ByLawyers News and Updates

Get Ready – Our New Website Is Launching!

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On 10 July, we’ll be transitioning to our upgraded website. While the design and layout will feel familiar, we’ve made significant improvements behind the scenes to deliver a faster, more reliable experience and new subscription options. The website address bylawyers.com.au will not change.

New Subscription options

  • Multi-Publication Discount – Save 10% when you subscribe to two or more publications.
  • All Publications Plan – Access everything in your jurisdiction for just $500 + GST/month or $5,000 + GST/year.
  • Team Logins – Give team members their own login for 50% of the subscription cost.

What does that mean for our subscribers?

Subscribers will be sent an email with a link to confirm their account on the new website. This is done by resetting the password and entering payment details, as we cannot transfer these to the new site for security reasons.

Please note: Access to the current website will end on 10 July. To avoid any disruption to your subscription, you’ll need to complete the above steps to confirm your account.

To celebrate the launch and thank you for making this transition with us, we’re offering an additional 3-month free subscription to a publication of your choice — available once your account is confirmed!

If you have any questions or need help with the transition, our team is here and happy to assist – support@bylawyers.com.au

Bail Division – NSW

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A new centralised Bail Division has been introduced in the Local Court of NSW to hear weekday adult bail matters from across the State. All matters will be heard by audio visual link.

Practice Note – Bail Division Proceedings has effect from 7 July 2025 and sets out the practice and procedure in the Bail Division, in conjunction with Practice Note – Criminal Crim 1 and Practice Note – Domestic Violence Matters – 2/2012.

All applications will be conducted in open court subject to any orders for restricted access.

The Bail Division will only hear first instance applications for bail by adult applicants who have been refused police bail.

Only applications received by the court before 12 noon will be heard on the day. Any accused who fails to make the deadline will have priority in the next day’s Bail Division list at 9.30 am.

Any documents relied on in support of a bail application must be filed electronically with the registry and sent to the prosecution before the hearing.

Oral submissions are limited to 10 minutes per application for both sides, unless the court allows further time. If a matter is not reached by 4 pm it will be stood over to the next available court day.

When a bail application is made, the court must complete a Summary of Reasons for Bail Decision of Court Form, which is annexed to the Practice Note – Bail Division Proceedings.

For bail applications made on weekends in Centralised Bail Courts, Practice Note – Bail Proceedings (Weekend Centralised Bail Courts) sets out the practice and procedure to be adopted in the proceedings, in conjunction with Practice Note – Criminal Crim 1.

A new Practice Note – Court Closure AVL Proceedings (Downing Centre) provides that unless an order has been made to bring the defendant before the court in person, all hearings scheduled before the Local Court Downing Centre for persons in custody must be conducted by way of audio visual link if it is reasonably practical and the accused or their legal representative consent.

The By Lawyers Local Court – Criminal publication has been updated accordingly.

1 July updates – All states

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1 July updates are always a big focus for By Lawyers. Many Commonwealth and state legislative instruments provide for the scheduled indexing of relevant monetary amounts, and adjustments – usually increases – in government fees and charges. These regular updates occur at the start of every financial year and they impact many different areas of law, and therefore numerous By Lawyers publications.

The 1 July updates include court filing fees, lodgment fees for property dealings, land tax thresholds, minimum weekly compensation amounts for Workers Compensation, the cap on damages in defamation claims, and penalty units for fines for various criminal offences and civil penalty provisions.

By Lawyers always monitor and apply these changes for our subscribers. Each year we ensure our publications are amended where necessary to reflect 1 July updates.

We also monitor and update for similar legislative indexing and increases which occur regularly at other times of the year. These include 1 January changes and other specific dates for various areas of law as prescribed by some statutes.

The 1 July updates have been applied this year, or are in the process of being applied as they get released, to the following By Lawyers publications:

Quite separately, there is also new and amending legislation from both Commonwealth and state parliaments that commences on 1 July. Substantive amendments have been made to a number of By Lawyers publications to account for the commencement of such legislation. Please see the various other By Lawyers News & Updates posts dealing with those updates.

By Lawyers is always up to date!

Defamation – TAS

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The long-awaited second stage of the uniform defamation law reform has effect in Tasmania from 16 June 2025.

These reforms have already commenced in the ACT, NSW, and VIC. Other states are expected to follow in time.

The amendments include:

Exemption from liability in defamation as publishers for digital intermediaries

The legislation now provides an exemption from liability in defamation for digital intermediaries providing caching, conduit, or storage services, provided the intermediary did not:

  1. initiate the steps required to publish the matter;
  2. select any of the recipients of the matter;
  3. encourage the poster of the defamatory material to publish the matter;
  4. edit the content of the matter either before or after it was published; or
  5. promote the matter either before or after it was published.

This exemption applies regardless of whether the digital intermediary knew, or should have known, the digital material was defamatory.

