Welcome to our law firm’s Terms of Service (including our Retainer)
Welcome to Legal Consolidated Barristers & Solicitors. Because we are law firm, as our client, you gain many additional benefits over non-law firms providing legal documents online: Law firm providing legal documents online
1. Our law firm’s Professional Indemnity Insurance. All Australian law firms and their lawyers are required to hold Professional Indemnity Insurance under the terms of each state E.g. Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) and the Legal Profession Act 2006 (ACT).
2. By law, as lawyers, we are required to act in your best interests – not ours. We govern ourselves per the rules and principles of a law firm’s professional conduct. As lawyers, we are bound by rules of ethics that require us to call upon every means possible to obtain positive results for you, our client.
3. Our duty of care is to the courts and our clients. All privacy legislation is subservient to the higher standards set for lawyers and our ethical duties.
4. Legal professional privilege – as a law firm certain matters can’t be made available to any person or entity – if you deal with a non-law firm then the courts can direct the non-law firm to hand over that type of information and documents. In Australia, legal professional privilege (also referred to as client legal privilege) is a rule of law protecting communications between lawyers and their clients from disclosure under compulsion of court or statute. Lawyer-client privilege protects your confidentiality. The client may waive the privilege. We can’t waive your privilege.
Buy direct from a lawyer
When you prepare legal documents on our website the person you prepare the documents for becomes our client. Your clients are fully and directly covered by our law firm’s Professional Indemnity insurance.
When lawyers carry out legal work they are covered by professional indemnity insurance. But only for legal work they carry out for clients. When you build documents directly from a lawyer’s website the person getting the document becomes a client of our law firm. Check that you are the client of the lawyer who produced the online document – and that it is not a mere subsale to you.
Our law firm’s retainer Law firm providing legal documents online
Click this link to view our Retainer
1. We deliver legal services as instructed by you.
2. We always act in your best interests.
3. We keep your matters confidential and private.
4. We can cease to act for you if we believe that:
– you don’t comply with the retainer or Terms of Service, fail to pay your account within 7 days
– we did not receive adequate instructions
– mutual trust and confidence is lost
– continuing to act for you may breach professional conduct rules, our ethics or the law
6. You accept this retain and the Terms of Service each and every time you log into our website, build a document, pay the document and use the document.
7. You acknowledge our copyright in documents prepared by us. You cannot reproduce those without our prior written permission.
8. If any part of the Retainer or Terms of Service is void or voidable then the remaining parts remain enforceable.
9. You indemnify and hold us harmless from loss.
10. You can negotiate this retainer (costs agreement), receive a bill of costs and itemised bill, request written reports about the progress of the matter and the costs incurred (as no cost to you), apply for costs to be assessed within 12 months, apply for the costs agreement to be set aside, accept or reject any offer we make for an interstate costs law, notify us that you require an interstate costs law. For more information ask us for the fact sheet: Legal Costs – your right to know.
11. You may ask the Court to review the retainer or Terms of Service. If the Court forms the view that either is not fair or reasonable, costs may be reduced or the retainer set aside. Law firm providing legal documents online
12. You have retained, printed or saved a copy of this retainer and Terms of Service for yourself.
Use of the Service Law firm providing legal documents online
1. All legal documents you build on our law firm’s website are subject to the Terms of Service.
2. Legal Consolidated Barristers & Solicitors is a law firm. We can and do give legal advice. Seek advice if you are unsure about the legal document you need.
3. You may incorrectly interpret or misunderstand a question and therefore end up with a document that is wrong or won’t work. So contact us as required.
4. The legal, commercial and taxation effects of a document can vary based on your personal situation.
5. Only you know the purpose for which you intend to use a document you build: Our law firm is not responsible for your choice of document. If in doubt, consult with us on a document’s suitability.
6. We cannot warrant that a legal document you decide to build is appropriate or suits your needs.
By using or visiting the Legal Consolidated website or any Legal Consolidated services, software, server, data feeds, and services provided to you on, from, or through the Legal Consolidated website or over the internet (collectively the ‘Service’) you agree to:
1. These terms (‘Terms of Service’); and
2. Legal Consolidated Privacy Policy plus the extra protection afforded by you dealing with a law firm.
If you do not agree to any of the Terms of Service or our Privacy Policy, immediately cease access to and use of the Service.
