Set clearer boundaries around remote vet advice

The answer depends on how you are actually delivering telehealth. We look at your service channels, such as video consults, phone advice, chat, email or online triage forms, and consider where clients may misunderstand the limits of remote advice. The work includes a consultation and a disclaimer drafted for that model, covering issues like information provided by the pet owner, when in-person assessment may still be needed, and how urgent or emergency situations should be framed. It is narrower than a full consumer law or privacy review across your whole business.

This is commonly used by clinics offering remote follow-up advice, after-hours triage, online booking-linked consultations, subscription care models, or platform-based veterinary services. It can also suit mobile vets and specialist practices that give preliminary guidance before an in-person visit. A disclaimer is especially worth considering where owners may rely heavily on remote advice, upload photos or videos, or submit health information through digital forms. The factual setup matters, because the legal position depends in part on how the service is presented and how information is handled in practice.

A telehealth disclaimer can help set expectations around the limits of remote assessment, the quality and completeness of information supplied by the owner, when advice is general rather than definitive, and when urgent symptoms require immediate in-person care. It may also deal with booking or communication channels, reliance on photos or videos, and the fact that advice can depend on what your business actually collects, uses and shares through the telehealth process. The wording is there to support clearer communication, not to override every legal or professional obligation that may apply.

Often not. A short website disclaimer may miss the points that matter most in a veterinary telehealth setting, such as how symptoms are described remotely, whether the animal is an existing patient, what records are available, and how owners are prompted to escalate urgent concerns. If your service uses intake forms, messaging tools or booking software, those details can affect the wording. The document needs to line up with your actual privacy practices, including how information moves through the business, so a generic disclaimer may not line up well with the real client journey.

Not as part of this fixed-fee. This page is about a one-off consultation and disclaimer for veterinary telehealth, rather than a broader review of all clinic terms, privacy materials, staff arrangements or dispute handling. If your practice also needs website terms, consent wording, privacy documentation or advice on contractor or employee arrangements, that can be scoped separately. That distinction matters because the right approach can depend on the working arrangement, existing documents and the factual context, not just the disclaimer itself.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Telehealth Advice Disclaimer For Vets service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.