Exemption from liability under defamation law for search engine providers

Like digital intermediaries, search engine providers are not liable for defamatory material comprising search results if the provider’s role is limited to providing an automated process for the search engine user to generate search results or hyperlinks, provided the search results or hyperlinks are not promoted or prioritised by the search engine provider receiving a payment or another benefit by or on behalf of a third party.

The provision applies regardless of whether the search engine provider knew, or  should have known, the digital material was defamatory.

Early determination of digital intermediary exemptions

The court must determine whether a defendant has a digital intermediary exemption and whether the exemption is established as soon as practicable before the trial commences unless there are good reasons to postpone the determination. In doing so, the court can make any orders it considers appropriate, including dismissing the proceedings, if satisfied the digital intermediary exemption is established.

Content of offer to make amends

The digital intermediary exemptions from liability as publishers include changes to offers to make amends. For digital content, an offer to make amends can now include an offer to prevent access to the defamatory material, instead of, or in addition to other forms of redress.

Orders for preliminary discovery in defamation cases about posters of digital matter

Defamation litigants can take advantage of pre-litigation or preliminary discovery to assist in identifying the poster of defamatory material or their physical or digital address. This assists with serving concerns notices and court proceedings.

Defence for publications involving digital intermediaries

This new defence is available if a digital intermediary has provided an accessible complaints mechanism for an aggrieved person to use and they use it to make a complaint.

The digital intermediary must have taken reasonable steps to prevent access to the defamatory material, either before the complaint was received, or within seven days of receiving it.

The complaints mechanism must be an easily accessible address, location, or other mechanism available for the plaintiff to use to complain to the defendant about the publication of the digital matter concerned.

Defence available to content moderators

The defence of digital intermediary is available to defendants who moderate content by taking steps to detect or identify and remove, block, disable, or otherwise prevent access to content that may be defamatory, or that breaches the terms or conditions of the online service.

Orders against non-party digital intermediaries

If a plaintiff secures judgement, or an injunction, against a defendant in proceedings the court may order a non-party digital intermediary to take access prevention steps, or other steps the court considers necessary to prevent or limit the continued publication or re-publication of the matter complained of.

The court can require access prevention steps to be taken in relation to all or only some of the users of an online service.

The new section does not limit the court’s other powers to grant injunctions or make other orders for access prevention.

Service of notices and other documents

The amendments expand the existing options for serving notices and documents to include messaging or other electronic communication to an electronic address or location indicated by the recipient.

Extension of the defence of absolute privilege under uniform defamation law

Concerns were raised in the Stage 2 review of the uniform defamation law about liability in defamation for someone reporting a person to the police for suspected wrongdoing, and then being sued by that person in defamation if the police dismiss the complaint for lack of evidence or absence of culpability on the part of the person reported.

These concerns were addressed by amending the absolute defence provisions of the uniform defamation law to provide that defamatory matter published to a police officer while the officer is acting in an official capacity is covered by the defence of absolute privilege.

Publication updates

The By Lawyers Defamation and Protecting Reputation publication has been updated accordingly.

Family Law Act – FED

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Changes to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) under the Family Law Amendment Act 2024 have effect from 10 June 2025.

The bulk of the amendments relate to property matters, including:

  • significant changes to s 79 of the Act by codifying the four-step process and bringing the s 75(2) considerations into s 79;
  • introducing a new s 79(5) concerning material wastage of assets by one party and the treatment of liabilities;
  • new principles for conducting proceedings;
  • adding the pre-action disclosure obligations in the FCFCOA’s rules into the Family Law Act;
  • requiring greater consideration of the impacts of family violence on property division, including introducing a new 79(4)(ca) relating to the effect of family violence on a party’s ability to make contributions to the marriage, and adding examples under the definition of family violence of economic or financial abuse;
  • a new s 79AA making property orders enforceable against the estate of a deceased party;
  • a new definition of companion animals and the ability for the court to make orders about ownership of them, including transfer to a third party;
  • extension of the Less Adversarial Trial process to property cases in certain circumstances;
  • expanding the court’s power to order arbitration.

Amendments that are not specific to property cases include:

  • repealing ss 44(1B) and 44(1C) to remove the limitation on divorce orders within 2 years of marriage;
  • the requirement for an appearance at a divorce hearing by a sole applicant where there are children under 18 years;
  • updating the costs provisions in the Act by introducing a new Part XIVC and repealing ss 117, 117AA, 117AC, 117C(2);
  • more comprehensive regulation of children’s contact services;
  • introducing a new Division 1B in Part XI, being a scheme to protect sensitive information held by professional service providers.

The By Lawyers Property Settlement and 101 Family Law Answers publications have been updated accordingly.

