Arts Law provides a whole range of services to Australian and Australia based artists and arts organisations across all art forms on a wide range of legal and business matters. Such matters include contracts, copyright, moral rights, trade marks, business names and structures, defamation, insurance and employment.
How does Arts Law assist you?
When you contact Arts Law for assistance, we will deal with your enquiry in any of the following ways:
1. Legal resources
Arts Law’s lawyers or administrative staff provide in-house information, in particular by referring you to relevant legal information sheets and sample agreements, or to third party information such as the fact sheets of the Australian Copyright Council. Arts Law also publishes a range of checklists and guides, seminar papers and a quarterly newsletter Art+Law.
2. Telephone legal advice (TLA)
Arts Law lawyers (in-house or external volunteer lawyer or law firm acting on behalf of Arts Law) give free or low cost telephone legal advice where your enquiry does not involve the review of any document. Advice for one session is valued at approximately $500. The turn around time to receive advice from a lawyer for a TLA is approx 7-10 days.
Lodge a request online using our legal query form.
Read our Picture Perfect case study here for an example of how our TLA service works.
3. Document review consultation (DRS)
Arts Law lawyers (in-house or external volunteer lawyer or law firm acting on behalf of Arts Law) carry out a document review of any document, for example a contract, related to your matter and provide you legal advice in relation to that document. This service requires a subscription which entitles clients to have 6 DRS and 5 TLA sessions - valued at over $4200. The turn around time to receive advice from a lawyer for a DRS is approx 2.5 weeks from the point when both document/s AND subscription has been received and confirmed.
Lodge a request online using our legal query form.
Read the Rod Nash case study here for an example of how our DRS service works.
4. Mediation
Where appropriate we can provide access to Arts Law's mediation service.
Read the Gordon Syron case study here for an example of mediation.
5. Referral
We can refer you to Arts Law’s panel of lawyers or accountants. See Arts Law's referral service for more details. We may also refer you to:
- an appropriate arts industry body (such as NAVA), another advisory body (such as the Australian Copyright Council) or one of the collecting societies (such as APRA, AMCOS, CAL, Screenrights);
-
another community legal centre, Legal Aid or an entity with expertise in the relevant area (eg. insurer).
6. Seminars
On request, Arts Law prepares and delivers lectures, workshops and seminars on topical issues concerning law and the arts. Those presentations are specially tailored to meet the needs of any audience. Arts Law's lawyers are also available to assist in curricula development and review for tertiary and vocational training purposes.
Contact Arts Law to arrange a seminar.
Information on our latest seminars and events.
7. Advocacy
Arts Law plays a crucial role in responding to Government on the impact of laws and government policy on arts practice and in advocating for reform.
Information on our advocacy work.
8. Artists in the Black
Arts Law established the Artists in the Black (AITB) service in 2004 in response to the needs of the Indigenous arts community. AITB aims to increase access to advice and information about the legal rights of Indigenous artists, communities and arts organisations. Arts Law provides these services to Indigenous artists in a culturally appropriate way.
If you are an Indigenous Artist or Arts Organisation or would like to learn more about this service visit the Artists in the Black section.
9. Solid Arts
Solid Arts is a hub of information about Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) aiming to:
- promote greater links between business and Indigenous communities in relation to ICIP matters;
- raise greater awareness among Indigenous communities, consumers and commercial operators of the need to protect ICIP; and
- enhance coordination of existing networks of Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations working in the area of ICIP
Visit the Solid Arts website to learn more.