Ronald has many questions about running his business in Australia. Can he serve coffee in takeaway cups with plastic lids, or is there now a ban on single use plastics? If he runs his caf on a Friday or Saturday night and wants to add beer, wine and cocktails to the menu, must he obtain a liquor license? How does he register his business as a company? If his trademark is a black-and-white image of steam coming out of a coffee cup, how can make sure that no one else uses that or a similar image? How can he dismiss staff for underperforming without being accused of unfair dismissal? If he wants to import coffee beans from Colombia, how much customs duty does he have to pay?

For start-up businesses, such as Ronalds, finding the relevant law is essential to commence and operate a business successfully in Australia. There are now numerous online legal resources, many of which vary in quality. Therefore, business people need to be able to locate and evaluate the reliability of a vast array of legal materials. This allows the most suitable legal resource to be identified and used.

In Part A of your report you must:

Identify any TWO legal issues that you think are important for Ronald to start and run his business in Australia, one of which must be a FEDERAL matter and the other must be a STATE or TERRITORY matter. You may select the issues among the list of questions Ronald has asked above or you can come up with your own. In addition to stating each issue clearly, identify whether each issue comes under (a) federal or (b) state/territory jurisdiction and give brief reasons why.

Find the TWO relevant STATUTES that regulate the two issues you selected above. Identify the online resources you used and search techniques you adopted to find the applicable legislation on each issue.

Find TWO CASES involving restaurants, cafes or food franchises decided within the last five years. One case must be a decision of a court exercising federal jurisdiction; the other, by a court exercising State or Territory jurisdiction. The legal issues can be on ANY topic potentially relevant to Ronalds business; you are not restricted to the two issues you discussed in questions 1 and 2 above. Identify the online resources you used and the search techniques you adopted to find the two cases. Summarise the legal issue in the two cases (if there are many issues, choose just one key issue); briefly describe the legal outcome the court reached; and explain briefly to Ronald the implications of these cases to his business.