Some changes under the amending Act commenced on 11 December 2024. They related to Commonwealth Information Orders in children proceedings, and separation declarations relevant to financial agreements. The Children and Financial Agreements commentaries have already been updated for those changes.

In the course of these updates, all the By Lawyers Family Law publications have been thoroughly reviewed and enhanced. Subscribers will notice new and revised commentary, re-ordering of content in the commentaries and on the matter plans, new and amended precedents, new cases, and updated links to legislation and other useful resources. As always, we welcome feedback from our users about these publication updates to: askus@bylawyers.com.au

Commercial law AI prompts – All states

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The following new commercial law AI prompts have been added to the Companies, Trusts, Partnerships and Joint Ventures guides:

  • By Lawyers AI Prompt – Letter to client with advice on shareholders agreement;
  • By Lawyers AI Prompt – Letter to client with advice on discretionary trust deed;
  • By Lawyers AI Prompt – Letter to client with advice on unit trust deed;
  • By Lawyers AI Prompt – Letter to client with advice on partnership agreement;
  • By Lawyers AI Prompt – Letter to client with advice on joint venture agreement.

These new commercial law AI prompts will assist practitioners advising clients on complex documentation for the various types of entities.

AI prompts are transforming legal document drafting. Technical precision in prompting artificial intelligence can significantly improve the utility and credibility of its output, especially when the AI draws exclusively from data contained in client matters and not from outside sources.

A well-drafted AI prompt acts like a clear direction from a senior lawyer to a junior about how to prepare a document. It sets precise parameters for the task, identifies the required information and where it must be drawn from, specifies the document’s form and any legal or procedural rules with which it must comply, and forbids the use of external or unauthorised sources, including invention – or in AI’s case, hallucination.

The outcome of using an AI prompt in a matter that contains sufficient reliable data is a competent first draft of a document that the lawyer can then refine and perfect, either with or without further input from AI.

Even if sufficient data is not available in the matter to satisfy the prompt’s requirements for the document, the AI will identify the missing data the lawyer needs to obtain via instructions or other means.

By Lawyers is pleased to introduce AI prompts to our publications, helping our subscribers harness the power of LEAP’s Matter AI.

Costs agreements – All states

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Enhancement of By Lawyers costs agreements

All By Lawyers costs agreements have been reviewed, consolidated, and reformatted to ensure they are in strict compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements in each state and territory, and to improve presentation and readability.

A good cost agreement precedent provides transparency, reduces disputes with clients over fees, and ensures that firms get paid. It is important these documents are correct, however, the increasing complexity of cost disclosure requirements makes this difficult. By Lawyers precedents provide firms with accurate and effective costs agreements for all matter types in all jurisdictions.

Summary of key changes

  • A key enhancement is the inclusion of a Terms and Conditions section, which consolidates general information that applies across all matters.
  • All related information has been grouped together to assist with readability and comprehension.
  • A Next steps section has been added, outlining the steps required to be taken by the client to move the engagement forward.
  • The automation in relation to fees, disbursements, and internal expenses has been improved for LEAP users.
  • The scopes of work, now available under each cost agreement on the matter plans, have been enhanced. For LEAP users, scopes of work can be added to a costs agreement via the Insert Clause feature. See Inserting a Clause on the LEAP Community page. Alternatively, all users can simply cut and paste the scope into the precedent.

New categories of costs agreements

The By Lawyers costs agreements have been simplified into 4 categories in most states and territories:

  1. Costs agreement: suitable for most matters.
  2. Costs agreement – Estate administration: specific to applications for probate and letters of administration and administering the estate.
  3. Conditional costs agreement: suitable for litigation such as personal injury claims where the firm agrees to act on a no win no fee basis.
  4. Conditional costs agreement – Uplift fee: suitable for litigation in jurisdictions where the relevant legislation permits an uplift to be applied to the total costs for a successful outcome.

The new costs agreements and scopes of work have been added, as appropriate, to folder A. Getting the matter underway on all matter plans.

Criminal AI prompts – NSW

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New criminal AI prompts have been created.

The following By Lawyers AI prompts have been added to the matter plans for Local Court Criminal and Traffic:

  1. Brief to counsel

  2. Submissions for a s 9 application

  3. Submissions for a s 10 application

  4. Submissions for a bail application

  5. Letter to medico-legal expert requesting a report for sentencing

These new criminal AI prompts will assist practitioners appearing for clients in criminal and traffic matters in the NSW Local Court.

AI prompts are transforming legal document drafting. Technical precision in prompting artificial intelligence can significantly improve the utility and credibility of its output, especially when the AI draws exclusively from data contained in client matters and not from outside sources.

A well-drafted AI prompt acts like a clear direction from a senior lawyer to a junior about how to prepare a document. It sets precise parameters for the task, identifies the required information and where it must be drawn from, specifies the document’s form and any legal or procedural rules with which it must comply, and forbids the use of external or unauthorised sources, including invention – or in AI’s case, hallucination.

