Client Services Agreement

RSL Queensland and Mates4Mates


RSL Queensland and Mates4Mates are not-for-profit organisations whose charitable objects are focused on several activities including assisting veterans and their families. This Client Services Agreement is an agreement between you and any dependents you nominate on your new client form (“you”, “your”) and Returned & Services League of Australia (Queensland Branch) ABN 79 902 601 713 (“RSL Queensland”) and Mates4Mates Ltd ACN 54 160 646 999 (“Mates4Mates”) (collectively, RSL Queensland and Mates4Mates are “us”, “we”, “our”).

1. Services

  1. You have approached us to request that we provide you with one or more services that we offer. Any services requested by you and provided to you and/or your nominated dependents by either RSL Queensland and/or Mates4Mates from time to time is referred to in this document as ‘Services’.
  2. You understand and agree that:
    1. we may have eligibility requirements to access a particular Service or components of a Service, and that applying to access the Service does not guarantee that you meet eligibility criteria;
    2. we are under no obligation to provide you with any particular Service and may, in our absolute discretion, decide whether or not to provide you with any or all Services.
  3. If we agree to provide a Service or Services to you:
    1. this agreement will apply when we provide those Service;
    2. we will provide you with the Services on the terms set out in this agreement and any terms, conditions and rules specific to each individual Service (T&Cs). We will advise you of any T&Cs specific to an individual Service prior to providing the particular Service to you. The T&Cs may be accepted by you engaging or continuing to engage in that individual Service. You have a right to withdraw from the Services at any time, including if you do not agree with the T&Cs.
  4. If services are provided to you by an organisation other than Mates4Mates or RSL Queensland (External Organisation), then:
    1. access to, or use of, those external services (including eligibility criteria) are governed by that External Organisation and the terms and conditions of this agreement do not apply to services provided by that External Organisation;
    2. we accept no responsibility for expenses arising out of, or connected to, the services being delivered by the External Organisation or for the experience or services you receive from the External Organisation.

2. What you need to do

  1. You must at all times:
    1. comply with the terms of this agreement and the T&Cs;
    2. behave in a manner consistent with the Code of Conduct, if applicable.
  2. You are responsible for any medical or other professional expenses arising out of, or connected to, the Services being delivered to you. For example, if the Services relate to a matter before the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and additional medical evidence is required for your matter, you will be required to pay for the medical report yourself (however you should note that you may be able to claim reimbursement from DVA). You can choose whether or not to incur the medical or other professional expenses. If you choose not to do so, this may limit the assistance that we can provide to you.
  3. You must ensure that any information that you provide during the intake and/or application process, and throughout delivery of the Services is true and complete in all respects. If we reasonably determine that any of the information that you have provided is false or misleading and impacts the eligibility requirements to access Services or our ability to deliver the Services, we may immediately cease providing any Services to you and terminate this Agreement.

3. Scope of Services (What we do)

  1. If you request and we agree to provide Services, the full scope of what we will do for you when delivering the Services will be agreed with you before we provide you with that Service. We may also require you to sign an additional agreement, specific to the delivery of that Service.
  2. If the Services involve medical/health services, we will discuss the proposed Services with you and obtain your consent prior to delivering these Services. You understand that you have a right to withdraw from these Services at any time. However, if you continue to engage with us in the provision of these Services, you will be deemed to have provided consent to the provision of the Services.
  3. In providing the Services to you, we will use reasonable endeavours to provide the Services in a proficient and timely manner.

4. Limits to Scope of Services (What we don’t do)

We will not, and cannot, provide any of the following to you:
  1. a guarantee or promise that the Services, your matter or any claim or appeal will be successful or that you will successfully obtain all or any of the outcomes that you are seeking;
  2. a guarantee or promise that any service you have accessed through an External Organisation will be successful or that you will successfully obtain all or any of the outcomes you are seeking;
  3. any advice outside of the specific Service being provided;
  4. any legal advice; or
  5. any other service outside of the scope of Services provided to you.
Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits the non-excludable consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law.

5. Costs and charges

We will not directly charge you a fee to provide the Services. However, you acknowledge that there may be instances where you may be required to incur incidental expenses with third parties which relate to the delivery of the Services (such as those set out in clause 2(b) of this agreement).

6. Termination of this Agreement

  1. You may terminate this agreement and/or cease using any or all of our Services at any time and for any reason by giving us written notice.
  2. We may terminate this agreement and/or cease providing you with any or all Services immediately by giving you written notice if you:
    1. instruct us to act unlawfully or unethically; or
    2. fail to co-operate fully in the conduct of the Services; or
    3. indicate that you have lost confidence in us; or
    4. lose legal capacity to instruct us; or
    5. do not behave in accordance with the Code of Conduct; or
    6. are informed by us that we have a conflict of interest and can no longer act on your behalf;
    7. fail to comply with the terms of this agreement and/or the T&Cs.
  3. We may also terminate this agreement and/or cease providing you with any or all Services if we are no longer able to provide the Service/s by giving you at least 60 days written notice.
  4. On termination of this agreement for any reason, we will cease to provide any further assistance or Services to you and will not be liable to provide any further assistance or Services to you. If we have terminated the agreement, we will endeavour to provide you with details of alternate service providers that may be able to assist you.