We continually improve these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. You agree to be bound by such modifications and revisions. Nothing in these Terms of Service is deemed to confer any third-party rights or benefits.
These Terms of Service apply to all users of the Service, including users who are also contributors of Content to the Service. In these Terms of Service, ‘Content’ includes all legal documents, legal advice, hints, documents, files, forms, text, software, scripts, graphics, interactive features and other materials you may view on, access through, or contribute to the Service.
Are Accountants and Financial Planners giving legal advice when building a legal document on our website?
Our law firm’s website empowers accountants and financial advisers to build legal documents for their clients. Documents include Trust Deeds, Self-Managed Super Deeds, Companies and 3-Generation Testamentary Trust Wills.
There are two types of services being offered in Australia for online documents.
- Documents prepared by a website that is not a law firm. We can’t comment on non-law firm websites.
- Legal Consolidated Barristers & Solicitors is the only law firm in Australia providing legal documents online. When you are on our website you are dealing directly with a law firm. Therefore, for our legal documents there is:
a. law firm Profesional Indemnity insurance
b. legal professional privilege
c. legal advice and help to answer the questions
d. a letter with the document confirming that Legal Consolidated Barristers & Solicitors authored the document and retains copyright
The law firm has a direct obligation to protect the client. The law firm carries the liability and insurance for providing the legal advice on how the information is provided, how the questions should be answered, how the answers appear on the computer screen and the signing of the documents. Such advice, from us, includes:
a. mandatory fields in the online questions, where required
b. hints and training videos for each question
c. dynamic logic flows, where the next question changes depending on the previous answer
d. a full Sample of the document, including our law firm’s covering letter
e. our covering letter setting out how to sign a document, especially when there is a formal signing process (like Wills and Power of Attorney)
f. additional legal advice by the telephone and email
Am I giving legal advice when I build a document?
No, you are not giving legal advice when you or your clients build a document on our law firm’s website. This is provided you are acting as a ‘mere scribe’. The logic flow, Hints and training videos provide the legal advice. While an Accountant provides accounting and tax advice, and a financial planner provides financial planning advice neither can give legal advice. This complies with:
- Attorney-General v Quill Wills Ltd (1990) 3 WAR 500
- Legal Practice Board v Computer Accounting and Tax Pty Ltd [2007] WASC 184
- Cornall v Nagle [1995] 2 VR 188 at 210
- Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth)
- Sinclair v C of T [2010] AATA 902
- Andre Agassi v Robinson & Bar Council & Law Society [2005] EWCA 1507
- Legal Practice Board v Computer Accounting and Tax Pty Ltd [2007] WASC 184
As stated in the Tax Institute’s Estate & Business Succession Planning, 7th edition, page 9:
‘Work that is undertaken in association with the law or legal practice will not necessarily constitute engaging in legal practice. Examples include:
* clerical or administration tasks
* selling legal documents; and
* advising of incidental legal requirements by a person in the pursuit of an occupation other than law, eg tax agents advising on the requirements of tax legislation.’
What about my Dealer Group?
Financial planners can only offer ‘financial products’ allowed by their Dealer Group. For investment products, the financial planner is provided with a list of authorised investments. Legal Consolidated Barristers & Solicitors and our online legal documents are not an investment product. You are free to recommend our website’s documents to your clients.
Your practice builds legal documents online for clients. As a law firm, we provide the legal advice. Each document you build comes with a letter on our law firm’s letterhead. It confirms that we authored the document.
Some dealer groups and accounting houses also require that a lawyer speaks to your client as well. If you would like that service, just tick the box, as you build the document. The additional cost is $200. After you build the document, if you have paid for the service, then our lawyers contact your clients about the document. You can get this service with any of our 380 documents including:
3-Generation Testamentary Trust Wills
SMSF special purpose companies
We are the only law firm in Australian providing legal documents online. When considering whether to use a non-law website to prepare your clients’ legal documents consider these 4 questions:
- Who is doing the drafting? The Family Trust Deeds, Power of Attorneys, Wills and the 100s of other documents are drafted by the Australian law firm Legal Consolidated Barristers & Solicitors. While accountants and clients may type in answers to the questions, the law firm controls the logic flow, question, hints, training videos and systems. We retain copyright of our documents and we carry the law firm Professional Indemnity insurance. The law firm drafts the online documents.