The outcome of using an AI prompt in a matter that contains sufficient reliable data is a competent first draft of a document that the lawyer can then refine and perfect, either with or without further input from AI.

Even if sufficient data is not available in the matter to satisfy the prompt’s requirements for the document, the AI will identify the missing data the lawyer needs to obtain via instructions or other means.

By Lawyers is pleased to introduce AI prompts to our publications, helping our subscribers harness the power of LEAP’s Matter AI.

Claim farming – NSW

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Claim farming is the practice of giving or receiving consideration for a claim referral or potential claim referral or soliciting or inducing a claimant to make a claim for personal injury. This practice is now banned under the Claim Farming Practices Prohibition Act 2025 (the Act) which came into effect on 9 April 2025.

When the Act applies

The Act applies to all personal injury claims as defined in s 11 of the Civil Liability Act 2002, including intentional torts. Some personal injury claims are not covered, including dust diseases claims, claims relating to tobacco use, workers compensation, and motor vehicle accident claims.

Criminal consequences

The Act makes breaches of its provisions a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of $55,000.

Section 5 makes it an offence to contact a person:

  • to solicit them to make a claim for personal injury damages; or
  • to refer them to a third party to provide services in relation to a claim; or
  • using a third party to contact a person for the above purposes,

if the person making the contact receives a fee or other benefit, or agrees or expects to receive a fee or other benefit, or asks that someone else receive a fee or other benefit because of the contact.

Section 6 makes it an offence to:

  • provide or receive a fee or other benefit for the referral of a claim in civil proceedings; or
  • enter into agreements or arrangements relating to referrals of claims for a fee or other benefit.

Professional consequences

Conduct contrary to the Act by a lawyer can also amount to unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct irrespective of whether the lawyer has been convicted of an offence under the Act. Section 165B of the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014, which sets out the conduct capable of amounting to unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct, was amended to include contraventions of the Act.

Costs consequences

The Act further inserts s 61A to the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014 which provides that if a lawyer breaches the Act and is convicted, legal costs cannot be charged or recovered for the claim and any costs that have been paid must immediately be refunded. The costs can be recovered as a debt by the client.

Exceptions

Some exceptions apply to the application of the Act. It is not an offence if a lawyer acting for a claimant refers the matter to another person providing a service for the claim, or the claim is transferred because the law practice is sold.

There is also an exception for advertising, marketing, or promoting a legal practice: s 7.

Publication updates

The By Lawyers Personal Injury (NSW) guides have been updated accordingly.

First home – WA

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First home owner and off-the-plan duty changes

Changes have been introduced to the value caps for vacant land and established homes in WA that qualify for the first home owner concessional rate of duty, along with measures to extend and expand the off-the-plan duty concession.

The changes apply to transactions entered into from 21 March 2025.

RevenueWA expects to configure its systems to apply the new rates in early May 2025. Any eligible transactions entered into on or after 21 March 2025 that settle before the changes are implemented can be reassessed for a refund of duty after settlement.

Transfer duty – First home

First home owners buying an established or new home, or buying vacant land and then entering onto a contract to build a home on it and receiving a first home owners grant, can apply to be assessed at the first home owner rate of duty.

When the unencumbered value of a first home in Perth and Peel is:

  • up to $500,000 – no duty is payable;
  • between $500,001 and $700,000 – $13.63 per $100, or part thereof, above $500,000 is payable;
  • over $700,000 – full duty is payable, and no reduced rate applies.

When the unencumbered value of a first home in regions outside Perth and Peel is:

  • up to $500,000 – no duty is payable;
  • between $500,001 and $750,000 – $11.90 per $100, or part thereof, above $500,000 is payable;
  • over $750,000 – full duty is payable, and no reduced rate applies.

When the unencumbered value of vacant land purchased by an eligible first home buyer anywhere in WA, is:

  • up to $350,000 – no duty is payable;
  • between $350,001 and $450,000 – $15.39 per $100, or part thereof, above $350,000 is payable;
  • over $450,000 – full duty is payable, and no reduced rate applies.

Off the plan duty concession

For new off-the-plan homes within strata developments:

  • the expiry date of the existing duty concession is extended from 30 June 2025 until 30 June 2026;
  • no duty is payable for dwellings purchased before construction has commenced up to $750,000, with a 50% duty concession for properties valued above $850,000; and
  • a 75% duty concession is available for dwellings purchased while under construction up to $750,000, with a 37.5% duty concession for properties valued above $850,000.

This applies to all dwellings within strata and community title schemes, including townhouses and villas, not just multi-tiered developments.

Publication updates

The By Lawyers Purchase of Real Property (WA) guide has been updated, including the commentary and the Retainer Instructions – Purchase of Real Property.

 

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