Introduction
The purpose of this Legal Audit is to identify risks that may exist within your business that may be a threat to:
- Your business:
- The value of your business:
- The value of your investment in the business,
due to things like:
- non compliance with government requirements;
- uninsured claims against the business;
- business insolvency;
- investor disharmony;
- disputes between investors;
- investor exits;
- non paying customers;
- dissatisfied customers;
- piracy of your intellectual property;
- problems with your employees.
For more information on this service, please consult our PDF Guide.
What sort of risks is Sydney Business Lawyers talking about?
Risks arise daily in the operation of a business. Many of them can be eliminated and if not eliminated, reduced to an acceptable level, without substantial cost. Below we list some examples of those risks that are real. If you don’t do something about them, you are potentially putting your business at risk, the value of your investment at risk and quite possibly, the assets of the individuals operating it at risk.
Example 1 – If you employ staff and do not comply with the national workplace health and safety laws, including by not having a workplace health and safety policy, you are potentially exposing the business and its managers to fines and possible prison sentences and possibly to unwanted publicity of the failure to comply.
Example 2 – Have you or a related party lent money to your business and not taken security over the business assets? If so and the business becomes insolvent, you risk not being able to get your money back if the business stops trading due to the insolvency. Had you put appropriate security in place, you may at least have been able to get priority against the unsecured creditors and be able to recover your money against the business assets.
Example 3 – If you have a turn over of $3m of more and do not have a privacy policy, you are potentially exposing the business to fines or the need to give undertakings about future compliance and possibly to unwanted publicity of the failure to comply.
Example 4 – Did you know that directors of a company can be held personally responsible for obligations of the company like unpaid company tax and superannuation, breaches of the workplace health and safety laws and breaches of environmental protection rules. So if you are a husband and wife running the family business through a company and both of you are directors of the company, while you both remain directors, you are exposing your jointly owned personal assets to the risks that arise from you both being personally responsible for those company obligations.
Example 5 – Did you know that if your business is owned and operated by a unit trust and the unit trust deed does not have a provision in it limiting the obligations of the unit holders against the obligations of the trustee of the trust, the unit holders of the trust can be held personally liable for the obligations of the trustee in its capacity as trustee of the trust?
Example 6 – If you operate a business, is the entity that operates it a sole purpose vehicle? If not, all of those assets of the operating entity, not just the business operating assets, are exposed to the trading risks arising from uninsured claims against the business.
Example 7 – If you operate a business, does the business own any assets other than the goodwill of the business? If it does, those assets (like land, plant and equipment, stock and intellectual property) are exposed to the trading risks arising from uninsured claims against the business.
Example 8 – If you have a business that is heavily reliant on intellectual property for its value, unless that intellectual property is owned by a separate entity and licensed to the business, then the intellectual property is exposed to the trading risks arising from uninsured claims against the business.
Example 9 – Did you know that if you own a multi generational business or a multi family business and you do not have an enforceable contract in place for what happens if an owner in the business dies, you may end up in a dispute about how to pay out their estate, you may not have the funds to pay out the estate and you may not be left in control of the business.
These are all risks that we have seen in businesses. They happen and they can be managed if they exist in your business. There are many more.
How does the Sydney Business Lawyers Legal Audit service work and what does it cost?
Sydney Business Lawyers Legal Audit service starts with our free on-line Q&A about your business that you can access from the “Start the Audit” link below.
If you answer “No” to any of the questions in the on-line Q&A, you will have identified a potential risk posing a threat to your business.
When you finish the Q&A, you will be sent an electronic copy of it that, either with your own lawyer or with Sydney Business Lawyers, you can work out a risk remediation program to deal with the risks that have been identified.
Sydney Business Lawyers approach to the risk remediation program is, where possible, to give you a fixed fee to deliver each part of it.
Please Note:
Our Legal Audit is not a lead generation tool that will result in unwanted emails and telephone calls to you from us. So please remember that we will not contact you about the outcome of your audit unless you contact us and request our assistance.
In completing this Legal Audit you acknowledge that:
- this audit may not cover every risk that may exist in your business and so it is only a guide;
- this audit it is not intended as and is not legal advice from Sydney Business Lawyers;
- you should not do or fail to do anything in reliance on this audit without taking your own legal advice;
- Sydney Business Lawyers is not liable for anything that you do or fail to do in reliance on your Legal Audit;
- Sydney Business Lawyers is not required to and will not follow you up about the outcome of your Legal Audit;
- Sydney Business Lawyers is not required to check the accuracy of the answers you have given to all of the questions in your Legal Audit;
You are welcome to contact us about the outcome of your Q&A to discuss the outcome and how much it will cost if you want to proceed with the work that is required to turn a “NO” into a “YES”.
Our contact details are:
Damian Scroope
damian@sydneybl.com.au
T 02 8915 4999
M 0416 100 261
Jim Sikiotis
jim@sydneybl.com.au
T 02 8915 4990
M 0407 928 159
Francine Hendriks
francine@sydneybl.com.au
T 02 8915 4910
M 0402 974 439