Due to high demand for our services and a shortfall in funding our legal query form is closed over the weekends from 5pm Friday until 9am Monday. The legal query form may close temporarily during the week if demand is high. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will keep this page updated with new information regarding the re-opening of the service. If your query is related to copyright you may wish to contact the Australian Copyright Council  for assistance.

We recommend writing and saving your query in a word document before you fill in this online form. Please note there are character limits in place within the form.

To request legal advice from Arts Law please submit the form below and fill out the details. We operate on a queue system and deal with all queries in the order we receive them. Please be aware that due to limited resources there may be a delay in the turnaround time for legal advice, however we will keep you posted via email as to the status of your query. 

Before completing the form please note the following:

1. We can only advise artists and arts organisations on arts-related matters. You can read our eligibility guidelines here.
2. Arts Law is an independent, non-profit organisation with limited resources. You can read our estimated times for service delivery here.
3. Many questions can be answered by reading our free online legal resources. Please browse through our information sheets and frequently asked questions before submitting a request for advice.
4. Arts Law cannot provide advice on foreign law or on how a foreign court will interpret a contract governed by the law of a foreign jurisdiction. If a document review is requested for the purpose of reviewing an agreement which contains a clause stating that the governing law is that of another jurisdiction, Arts Law will recommend that the governing law be changed to Australian law and its advice as to the meaning and effect of the agreement will proceed on that basis of an Australian law interpretation. If the agreement has already been signed or the draft cannot be changed, the caller must understand that Arts Law cannot advise on the position under the foreign law and that the caller would need to seek advice from lawyers in the relevant foreign jurisdiction. However, where requested, Arts Law can provide advice  on how the contract would be interpreted under Australian law – generally a ‘plain English‘ explanation. While you cannot assume that the same interpretation would be applied by a foreign court, this often provides a useful guide and can assist clients in a general understanding of  their position and in developing strategies for further negotiations.
5. Before receiving advice, arts organisations and individuals who do not meet our means test are asked to subscribe to Arts Law and pay the subscription fee. The Subscription fees are $160 for individuals, $230 for bands and $320 for Arts Organisations. This subscription then entitles the subscriber to two (2) Document Review sessions (DRS) and five (5) Telephone Legal Advice (TLA) sessions in the twelve month subscription period. Click here for more information.
6. Arts Law does not have the capacity to review too many documents or a document which is too large. This situation may arise, for example, where an author requires the review of their manuscript for defamation issues. We cannot review the entire manuscript but only specific extracts, upon the understanding that this is not a complete review of all the relevant material and that our advice will be limited to the specific extracts.
7. You can read through our Charter of Service which includes our feedback and complaints policy here.