By Annelies Gartner

Comic book contracts try to prevent disputes and misunderstandings because ‘it's easier to not crack an egg than it is to put it back together again’.

Professor Camilla Bassch Andersen, from UWA’s Law School, was talking to Professor Adrian Keating, from UWA’s School of Engineering, about people in the Makers Club being asked to sign non- disclosure agreements without understanding what it meant.

“He was angry about lawyers and agreements that nobody understood, and nobody read anyway,” Professor Andersen says.

“At one point he said some nasty things about lawyers generally and I went, ‘oh, what do you want Adrian – a comic book?’”

The conversation was the impetus for Professor Andersen designing the first comic book contract with illustrator Loui Silvestro. It helped keep a detailed record of contributions made by makers, for access to the rights of using the product they designed, as well as to track the payment they were owed.

Image: Makers contract

Initially, Professor Andersen thought she was working on a single non-disclosure agreement in a simple comic strip form … but then ABC and CNN aired stories.

“I think I had 850 emails the next morning from people who wanted to know more, who wanted to volunteer to work for the project for free,” she says.

It has now been almost 10 years since this first comic book contract and Professor Andersen and her team are still changing the way we read and sign contracts.

"We test these images almost like a defence for anyone who uses them and who could subsequently be accused of it being ambiguous or misunderstood."

Professor Camilla Bassch Andersen

 

Visual contracts have been created for many companies and organisations from BankWest to Cockburn Toy Library and so far they have been ‘victims of their own success’.

“I was so sure the tendency we have had for complete dispute elimination would stop when we rolled out the banking contracts, because they have a track record of lots of different disputes, but there’s been nothing,” Professor Andersen says.

Her multi-disciplinary research team includes lawyers, illustrators, experts in finance literacy, psychologists and philosophers who help look at issues of interpretation.

“We test these images almost like a defence for anyone who uses them and who could subsequently be accused of it being ambiguous or misunderstood,” she says.

“A correct focus group should have the right cross-section of end users and the right demographics, age groups and representation.”

An employment contract did cause some confusion when it was used in another jurisdiction without consultation and an image used for paternity and maternity leave was completely misinterpreted.

“I think it was reused in South Africa, and the immediate pushback was why is the stork abducting my baby?” she laughs.

Professor Andersen is proud to talk about the colouring-in contracts designed for Mission Australia to help vulnerable children.

“We worked closely with psychologists who understand children and therapists who give children with serious social issues counselling,” she says.

“The contract helps children listen and they can direct their attention to the images on the contract that they’re having explained to them without having uncomfortable eye contact.”

Image: Cockburn Toy Library

There’s no sign of any slowdown ahead for the team as they look to move into animated contracts and keep waiting for the day a judge is confronted with a case involving a visual contract and two different people telling them what they thought it meant.

And Professors Keating and Andersen are happy to say they have become great friends and enjoy the collaboration that has grown from the project.

Read the full issue of the Summer 2024 edition of Uniview [Accessible PDF 5MB].