FAQs

Practical Law delivers practical legal knowledge and resources to more than 130,000 lawyers from 8,000 firms and in-house legal departments across the globe. We provide legal know-how to the best law firms and companies in the UK, US and beyond.

Practical Law Australia's expert team of legal writers have had extensive experience in legal practice, and work collaboratively with leading practitioners and barristers to deliver specialist practical resources. We understand the pressure to deliver timely and cost effective legal advice, that's why our legal know-how delivers clear and concise expertise from a practical perspective. Practical Law Australia gives lawyers a better start.

Practical Law Australia's know-how takes you beyond traditional legal knowledge resources by explaining how the law applies in practice. Our know-how resources provide practical approaches and solutions to legal issues, documents and transactions. Our expert team of legal writers have had extensive experience in legal practice, and know what questions you need answered most. Practical know-how complements more traditional legal knowledge resources to give lawyers a better start.

Our resources include:

• Practice notes give clear explanations of current law and practice. We consult primary sources, leading practitioners and texts, distilling the principles so you can advise with confidence.
• Standard documents and clauses are up-to-date precedents that reflect current law and practice with expert commentary, including detailed drafting and negotiating resources, opposing positions and alternative clauses.
• Checklists help make sure you have covered all bases. A quick reference reminder of the law as it applies in practice.
• Legal updates explain what you need to know about new cases or legislative changes in your area of practice. Opt in to get update emails delivered straight to your inbox.
• Global guides allow you to review and compare the law across multiple jurisdictions.

Not only is our know-how practical, it's always up-to-date. The "maintained" status of our materials means that content is constantly monitored and updated by our in-house legal writers to reflect current law and practice.

Practical Law has more than 130,000 subscribers worldwide and is the trusted provider of legal know-how for business lawyers around the globe, including in the UK, US, Canada and China. These services now include Australian content.

In the UK our subscribers include 91% of the UK's top 100 law firms, 85% of FTSE 100 companies, and thousands of mid-sized and smaller organisations. In the US our subscribers include approximately 85% of the Am Law 200, hundreds of small and mid-size firms, and more than 1,300 in-house corporate legal departments.

All Practical Law Australia subscriptions must be through a registered firm or organisation.

Our resources are intended to provide general information, and do not take into account any specific circumstances or factual scenarios. Our resources are not intended to be comprehensive in nature or to constitute legal advice, and you should seek specific legal or other professional advice based on your specific circumstances.

As part of the greater Thomson Reuters group, the Practical Law Australia team has access to a range of expert teams who specialise in monitoring the introduction and passing of legislation in all state and territory parliaments, and distilling the leading points from new case law in most Australian courts, commissions and tribunals. Each day, the Practical Law Australia team receives a digest of relevant case law and legislation from these teams, and updates its content accordingly.

We monitor thousands of paper and website sources daily to identify developments that have a practical impact on the work of front-line lawyers, and continually update our practice notes, standard documents and clauses, and checklists. You can check whether a resource has been updated by viewing the status under the title of the document to check it is 'Maintained'.

Resources are subject to rigorous quality control and currency reviews, including input from our consultation boards and expert contributors. We also carry out annual reviews.

Westlaw AU is one of Australia's leading sources of legal research content. Practical Law Australia features extensive cross references to Westlaw AU case law, legislation and regulations resources. Your Practical Law Australia subscription allows you to view related legislation for free on Westlaw AU.

Yes. Practical Law Australia's team of expert legal writers regularly publish Legal Updates analysing the practical implications of changes to legislation, common law, regulations and market practice. In addition, you can opt in to receive weekly current awareness emails that summarise the week's developments in the practice areas that interest you. All emails link to comprehensive legal updates and fully maintained know-how resources, including practice notes and standard documents, so you can approach changes to the law with confidence.

Yes. A selection of our most popular standard documents (including Powers of Attorney, deeds, forms and agreements) are available as Practical Law Automated Documents, powered by Contract Express. Users have the option to automate the completion of these documents using a user-friendly questionnaire, allowing them to produce a first-draft document in less time, and ensure quality and consistency so they can delegate drafting with confidence.

Automation functionality is subject to a minimum subscription threshold.

What's Market offers the ability to easily view and compare the terms of certain corporate deals, so you can keep informed of current trends and get a snapshot of market practice in Australia.

What's Market is included for subscribers to the Practical Law Australia Company Law and/or Corporate Transactions practice areas, at no additional cost.

Yes. Practical Law Australia's In-house Resource Centre caters to the particular needs of corporate counsel by grouping resources into themes that reflect your daily workflow, including:

• Managing disputes and litigation
• Major projects and corporate transactions
• Day-to-day matters
• Company secretarial matters
• Managing employees
• Managing the in-house legal function

The In-house Resource Centre is subject to a minimum subscription requirement.

Yes. We provide a free, no obligation two-week trial of Practical Law Australia. We simply request 20-minutes of your time to get you started with a quick demonstration. This will ensure you are able to navigate the resources in the most efficient manner and subsequently maximise the benefits of your free trial period. Please contact the Practical Law Australia team for more information.

Your Practical Law Australia subscription includes Q&A guides for more than 70 different countries. These guides give you an introduction to that jurisdiction's law on topics such as arbitration, business structures, mergers and acquisitions, tax and employment. The country comparison tool allows you to quickly compare the way a variety of transactions are conducted across multiple jurisdictions.

To access core Practical Law UK, US, Canada or China content, a separate subscription is required. Please contact the Practical Law Australia team for more information or a free trial.

Practical Law Australia training takes less than one hour, is free of charge, and provides you with one CLE point.

One of our fully accredited training team members will ensure you find documents and related content quickly and efficiently throughout your entire subscription, leaving you more time to deliver value to your business and clients.

During a paid subscription term you can use/download Practical Law Australia precedents as often as required for use within your organisation. Any use must comply with Thomson Reuters' Master Terms and Information Schedule.

Practical Law Australia precedents can be downloaded in Word or PDF format and either with, or without, the integrated drafting notes for your convenience.

Downloading into Word also enables you to use the auto-formatting function to quickly and accurately update any amendments to the document clauses and index page.

You can access Practical Law Australia from any computer with internet access. Simply enter your username and password in the login fields via your Thomson Reuters' OnePass login.

OnePass is an individual profile with a username and password, that can be linked to multiple Thomson Reuters' websites and applications such as Practical Law Australia, Westlaw AU, Thomson Reuters Westlaw, Checkpoint AU or ProView (subject to subscription).

The technical specifications are fairly standard for Australian organisations, as set out below. You should check with your information technology department to ensure compatibility.

Supported operating systems

• Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
• Windows Vista®
• Mac® OS 10.5 or later

Internet browser

• Internet Explorer 9 or later (Windows only)
• Mozilla Firefox current version or Extended Support Release version
• Safari 5.0 or later
• Chrome

Other requirements

• 1024x768 or higher screen resolution recommended
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 or later (some print functionality is lost with older versions)
• Adobe Flash