15 Types Of Legal Documents That Are Due for an Update in 2024 [Australia]

by Ilyas Omari

January 23, 2024
Blog, SMEs

Everyone deals with their businesses and personal legalities every now and then, but the start of the year is the perfect time to re-visit and revise your small business legal documents.

If you’re not sure where to get started, then we have your back.

In this post, we will cover the essential legal documents that you and your business should review and revise so your business is keeping up with the ever-changing business trends.

Does this sound like something you want for your business?

Read along!

Legal documents for businesses

1. Privacy Policy

Privacy Policies are legal documents that state how your business will deal with the personal information and data it collects. As part of your Privacy Policy, your business should explain when it collects information, what it uses that information for, and how it’s going to be stored and managed.

There are many reasons why so many businesses are updating their policies and why you should consider revising your business’s Privacy Policies. To keep it nice and simple, updates need to be made because:

You would like to inform your consumers, suppliers, or contractors of changes made to how you collect, use and respect information data
You would like to comply with Australian Federal laws on privacy and increased enforcement of privacy laws or
You didn’t have a website before, and you have created a website and require a Privacy Policy

So no matter what type of business you run, revisiting and revising your Privacy Policy is an integral step for legal compliance. At Lawpath, we have a Privacy Policy template for you to edit and customise to your own personal preferences.

2. Confidentiality Agreements

As your company grows or changes, it would be wise to create or revise your business’s Confidentiality Agreements at the beginning of the year.

Confidentiality Agreements are legal documents that you can use to disclose private or sensitive information to another party while legally forbidding the other receiving party from disclosing that information to any other person or entity.

If you’re wondering why your business should update its Confidentiality Agreement, here are a few reasons:

If you expect your employees to have access to sensitive information this year, why not make sure your business’s information is kept safe by updating your Confidentiality Agreement
You would like to (or need to) disclose new confidential information
Your business has new trade secrets, and you want to stop this information from falling into the wrong hands
You would like to (or need to) disclose confidential information
Keeping up with legislative requirements under the Privacy Act 1988

So if you’ve been reluctant to hire new employees or enter into contracts with other businesses because you haven’t updated your Confidentiality Agreement, why not do it now to give yourself peace of mind. If you need some help reviewing your Confidentiality Agreement, you should hire a lawyer or create your own customisable Confidentiality Agreement by Lawpath, ready for use in under 5 minutes.

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3. Non-Compete Agreements

One of the most documents your business needs to have and to update is a non-compete agreement. The purpose of using this agreement is to prevent individuals who have access to

your business’ private information and practices, to use this information to create a rival business or to benefit someone else.

It’s crucial to update your non-compete agreement regularly to reflect changes and to ensure that all the business information you want to protect is adequately protected. You should be aware that a non-compete agreement requires the consent of the party you wish to enforce it against. For example, if you’re an employer, your employee must agree to the agreement.

This document is commonly used between employers and employees and between business partners. If your business doesn’t already have a non-compete agreement, you should use our non-compete agreement template to get started.

4. Website Terms and Conditions of Use

Were you a business owner disrupted by Covid-19 and decided to move your business online? Well, you’re not alone.

A changed-post-pandemic landscape of the Australian workforce saw an increase in the e-commerce industry, with nearly half of the small businesses in Australia pivoting their approach in response to the pandemic. Crazy? Or crazy good?

I would go with the latter because e-commerce in Australia reached an all-time high in 2022, and a 2022 study revealed that 51.7% of internet users made an online purchase in 2022. This is excellent news for small businesses like yours who decided to shift to an online business model or plan to head in that direction.

But what does this mean for your business legally? Well, if you’re a business that is providing a service or a good online or have plans to do so in the near future, you must have terms that outline how your services and goods will be delivered to customers.

Your Website Terms And Conditions of Use needs to include how users can use your website, what is prohibited, and a disclaimer to limit your liability for your website.

So if you have an online store selling goods and services on your website, you are required by Australian Consumer Law to keep your terms and conditions updated.

Don’t know where to start? Have a look at our Website Terms and Conditions of Use template to specifically design the perfect legal document to meet the needs of businesses selling, delivering, or advertising services online.

5. Employment Agreements and Contracts

Did you know that part-time employment has risen steadily to account for 30.3% of total employment?

Could it be that your business is contributing to the percentage? If it is, we’re sure that your business, like so many other businesses, had to consider the legal implications the changes had on your employees’ contracts and agreements.

In recent times did you ask yourself:

Do I need to reduce the number of staff members in my business?
Should I hire more employees to keep up with the demand?
Do the current employment contracts allow me to reduce employee positions from full-time to part-time or part-time to casual hours?
Do I need to offer casual employees who have worked for my business for longer than one year a permanent position?
Will the current contracts I have in place for my employees allow them to work from home?

If you asked yourself any of the questions above, it’s the best time to ensure that your employee’s contracts reflect the changes in today’s workplace landscape.

An employment contract is a written or verbal agreement (legal documents) between you and your employee that sets out the terms and conditions of your employee. But before you revise and alter the terms of an employment contract, you need to let your affected employee know first.