- Who is responsible for the drafting and its legal correctness of the system? The law firm developed and controls the system. The law firm provides locked PDF documents of the finished document together with a covering letter on law firm letterhead confirming that we prepared and drafted the legal document.
- Where is the client’s “personal information” and data stored? All information obtained is stored on the law firm’s website. No one controls or has access to the information other than Legal Consolidated Barristers and Solicitors. The law firm retains legal professional privilege over the information on our law firm’s website.
- Can a non-lawyer charge to prepare legal document? No, they cannot. However, a professional person such a financial adviser or accountant can charge for the time in giving the relevant financial planning and accounting advice. For example, much of the work in Estate Planning is the understanding of the client’s tax position, financial planning, superannuation and business structures. Where a person is acting as a mere scribe – just filling out the questions – then they are not giving legal advice. See Attorney-General v Quill Wills Ltd (1990) 3 WAR 500.
You are responsible for protecting your login and password
Legal Consolidated is not liable for any loss you suffer as a result of any unauthorised use of your Account.
General Permissions & Restrictions
Legal Consolidated grants you permission to access and use the Service under these Terms of Service, provided that:
You agree not to distribute in any medium any part of the Service or the Content without Legal Consolidated’s prior written authorisation. This is unless Legal Consolidated makes available the means for such distribution through functionality offered by the Service (such as the Embeddable Document Portal).
You agree not to alter or modify any part of the Service.
You agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than as facilitated and contemplated by the Service itself, the Embeddable Document Portal, or other explicitly authorised means Legal Consolidated may designate.
Further, you agree not to use the Service for any of the following commercial uses unless you obtain Legal Consolidated’s prior written approval:
1. The sale of access to the Service; or
2. The sale of advertising, sponsorships, or promotions placed on or within the Service or Content.
Prohibited commercial uses do not include:
1. Gathering data or preparing documents through the Embeddable Document Portal otherwise in accordance with these Terms of Service; or
2. Any use that Legal Consolidated expressly authorises in writing.
If you use the Embeddable Document Portal on your website, you may not modify, build upon, or block any portion or functionality of the Embeddable Document Portal, including but not limited to links back to the Legal Consolidated website.
You agree not to use or launch any automated system, including without limitation, robots, spiders, or offline readers, that accesses the Service in a manner that sends more request messages to the Legal Consolidated servers in a given period of time than a human can reasonably produce in the same period by using a conventional web browser.
Notwithstanding the above Legal Consolidated grants the operators of public search engines permission to use spiders to copy materials from the site for the sole purpose of and solely to the extent necessary for creating publicly available searchable indices of the materials, but not caches or archives of such materials. Legal Consolidated reserves the right to revoke these exceptions either generally or in specific cases.
You agree not to collect or harvest any personally identifiable information, including Account names and other personal or financial data, from the Service, nor to use the communication systems provided by the Service (e.g., comments, email) for any commercial solicitation purposes. You agree not to solicit, for commercial purposes, any users of the Service with respect to their Content.
In your use of the Service, you comply with all applicable laws.
Legal Consolidated reserves the right to discontinue any aspect of the Service at any time.
Your Use of Content
In addition to the general restrictions above, the following restrictions and conditions apply specifically to your use of Content:
The Content on the Service, and the trademarks, service marks and logos (‘Marks’) on the Service, are owned by or licensed to Legal Consolidated, subject to copyright and other intellectual property rights under the law.
Content is provided to you ‘as is’. You may access Content for your information and personal use solely as intended through the provided functionality of the Service, and as permitted under these Terms of Service. Further, you must not download any Content other than pursuant to the functionality within the Service for the download of Content.
You must not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of Legal Consolidated. Legal Consolidated and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted in and to the Service and the Content. At all times we claim legal professional privilege for our users, as permitted by law.
