Sopal is a research, productivity and compliance-support tool for the Australian construction industry. Please read this disclaimer carefully. By using Sopal, you acknowledge and agree to the terms set out below.
Nothing on sopal.com.au, or produced by the Sopal platform (including but not limited to search results, AI-generated research summaries, adjudication decision extracts, payment-claim and payment-schedule reviews, drafted submissions, interest and due-date calculations, and any other output), constitutes legal advice.
Sopal is a general information and productivity tool. It is designed to help construction industry professionals — including lawyers, barristers, in-house counsel, contractors, subcontractors, developers, quantity surveyors and contract administrators — work more efficiently with security-of-payment (SOP) legislation and related materials. It does not, and is not intended to, provide advice tailored to your specific circumstances.
No lawyer-client, barrister-client or other professional relationship is created between you and Sopal (or its operators, developers or any person associated with it) by your use of this platform. You should not rely on anything produced by Sopal as a substitute for advice from a qualified legal practitioner who understands the full facts of your situation.
If you are a claimant, respondent or otherwise a party to a security-of-payment claim, adjudication application or related dispute, you should obtain independent legal advice before taking or refraining from any step in those proceedings.
Security-of-payment legislation in Australia differs significantly from state to state, and has been amended on multiple occasions. The law that applies to you will depend on which jurisdiction your construction contract is connected to, the nature of the work, when the contract was entered into, and other factors.
The SOP legislation covered by Sopal includes:
These Acts have each been amended over time. Timeframes, thresholds, procedural requirements and other provisions vary between jurisdictions and may differ from what is described in general guidance on this platform. Legislative content, court and tribunal decisions, and industry practice continue to evolve after any given update to Sopal's content.
You are responsible for confirming that any information you rely on reflects the current, in-force version of the legislation applicable to your situation. Where Sopal refers to specific provisions, timeframes or requirements, you should verify those references against the current Act (and any subordinate legislation or regulations) in your jurisdiction before acting.
Sopal's adjudication decision database contains Queensland adjudication decisions only (7,300+ decisions as at the date of this disclaimer). Coverage of decisions from other jurisdictions is not comprehensive and should not be treated as exhaustive.
Sopal is designed to support — not replace — qualified professionals exercising independent professional judgement.
For legal professionals (construction lawyers, barristers and in-house counsel), Sopal is a research and drafting-assistance tool. The outputs of any AI-assisted research, submission drafting or analysis must be reviewed, verified and exercised with professional skill and judgement before being relied upon or provided to a client or a decision-maker. It is the responsibility of the legal professional to ensure that any advice or work product is accurate, current and appropriate to the client's circumstances. Sopal does not perform that function and should not be treated as doing so.
For construction industry professionals (contractors, subcontractors, developers, quantity surveyors and contract administrators), the payment-claim review, payment-schedule review, due-date and interest calculation features are productivity tools intended to help you understand and apply SOP requirements. They do not relieve you of the obligation to understand the legislative requirements that apply to you or to take appropriate professional or legal advice on your particular situation. The construction industry is highly fact-specific; general tools cannot account for every contractual, factual or procedural circumstance.
Where a matter is complex, disputed, novel or potentially high-value, we strongly encourage users to obtain specialist legal advice rather than relying solely on platform outputs.
Sopal's team works hard to ensure that the platform's content, data and outputs are accurate, up to date and useful. However, we do not warrant or represent that:
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Sopal and its operators, directors, employees and contractors exclude all liability for any loss or damage (including but not limited to direct, indirect, consequential, special or economic loss) arising from or in connection with your reliance on, or use of, any content or output from the Sopal platform.
Nothing in this disclaimer excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy you may have under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) or any other applicable consumer protection legislation that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where the law implies a guarantee that cannot be excluded, our liability is limited (to the extent permitted by law) to resupplying the relevant service or paying the cost of having it resupplied.
Several features on Sopal use large language model (AI) technology, including AI-driven case-law research, submission drafting and document analysis. You should understand the following limitations before relying on any AI-generated output:
Always review AI-generated outputs critically and exercise independent professional judgement before acting on, forwarding, filing or otherwise relying on them.
Sopal may display, link to or reproduce content sourced from third parties, including adjudication decisions, court judgments, legislative text and industry commentary. Sopal does not control the content, accuracy or currency of third-party sources and does not endorse any third party. Links to external websites are provided for convenience only; we are not responsible for the content or practices of those sites.
If you believe any content on Sopal is inaccurate, outdated or raises a copyright or licensing concern, please contact us at hello@sopal.com.au.
We may update this disclaimer from time to time to reflect changes to Sopal's features, applicable law or industry practice. The current version will always be available at sopal.com.au/disclaimer. Continued use of Sopal after any update constitutes acceptance of the revised disclaimer.
For questions about this disclaimer or the platform generally, contact us at hello@sopal.com.au or via the contact page.