7. Your Documents

  1. On completion of each Service that we provide to you, or following termination of this agreement or cessation of that Service, we will retain your documents for a minimum of 7 years. Your agreement to these terms constitutes your authority for us to destroy the file after those 7 years.
  2. Where permitted by law, we may elect to hold some or all of your documents solely in electronic form. Where your documents are held by us in electronic form, and you request copies of your documents, we will generally provide electronic copies of them to you. Those copies will be provided in a reasonable electronic format, usually the same format in which we hold them.
  3. You acknowledge that we may also retain copies of your documents, for our own regulatory or insurance purposes.


8. Liability of RSL Queensland and Mates4Mates

Except for any legal or regulatory requirements or liability that cannot be excluded or limited, you agree that the following limitations on our liability will apply:
  1. Our liability for any loss, damage, liability, costs or expenses (Loss) or any claim, demand, action, proceedings or judgment made or threatened (Claim) in connection with our provision of any Services to you is limited as follows
    1. we will not be liable to you for any Loss or Claim you suffer or incur for any reason as a result of us providing the Services to you (except where such Loss or Claim is caused by our breach of contract, breach of law, negligence or misconduct);
    2. we will have no liability to any person other than you in relation to our provision of the Services;
    3. liability for any Claim or Loss is recoverable only from us and not from any of our members, employees, officers, representatives or agents;
    4. our liability is limited to such proportion of the Loss or Claim as is just and equitable having regard to the extent of your own responsibility for the Loss or Claim and that of any other person (regardless of any inability to enforce a claim against such other person);
    5. we, and our officers, employees, contractors and agents will not be liable in any circumstances for any indirect, special, incidental, punitive or consequential damages or loss (including loss of opportunity, loss of anticipated savings or the like) whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), or product liability;
    6. we will in no circumstances be liable for any action, omission or services provided by an External Organisation.
  2. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our maximum liability to you under this agreement will not exceed the amount of the reasonable cost of providing the Services to you again.

9. Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have provided any Services, or would like to provide any feedback please contact either feedback@rslqld.org and/or feedback@mates4mates.org.

10. General 

  1. Applicable Law
    The law of Queensland applies to this agreement and you irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Queensland and any courts that have jurisdiction to hear appeal from those courts.
  2. Our liability
    Under this agreement, RSL Queensland is responsible and liable for services provided by RSL Queensland, and Mates4Mates is responsible and liable for services provided by Mates4Mates.
  3. Privacy
    You acknowledge and agree that any personal information we collect about you in connection with this agreement and the Services we provide to you will be used, disclosed and handled by us in accordance with the RSL Queensland privacy policy and the Mates4Mates privacy policy (as applicable) and as explained in the Collections Notice.
  4. Electronic Communication
    You agree that we may provide information and documentation to you by electronic means (for example, by email). You acknowledge that electronic communication may not always be secure and can in some instances be intercepted, altered, contain viruses or other defects or not be received correctly. We will not be liable for any interference, delay, delivery failure or other damage caused by an email or electronic transmission except to the extent caused by our negligence or wilful default.
  5. Changes to these terms
    We may change the terms of this agreement and/or the T&Cs from time to time, provided we give you at least 14 days written notice of the changes. You can either:
    1. accept these changes by continuing to engage in our Services; or
    2. if you do not accept the changes, you have a right to withdraw from the Services and/or terminate this agreement by written notice to us.
  6. Offer and Acceptance of Client Services Agreement
    1. This document is an offer to you to enter into an agreement that will apply whenever we provide you with any Services
    2. This offer may be accepted by you by:
      1. clicking the ‘I accept’ button (if you are accepting this agreement online) when asked if you agree through the General Intake & Assessment; or
      2. signing a physical version of this agreement;
      3. engaging, or continuing to engage, in our Services; or
      4. contacting us, either verbally or in writing, advising of your acceptance.
  7. Acknowledgement and Agreement
    By accepting this offer in one of the ways set out paragraph (e)(ii) above, you accept the terms of this agreement. If you accept the terms of this agreement, you will have entered into an agreement with us that can be legally enforced by both parties in the same way as any other contract.
    If you have nominated any dependants on your new client form, then you also accept the terms of this agreement on their behalf. You represent that you are the legal parent or guardian of your nominated dependant(s) and have authority to accept the terms of this agreement on their behalf.
    In this agreement, a reference to “you” and “your” includes you and your nominated dependent(s), provided that any notices we may give to you under this agreement will be given to you only (and not also your dependent(s)), and any notices you may give to us, whether relating to you or your dependent(s), must be given by you.
    If you are uncertain about any part of this agreement, we invite you to obtain your own advice regarding the agreement, or you are also welcome to discuss your query with us to seek clarification.