LAWS20058 Australian Commercial Law Assessment Task 2 Term 1 2025 | CQ

Background Facts 

You recently completed your postgraduate studies and started a graduate position in the corporate services group at Globex Corporation Pty Ltd. After your manager learned that you studied LAWS20058, you were assigned to the 'Start-Up' team as a business law specialist. You'll be able to help clients understand the legal requirements of establishing a new business. 

Your first client is Lisa, a recently retired sports consultant who migrated to Australia from the United States. Lisa lives in Brisbane and is embarking on a new business career in gardening. Lisa has started a nursery called Scorpion Shrubs in Brisbane's suburbs. The business will sell a range of trees, shrubs, vegetable and fruit seedlings, garden supplies and decorations and equipment. While Lisa is very knowledgeable about the sporting industry in the United States, she knows little about Australian contract law. 

Your Task

After your first consultation with Lisa, she has returned seeking advice on contract law. You must write a business report for Lisa that provides advice on all contract law questions in Parts A, B and C of this assessment. The report will be given to Lisa at your second meeting as a resource he can use in conducting contract practices in his business. Lisa can use the report to seek further advice on any specific legal issues. 

Word Count:-1500 words

Assessment Task Questions

Part A - Terms of Contracts

Lisa requires advice on how to identify and manage the commercial and legal risk associated with entering business agreements, as he is unfamiliar with Australian contract law. You must advise Daniel on how contract terms and remedies impact business arrangements. Lisa will use your advice as the basis for developing contracts related to her commercial activities. 

In Part C.1 of your report, you must: 

• Could you identify one legal reason and one commercial reason why Lisa needs to understand the terms of contracts entered into by Scorpion Shrubs Pty Ltd.
• Evaluate the legal differences between the classification of a term of a contract as either a condition, a warranty or an intermediate term. In your answer, describe each type of term and identify the relevant legal remedies available for breaching that type of term. Your answer must be supported by common law contract legal principles and cases. Do not discuss statutory law. 
• Identify the types of contracts that your state's Sale of Goods Act applies to. Describe two terms that the Sale of Goods Act applies to contracts that are relevant to Lisa selling plants and garden supplies. Your answer must be supported by relevant legislation. 450 words - 10 marks 

Part B- Contractual Liability and Disclaimers

Lisa is a skilled gardener but needs to employ at least two gardeners so that she can develop and operate the business. She is very worried that she will pass on her knowledge and experience to her staff, who may then go and work for a competitor and share the gardening secrets she learned in the United States. She did some online research on how to protect her business from such risks and identified a restraint of trade clause in employee contracts. 
Lisa drafted the following clause for the contracts of all gardeners based on her internet research: '

Upon the end of this agreement, the employee agrees not to work in any capacity for any other gardener or garden supplies business in Australia for a period of five years.'

In Part B of your report, you must advise Lisa on the following matters:

• Identify the commercial purpose of a restraint of trade clause.
• Advise Lisa whether her proposed restraint of trade clause is enforceable.
• Propose to Lisa a new restraint of trade clause that is likely to meet the requirements of the common law restraint of trade doctrine. In your answer, explain how the restraint complies with the requirements of the restraint of trade doctrine. 

Your Answer must be supported by the common law of contract, legal principles, and cases. Do not discuss statutory law.

Part C- Contracts and the Australian Consumer Law

The Australian Consumer Law encompasses a range of behaviours and practices that are relevant to contracts. Lisa needs to ensure the contracting practices of his business comply with the Australian Consumer Law.

In Part C of your report, you must:

• Evaluate why the Australian Consumer Law is needed in the regulation of contracts. In your answer, identify who is a consumer under the Australian Consumer Law.
• Define s 18 of the Australian Consumer Law and describe the reasons why s 18 is the most litigated provision in the Australian Consumer Law. Your answer must be supported by case law.
• Identify the type of contracts where the Australian Consumer Law prohibits unfair contract terms and describe the policy basis for the prohibition. Your answer must be supported by the Australian Consumer Law.