Hi.
First, I must say that this question would've been a lot easier to
answer to if it was about USA.
I already knew that the USA law does not require an agreement to be
written on paper an signed in order to be valid and considered a
contract, so I wasn't very surprised to find that the Australian law
is similar.
This means that the answer to the first part of your question is a
sound Yes: a verbal agreement constitutes a contract under the
Australian law (with some exceptions like the sale of a house,
guarantees and credit sale or other credit agreements).
Now, before you decide to go and settle this in court, you should do
everything possible to settle outside the court. Establish contact
with the independent contractor and try to convince him/her that it
would be in his/her best interest to solve the problem that you're
having in an affable manner.
If that really doesn't work (and I suppose that's why you are
considering suing) you will have to prove that you did negotiate an
agreement with the independent contractor, you will have to present
the terms of the contract (=agreement) and explain which term has been
breached.
Given the situation, I think the only way in which you could prove all
these things is to use witnesses and I hope there were witnesses
present when this agreement was negotiated.
The problem that I foresee is the fact that the agreement, as many
verbal agreements, took care only of the "positive" aspects,
neglecting the unforeseen events. I hope however that this was not the
case and that the people who negotiated were very careful and took
care to stress the fact that the service was to be done at a given
time and that your company should've been notified in a timely manner.
Or, hopefully, the contractor offered a guarantee such as "I will be
there every Friday at 9 am".
Again, the biggest problem is to prove that you had an agreement.
Another is if you should go to a small claims court or not, because
this depends on the amount that you're claiming. You should know that
the small claims court used to be for claims under $7500 and most
likely this amount didn't chance.
Conclusion: you have a contract, but you have to be able to prove it,
otherwise you don't stand a chance in court.
OK... in case you want to read more about the subject, here are some
meaningful resources:
Legal Aid Queensland - A Small Claims Kit:
http://www.legalaid.qld.gov.au/publications/self-help/small_claims/small_claims_sec1.pdf
Note: the document above can be viewed with Acrobat Reader. If you
don't have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer you can download
it for free at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html .
The Australian National University - Faculty of Law - Colin
http://law.anu.edu.au/colin/
Monster - An overview of contracts - by Robert Gerrish
http://content.monster.com.au/temps/temp020404_006/
ArtsLaw.com.au - Contracts - An introduction
http://www.artslaw.com.au/reference/info03/
laws.lawsociety.com.au - LegalHelp - "Agreements - What is a
contract?"
http://laws.lawsociety.com.au/legalhelp/answers/contracts/
Legal Aid Queensland - Civil - Consumer - Contract
http://elo.legalaid.qld.gov.au/Category/Civil/Consumer/contract.htm
The Southern Cross University High Schools Law Site - Contract law
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/lawj/hsc/contract.html
Termination Law in Australia
http://www.cch.com.au/rcsa/termin%20law.htm
WPA Career Media - Industry Insights - Finance, Business $ Law -
Contracts and Negotiations
http://www.wpacareermedia.com.au/fbl-can.htm
Search strategy:
I used these search queries on Google:
"contract law" australian
"verbal contract" australian
"verbal contracts" australian
"verbal agreement" australian
"verbal agreements" australian
"law of contract" australian
That's it. I hope this info answers your question.
If you feel that something is missing, please request clarification.
I'd be glad to be of help.
Note: this information is does not constitute professional advice. You
should contact an attorney if you need professional help. |
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