Check whether your contractor setup could be treated as employment

This service is usually a good fit if you engage contractors regularly, have long-running contractor relationships, or are unsure whether the practical setup matches the contract wording. It is particularly useful where contractors work closely with your team, use your systems, follow set processes, or perform work similar to employees. The review is aimed at businesses wanting a broader risk assessment, not just a quick read of one agreement. If you need representation in an active dispute, that would usually be separate work.

We look at both the written documents and the real-world arrangement. That can include the contractor agreement, payment structure, control over hours or methods, exclusivity, integration into your business, use of equipment, and whether the contractor is operating an independent business in substance. A key risk point is that the factual working arrangement can matter as much as the contract wording. You will receive a written summary identifying where the arrangement appears stronger, where it may be vulnerable, and what practical changes may be worth considering.

A contractor agreement helps, but it is not the whole answer. If the day-to-day relationship looks more like employment, the written label may carry less weight than businesses expect. For example, issues can arise where a worker is tightly controlled, works only for one business, is embedded in internal processes, or has little real independence. That is why this review considers the documents and the factual context together. The aim is to give you a clearer legal framework for the issue, with final risk settings depending on your operating model and follow-through.

The consequences can be significant. A business may face claims about employment status, payment entitlements, leave, or other workplace obligations, and the issue can become more complicated if several workers are engaged on a similar model. Risk often increases where the same arrangement has been used for convenience over time without checking whether the practical setup still matches the contract. This review is intended to identify those pressure points early, explain where the exposure may sit, and outline legal and operational changes that may improve the position.

If we identify higher-risk features, we will explain what is driving that risk and what options may be available. Depending on the situation, that might involve changing the agreement terms, adjusting the way the relationship operates in practice, or reconsidering whether a contractor model is appropriate for that role. The written summary is intended to help you prioritise the next step rather than leave you with a list of issues only. If you want help implementing changes after the review, that can be arranged under a separate scope.

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 Sham Contracting Review 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.