
Plan ahead for your business when you reach new milestones such as changing business structure, hiring employees, or firing a contractor
How often do I need a legal check up?
Generally, a once a year check-up is a great idea if you have a lawyer you know and trust to help.
If you or your business are going through a large change (for example, changing business structure, taking on an employee, getting married), it can also be a good time to do a general check up to make sure all your ducks are in a row.
Who can help with a legal check up?
Whilst a commercial lawyer is great for a general review of legal issues for business and corporate governance, there are different specialists that you might need to help with a legal check up (similar to different medical specialists). Experts in employment law, start-up law, consumer issues, dispute resolution etc can be useful to dive deeper into problems or questions.
We can help, book in a chat below
What does a Legal Check Up cover?
Every Legal Check Up is tailored for each business and business owner, however the core areas we cover are:
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A structural check looks at the different legal business structures available and assesses which structure will help to minimise your own personal liability as well as some basic tax issues from different structures.
We’ll give you some guidelines on the different structures and a plan to consider when you might want to change business structures going to restructure your business.
Details:
✓ How is your business structured?
✓ Founders / Shareholders
✓ Main industry
✓ Accountant / Bookkeeper
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The all important admin, can’t forget these all important areas.
Protecting your IP properly is critical to ensure you can get the most value out of all the work you do in your business.
Getting your registrations in place, the right insurance, and protecting your IP are all key admin checks you need to feel confident you have a functional business without hidden issues beneath the surface.
Details:
✓ Insurance [ Public / Product / Professional Indemnity / Cyber ]
✓ Workplace insurance
✓ Registered Business Names
✓ Trademarks and other IP protection
✓ Domain names
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Revenue generating contracts are the heart of any business and we love looking at how your different revenue generating products and services are sold.
We can give you an overview on different industry risks and requirements.
For example, a company selling sunscreen has different legal requirements than a company selling software. We tailor our check up to cover issues in your industry and your business model.
Details:
✓ Customer / Client type
✓ Revenue generating contracts
✓ Online terms
✓ Complaints and disputes
✓ Consumer Law
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You might have started out doing everything yourself, but as you grow and hire you can end up with a tangle of contractors and employees, as well as other suppliers, that could be causing you future problems.
There are some important issues around employees and independent contractors you need to be aware of so you don’t accidentally slip into sham contracting or other missteps with your team.
Details:
✓ Employees
✓ Contractors
✓ Leases
✓ Affiliates
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Even though it is called ‘consumer’ law, the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) also applies to small businesses.
The ACL covers a range of consumer and small business protection issues, including:
• Unfair contract terms (big changes in this area for 2023!!)
• Product safety
• Misleading or deceptive conduct (this is a very big area and covers advertising all the way to business dealings)
• Consumer guarantees (such as the right to a repair, replacement or refund for goods that are faulty or not fit for purpose)
• Unsolicited consumer agreements (such as door-to-door sales or telemarketing)
• Gift cards and vouchers
• Price exploitation during emergencies.
• The ACL applies to all businesses that supply goods or services to consumers and small businesses… so you need to be across how the laws affect your business.
Details:
✓ Advertising and promotions
✓ Website
✓ Privacy
✓ Returns
✓ Gift Cards
What happens after a Legal Check Up?
Once you have your trusty Checklist Legal plan of attack for your business, you can either start implementing the action plan yourself or work with your advisors to help you roll out the details,
We know that you need to prioritise your business spending, and that’s why we rank the key issues and help you develop a roadmap for managing them.
For example, if you want to develop a new subcontractor business model to help grow your business, then you might want to update your contractor agreement, your client agreement, and give your privacy policy a once over.
We’ll help you decide on a prioritised approach so you can feel confident in the new model without taking huge risks.
Let’s get your Legal Check Up booked in!
A Legal Check Up can be very useful for businesses that have not had a chance to assess what they need to meet legal best practice. It can also be useful to identify what your business needs in the future when it grows or hits other key milestones.
A Legal Check Up should provide you with an assessment of where your business is at and what you need to do to meet legal practice. It should also cover basic areas for businesses including business structuring, protecting your intellectual property, business contracts, and hiring staff.
Want to book in for a Legal Check Up?
Use the details below to book your time and pay your deposit for instant access to the following helpful guides:
Independent contractors and your business
Business structure 101
Proposal check-up checklist
Client contracts checklist
Payment request letter (for those overdue payment amounts)
Note for our current clients - Our current Checklist Legal clients get one free Legal Check Up every year… huzzah!
Total cost - $949 (inc GST)
Includes:
Booking and resources - $49 (inc GST)
Legal services (Call with lawyer and the Legal Check Up checklist) - $900 (inc GST)
Are you a registered Not-for-profit business or organisation?
We offer our Legal Health Check-up FREE for Not-for-profit businesses and organisations as part of our Pro Bono service.
Visit the link below to find out if you are eligible