HHG Legal Group has been assisting WA’s farming, viticulture, grain, dairy, fruit, aquaculture, livestock, and forestry sectors for over 100 years. We are committed to providing proactive legal advice to families, farmers, business, partnerships, corporations, entities, and individuals.
With a focus on delivering integrated legal solutions, our Agribusiness lawyers can help you achieve your business, property, and personal wealth objectives, by mitigating the risks across your personal and commercial interests.
As a highly experienced Agribusiness law firm across WA, we understand the unique issues associated with running a farm or agribusiness and our highly skilled team can assist you across the following areas:
Corporate & Commercial Advice
- Farm Business and Farming Asset sales and acquisitions
- Personal Property Securities Advice
- Effective business structuring including family and farming trusts
- Agistment agreements
- Commercial disputes
Property & Leasing
- Rural property acquisition and disposals
- Commercial, industrial and rural/farm leasing
- Easements and other access rights of farms
- Bank documents, guarantees, mortgages, securities and farm mediation
- Farm Debt Mediation Scheme advice
- Property disputes
Employment & Safety
- Employee and contractor advice, negotiations and contract drafting
- Health & safety advice – including assistance with drafting policies and procedures
- Termination and redundancy
- Remuneration and employee / contractor entitlements
- WorkSafe advice and representation
- Managing the full suite of workplace disputes and litigation process
Will & Estates
- Succession planning for farmers
- Succession planning and the use of Binding financial agreements (in conjunction with FL)
- Enduring Powers of Attorney, Enduring Powers of Guardianship and Advanced Health Directives
- Obligations of attorneys acting under Enduring Powers of Attorney
- Contesting a Will and Estate Litigation
Family Law
- Seasonal child custody arrangements
- Property settlements specialising in farming families
- The benefits of binding financial / pre-nuptial agreements (in conjunction with estate and business succession planning)
- Restraining orders
- Surrogacy and adoption advice
Criminal & Traffic
- Extraordinary License applications
- Weapons Act offences
- Work Safe Offences and WorkCover Prosecutions
- Assault/ other violent offences
If you are looking for an Agribusiness law firm that understands your business and will work with you to achieve ongoing success and stability for you and your family, we can help. Contact us for legal advice for your farm or business.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How can an agribusiness lawyer help you?
Can assist you with the following:
- Restructuring your farming business or partnership
- Farming Leases
- Farming succession and estate planning
- Taxation advice
- Risk Management
- Share farming agreements
- Property and commercial transactions
- Enclosure permits
- Planning and environmental rights
- Native Title
- Easements over Land
- Access Rights
- Employment contracts and workplace safety
How we can help, what problems we can solve?
We work with famers to provide tailored solutions to their problems. We work hand in hand with the farming community to assist them with everything from their Wills, succession planning, employment and workplace issues, leasing, environmental issues and the list goes on.
We understand that legal issues can be complex and that every farm is different and so is every farming family. This why we provide tailored legal solutions to your legal issues.
What does an agribusiness lawyer do?
An agribusiness lawyer works with farmers and other businesses within the agriculture sector. This spans across many sub industries, including livestock, grain, dairy, fruit, aquaculture, wine and forestry.
As agribusinesses lawyers we assist those in all agriculture related services, ranging from production (a farmer working directly on the land), any services or goods required by the producer, and organisations and individuals who process, transport, and sell the end product.
An agribusiness lawyer may be referred to as a rural lawyer, agricultural lawyer, or farm / farmer lawyer.
What legal services can an agribusiness lawyer provide?
The services provided by a lawyer working in agriculture can be vast and varied. Common issues we deal with include:
- Estate planning and business succession;
- Family law advice;
- Preparing and reviewing contracts, including the sale or purchase of stock, goods, machinery, and services;
- Dispute and litigation support and representation;
- Employment and workplace health and safety matters;
- Land access and compensation for mining activities;
- Purchasing, selling and leasing land;
- Firearms prosecutions;
- Animal welfare issues;
- Land clearing and environmental complaints;
- Assisting with the sale or purchases of business;
Why you need an agribusiness lawyer?
Agribusiness lawyers provide a unique, wholistic approach and advice to your farm, business and family. Agribusiness lawyers understand what your family farm business, manufactory business, processing plant, livestock farm, poultry farm or apiary, aquaculture farm, commercial farm, dairy farm, dry farm, flower farm, hay farm, hobby farm or vineyard needs. We have experienced lawyers that have grown up on farms and understand the challenges your business and families face.
As our lawyers have this understanding and experience we are able to provide immediate legal advice in relation to the issue at hand and also provide any future advice and planning to ensure that your business and family are best equipped to minimalise any future legal issues or problem that could arise.
Matter Summaries
- We have had a clients who own a farm and wanted to give their estate to their children under their Will. We gave them advice on how best to leave their estate given the trusts that have been set up to manager the farm and other business. We also drafted binding death nominations, Enduring Power of Attorneys and Enduring Power of Guardianships up for these clients.
- We have had a clients who own a farm and wanted to give different amounts to different children their estate to their children under their Will. We gave them advice on the consequences of a Family Provision Act Claim due to the discrepancies between the children’s gifts under the Will.
- We have also helped farmers with drafting leases for their famers and other properties.
- We have also helped clients with boundary fence disputes for their farms and enabled an amicable result between the parties.
- We had a client whose son died without a Will and had no partner or children. His parents had helped him out a lot and had re-mortgaged their house to assist their adult Child through life. Their other son had died before the current son and their other son they did not speak with. As their son died without a Will his estranged brother was entitled to a share of his estate. As there was more than $50,000 in the estate the parents had to apply for the letter of administration and then distribute his estate. If the son had a Will he could have directed who he wanted to inherit his estate and not provide for his brother.
- Client’s husband had died without a Will. He was survived by our client and their 3 young child. Estate value was approximately $700,000. Client was entitled to first $50,000 of estate and then one third of balance (just over $200,000). The remaining balance of the estate, about $430,000 was to be divided between the 3 young children but had to be held on trust for them until they reached 18. The $250,000 received by our client was not sufficient to pay out the existing mortgage on the property, however if the husband had made a Will leaving his estate to his wife she would have received the whole $700,000 and would have been in a more stable financial position going forward.
- The deceased’s mother lived in his property with him, however he never made a Will and so his estate was divided between his 2 brothers and his mother. Our instructions were that the deceased had wanted his mother to inherit his house so she always had somewhere to live. Although his brothers agreed that they didn’t want to receive any of his estate and that it should all go to their mother, as no Will was made the estate had to be divided pursuant to the Administration Act. The family agreed that their mother should receive the whole of the estate (which mostly made was made up of the property) even though the brothers could give up their interest in the estate, as it was real estate being transferred, transfer duty was payable on the the value of the property over and above what the mother was entitled to pursuant to the Admin Act. If the deceased had gifted the property to his mother via Will only nominal duty ($20) would have been paid rather than thousands of dollars.