Many businesses need standard terms and conditions, licence agreements, sales or service contracts as part of their normal activities.  We can provide you with documents tailored to meet your particular business and can advise you on the legal issues that arise in your normal business transactions.

In addition, we also draft and negotiate one-off agreements and more complex transaction documents.

Often in business, the parties focus on the commercial deal and may not focus too closely on the terms of the contract.  Sometimes, a party assumes that the ‘fine print’ or standard terms will not be unusual or won’t affect their rights significantly. In fact, the terms and conditions of commercial contracts play an important role if a dispute subsequently arises between the parties.  Typically, a supplier who receives a claim will look to rely on the limitation of liability clauses and the exclusions in their contract, in order to reduce or avoid liability.  From a customer’s perspective, the customer may have paid a substantial price for goods and services only to find that they cannot make a significant claim if the supplier does not meet their obligations.

Some commercial contracts will also be subject to statutory warranties imposed by the Trade Practices Act, even tough those warranties are designed to protect consumers rather than businesses. This means it is important that businesses understand what they can and can’t do to limit their liability in their contracts.

Because we act for a wide range of commercial clients in many different industries, we understand the needs of many businesses and can provide expert advice and assistance on a range of commercial contracts.

Some recent contract areas we have advised on include:

• software licences and development agreements for knowledge management, banking industries, public databases, systems design and implementation
• public tenders and government IT contracts
• supply agreements in retail and manufacturing industries
• service agreements for ISPs, ASPs and computer programming consultants
• contracts for the employment and recruitment industry
• freight services agreements
• outsourced services agreements
• distributorship and agency agreements in various industries

For further information contact:

Shah Rusiti

Jeanette Webb

Frequently Asked Questions

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