1. You must not use any Content in connection with creating other Content;
2. You must not use any part of any Content for any purpose except the specific purpose for which the Content was ordered;
3. You must not copy any part of any Content for any purpose except in relation to the transaction for which the Content was ordered;
4. You must not interfere with, alter or attempt to copy or reproduce any part of the Service while using the Service;
5. You must not incorporate any part of our Service or Content in any other program or system; and
6. You must not represent that the Content or our Service was created by your own resources, or those of a third party.
Legal Consolidated reserves the right to remove Content without prior notice.
Your Comments & Recommendations
If you provide comments or recommendations to Legal Consolidated for our Content or the Content of other users of the Service, such comments and recommendations may be adopted by us and integrated into the Content and the Service. In consideration of your access to the Service you assign and agree to assign all copyright and other intellectual property in the comments and recommendations to Legal Consolidated for no further consideration or attribution.
Legal Consolidated strongly recommends that before you use any Content, you obtain legal advice on your particular circumstances and the suitability of the Content to meet your particular requirements. All Content is general in nature and may not cover every situation that might arise.
Any use of the Service or Content is at your sole risk.
Delivery Policy
The Content you order through the Service is, if relevant, delivered electronically to you on the earlier of when you download them or when you click to have us send them to you by email to the email address you have nominated when setting up your account.
100% Full Refund Policy
You get a full refund, upon request, provided you agree to not use our legal document.
Account Termination Policy
Legal Consolidated terminates access to the Service at our sole discretion, for any reason, subject to the retainer, if you are a client of the law firm.
We reserve the right to decide whether Content violates these Terms of Service for reasons other than copyright infringement. Legal Consolidated may at any time, without prior notice and in its sole discretion, remove such Content and terminate a user’s Account for submitting such material in violation of these Terms of Service.
Indemnity
To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Legal Consolidated, any parent corporation, officers, directors, employees and agents, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from: (i) your use of and access to the Service; (ii) your violation of any term of these Terms of Service; (iii) your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right; or (iv) any claim that your Content caused damage to a third party. This defense and indemnification obligation survives these Terms of Service and your use of the Service.
General
You affirm that you are either more than 18 years of age or possess legal parental or guardian consent, and are fully able and competent to enter into the terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations, and warranties set forth in these Terms of Service, and to abide by and comply with these Terms of Service.
These Terms of Service, and any rights and licenses granted, may not be transferred or assigned by you, but may be assigned by Legal Consolidated without restriction.
You agree that: (i) the Service is deemed solely based in Australia; and (ii) the Service is deemed a passive website that does not give rise to personal jurisdiction over Legal Consolidated, either specific or general, in jurisdictions other than Australia.
These Terms of Service are governed by the internal substantive laws of Australia, without respect to its conflict of laws principles. Any claim or dispute between you and Legal Consolidated that arises in whole or in part from the Service must be decided exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Australia.
These Terms of Service, retainer, together with the Privacy Notice and any other legal notices published by Legal Consolidated on the Service, constitute the entire agreement between you and Legal Consolidated concerning everything including the Service.
If any provision of these Terms of Service is deemed invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision does not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these Terms of Service, which remain in full force and effect. Law firm providing legal documents online
No waiver of any term of this these Terms of Service is deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term, and Legal Consolidated’s failure to assert any right or provision under these Terms of Service does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.
Legal Consolidated amends these Terms of Service without notice, and it is your responsibility to review these Terms of Service for any changes.
Your use of the Service following any amendment of these Terms of Service will signify your assent to and acceptance of its revised terms. Law firm providing legal documents online
You and Legal Consolidated agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to the Services must start within 1 year after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred. Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online
Contact Details for Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online
A reference to ‘Legal Consolidated’ is a reference to the Australian law firm Legal Consolidated Barristers and Solicitors (ABN 94936003432).
Please contact us anytime. Telephone us for free legal advice as you build your document. Law firm providing legal documents online
Adjunct Professor, Dr Brett Davies, CTA, AIAMA, BJuris, LLB, Dip Ed, BArts(Hons), LLM, MBA, SJD 
Legal Consolidated Barristers and Solicitors
National Australian law firm
39 Stirling Highway, Nedlands, WA 6009
Mobile: 0477 796 959
National: 1800 141 612
Email: brett@legalconsolidated.com
Skype: brettkennethdavies
Documents: https://www.legalconsolidated.com.au/firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online Law firm providing legal documents online
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