If you want to change your employees’ contract’s terms and conditions the right way, it’s best to hire a lawyer and seek legal advice if you need assistance.

6. Working from Home Policy

Working from home is becoming an increasingly popular work arrangement in today’s employment environment and has become extremely common.

So if you’re one of the many businesses allowing their employees to work from home, it’s essential to make sure that your Working from Home Policy is up to date.

Your Working from Home legal documents should not replace your employees’ existing employment contracts but work alongside them to provide flexibility and clarity in the rise of the remote work environment.

So if you haven’t made the following clear to your employees:

Their eligibility to work from home
The responsibilities and guidelines they must follow
Their obligations around taking personal leave; and
The return of company property in the event of an employee ceasing employment

It’s now the best time to update your policy. If this is something that you haven’t done for your employees yet, or you’re considering it, have a look at our Working From Home Policy to get started.

7. Workplace Health and Safety Policies

Every business should have a Work Health and Safety Policy (WHS).

WHS Policies are legal documents of rules or guidelines that communicate your business’s standards and expectations regarding how your employees should behave and conduct themselves.

But when was the last time you updated your business’s WHS Policy (Work Health and Safety)? If you can’t remember, that means it’s been too long.

Let me make this simple for you. If the following things have changed in your business, it’s time for you to revise and review your WHS Policy:

Regulations on health and safety are updated, and new laws are enacted
Your business offers new products and services
You have introduced new technologies and procedures
Your business has shrunk or grown
You’ve decided to outsource or insource specific requirements
More and more employees are working from home or
You want to make sure that your business complies with current legal requirements

Your WHS Policy will need to cover these changes and any new arrangements or responsibilities you have to keep people safe.

So whether you need new workplace policies or just want to update your old ones, we’ve got a WHS Policy template for your small business.

Our templates are fully customisable to suit your business to a tee. Alternatively, you can hire a lawyer to help you write your provisions, give you the guidance you need or review your policies.

8. Services Agreement

Have you ever thought about amending your business’s Services Agreement? If you haven’t, we think it’s time.

A Services Agreement sets out the terms and conditions between you as the service provider and the recipient of your services.

Let’s say your business is providing services or looking to provide services to another entity. In that case, you need to set out the terms and conditions of those services and amend them regularly.

Why should you amend regularly? Well, think about this. Have you made changes to any of the following things:

Provision of services/service delivery
Materials
Timing
Pricing
Payment, Fees & Expenses
Warranty, alterations, and rejection of services
Confidentiality / Confidential Information (prevent reverse engineering)
Copyright and intellectual property rights (i.e. logos, licenses)
Protection of personal information
Non-solicitation of personnel and clients
Limitation of liability and waivers

If you’ve ticked off any of the things listed above, it’s time for you to amend your Services Agreement to ensure that you avoid any disputes arising with the recipients of your services.

To make sure you’re legally covered, why not use our Services Agreement template to set out the relationship between you, the service provider, and the individuals receiving the services. You can use a services agreement template with general information regarding your services, and you can customise the template to cater to each independent client of your services’ needs.

9. Shareholders Agreement

A Shareholders Agreement will help you govern the relationship between your company’s shareholders. Although you and your partners are on good terms now, sometimes running a company will put a strain on that relationship.

A Shareholders Agreement helps protect your interests in these situations and is; therefore, a legal contract entered into and agreed upon by all shareholders of a company outlining the original intentions of the parties.

But it’s important to note it’s not uncommon for businesses like yours to develop over time. Things change, and expectations change, so your shareholder’s agreement must reflect these alterations.

In light of that, it’s a good idea to regularly review your Shareholders Agreement to see whether any new provisions need to be added or whether any changes need to be made to address changing circumstances appropriately.

Changes to Shareholders’ Agreements are easier to agree upon if it’s regularly reviewed rather than leaving the review to a dispute. So if you want to make sure it doesn’t get to that stage, why not hire a lawyer for legal advice and ensure that your agreement is changed correctly to maximise the security and protection of your business.

You should be aware that if you wish to amend the shareholders agreement of your business, written consent from all shareholders is required. Each shareholder may sign a deed of variation instead of signing a completely new shareholders agreement. The deed of variation must outline any changes you wish to make to the shareholders agreement.

As soon as all parties sign the amended shareholders agreement, the existing shareholder agreement will be replaced. The new agreement does not need to be lodged with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission( ASIC), and they don’t need to be notified regarding it either.

If your business doesn’t have a shareholders agreement, you should use our Shareholders Agreement template to get started.

10. Contractor Agreement

Do you commonly hire contractors for that specialised, hard-to-find talent to complete short-term work for your business?

If you’re nodding your head, it’s probably a great time for you to review the existing contractor agreement you have in place for when you hire contractors.

Why is this the case? Just imagine your business has introduced the following changes:

You want to charge more or less for the contractor’s services;
You want to introduce certain restraints in the agreement. For example, you wish to restrain the contractor from working elsewhere, for example, a competitor, while working for your company
In cases where a dispute arises, do you have the most up-to-date procedures in place to resolve the dispute?
Are your relevant termination procedures up to date?

These are just a few of the reasons why your Contractor Agreement should be up to date.

So if you’re planning to utilise contractors in the future, make sure you amend your contractor agreement now and hire a lawyer if you need assistance in making the changes. Furthermore, you can use our individual contractor agreement template if you don’t already have an individual contractor agreement for your business.

If you plan to hire a company as an independent contractor, you should use our company contractor agreement template. You can use these templates and make amendments for each individual contractor or company that engages with your business.

11. Heads of Agreement

Have you ever thought about entering into an agreement with another entity in the near future?

If this sounds like something you want to do this year, you need to make sure that you have an updated Heads of Agreement.

A Heads of Agreement works as an ‘agreement to agree’, and sets out the main terms and conditions of an agreement between parties before they enter into a contract.

If it’s been some time since you’ve looked at your business’s Heads of Agreement and you’re looking to make an agreement with another business soon, it’s vital that the following details are up to date:

Details of the proposed formal agreement;
Obligations of both parties;
Consideration for the proposed agreement; and
Options to include clauses for confidentiality, intellectual property, non-solicitation, and/or exclusivity obligations

If you want to get one ready now or customise your existing agreement, have a look at our heads of agreement template that can be ready to use in under 10min.

12. Social Media Policy

Maybe you heard about it in the news (or perhaps you saw it on social media)…

An ABC journalist was fired after sharing an article on Instagram that had the potential to defame the company.

An Australian man was fired for ranting about his boss on Facebook.

The list goes on…

The use of social media in the workplace has taken off in recent years, and employers like yourself need to keep up.

Employees have easier access to the internet, and with the popularity of smartphones, it is not surprising that new legal issues are constantly emerging.

To manage these legal risks, you need to make sure your Social Media Policy is up to date.

A Social Media Policy sets out the responsibilities that an employee must follow when dealing with social media. This includes both during and outside work hours.

So if you want your workers to be aware of the importance of appropriate behaviour on work or personal social media accounts or you want to update the list of social media accounts your employees are allowed to use, such as adding Tiktok to the list, make sure update your Social Media Policy.

If you don’t currently have one, why not consider introducing one in your small business using our social media policy template.

13. Partnership Agreement

Partnership Agreements are documents that establish the rights and responsibilities of business partners.

If you’re part of a business partnership, it might also be a good idea to review your partnership agreement with your partners to ensure that everyone’s on the same page as the new year begins. This is the best time to review and update your agreement to avoid any potential headaches throughout the year.

If your partnership doesn’t have a partnership agreement, we recommend that you create one for your partnership as soon as possible. You can use our general partnership agreement template to get started. If you’re unsure about what to include in your partnership agreement you can also hire a lawyer for legal advice.

Legal documents for personal use

14. Changes to your Will

Your Will could be one of the most important documents you’ll ever write.

A Will is an essential legal document that communicates your wishes concerning your estate. It ensures your interests and those of the people you care about are protected and taken care of according to your wishes.

The clarity in documenting your distribution of estate prevents potential conflict about any property and/or residual property that might arise.

But the issue is after you’re finished writing it, you’ll probably place it somewhere for safekeeping and never look at it ever again.

Now there’s a big problem with that. Why might you ask? Well, things change. Your finances change, your assets may be different, your loved ones could leave, and new people may enter your life.

These types of things often need to be updated in your Will. But the sad reality is that many people forget to do this, but we are here to remind you.

Here is a list of things that need updating in your Will today:

You have relocated – If you have moved to a different state, this needs to be updated in your Will
New people in your life – Married or you have a child
You have separated from your partner
Changes in your assets – the value of your assets may have significantly increased or decreased
A beneficiary listed in your Will has died
Change of executor

When circumstances like this arise in life, you should revise your Will to ensure that you, and your family, are prepared for whatever may come in the future.

It is recommended that you hire a lawyer to make amendments to your will to ensure that it’s legally valid.

15. Change of Name

Have you recently gotten married or changed any part of your name officially on the Registry?

If you have, you need to make sure that your name has officially transferred to areas of your work or personal life, including your mailing address, work, medical records, and financial organisations.

It’s important to do this right away if you wish to enter into agreements with businesses in the future or wish to venture into a new field of work. Notification of change of name legal documents can help you do this with ease.

It is a document that you send to businesses and personal contacts, notifying them of your official name change. This letter is sent to update personal records externally to maintain consistency with the Registry.

If you send the announcement to your business contacts, it usually needs to be sent with proof of your legal name change to avoid fraudulent activity and identity impersonation.

Have a look at our Notification of Change Name template to get started.

Conclusion

To ensure that you and your employees tackle this year without a hitch, review your legal documents regularly to remain in compliance with changes to government regulations.

Take the time now before it gets jam-packed to implement the tips above, so you know that your business will go in the right direction. Once again, below are the things to focus on: