ByLawyers News and Updates

Indexation of maximum costs – Motor accident injury claims – NSW

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Practitioners are reminded that, from 1 October 2018, indexation commenced of the maximum costs for legal services and the maximum fees for medico-legal services recoverable from an insurer in respect of motor vehicle accident claims relating to accidents which occurred on or after 1 December 2017. The maximum costs will be indexed each year in line with inflation.

The maximums for legal costs and medico-legal fees are set out in Schedule 1 to the Motor Accident Injuries Regulation 2017. The maximum amounts recoverable for legal fees depend upon the stage at which the matter is resolved.

The commentary for motor accidents after 1 December 2017 in the By Lawyers NSW Motor Accidents Guide has been updated to note the indexation and provide the relevant links to both the legislation and the costs section of the SIRA website.

By Lawyers will be at InfoTrack Connect18 E-Conveyancing Road-shows

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E-Conveyancing roadshows with Infotrack and By Lawyers 

econyevancing roadshow

InfoTrack is hosting 41 complimentary seminars throughout NSW, VIC, QLD and ACT showcasing the latest in integrated e-conveyancing solutions.

The By Lawyers team will be be attending and presenting at select venues throughout NSW and VIC.

New South Wales

17th of October – Sydney CBD

  • Kate Eason – General Manager Content, By Lawyers – Global
  • Angus Dawson  – Product Champion at By Lawyers

15th of November – Sydney CBD

  • Brad Watts – Managing Director, By Lawyers – Australia
  • Angus Dawson  – Product Champion at By Lawyers

Victoria

9th of October – 22 November –  All locations

  • Renowned expert property lawyer and By Lawyers author Russell Cocks will be attending all Connect18 road-show events hosted in Victoria.

Register here

  • Connect with members of the By Lawyers team
  • Be the first to see a live demo of the latest in e-Settlements solutions – Sympli
  • Learn how to make smooth transition to e-conveyancing
  • Have your questions answered by experts in the industry
  • Earn 1 complimentary CPD point
  • Network with your peers
  • Enter for a chance to win up to $5000 in prizes

 

 

By Lawyers is going global!

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BY LAWYERS IS GOING GLOBAL

By Lawyers is excited to announce that in February 2019 we will be launching our online guides and precedents in the United Kingdom. Our UK team is already on the ground working on content with our UK authors – practising lawyers in the various UK jurisdictions.

In the UK, we will duplicate the successful Australian By Lawyers system to give UK lawyers the same real time access to law, matter plans and precedents that are an integral part of practice for their Australian colleagues.

We also wish to assure our Australian clients that it will be very much business as usual at home for our Australian editorial and publishing teams. We have appointed a new management team for By Lawyers Australia to ensure that our Australian publications continue to expand and improve – and remain always up to date, of course.

We have pleasure introducing Brad Watts as the new Managing Director of By Lawyers Australia.

Many of you know Brad already a contributing author and more recently our senior consultant. Brad will take the reigns of By Lawyers Australia from today, reporting to our Chief Executive Officer, Bobbi Young, Chief Operating Officer Danni Larney and the Global Editor in Chief Guy Dawson. Brad will be ably assisted by our new General Manager Paul Maher, previously Legal Editor, and the rest of our wonderful in-house team – plus the 45 practising lawyers across Australia who are our external authors and who help us keep our content relevant, practical and up to date.

We sincerely thank our Australian subscribers for their support over the last decade and we look forward to continuing to assist them to enjoy practice more.

By Lawyers is very proud to be taking our great Australian product to the world.

Grow your legal practice – NSW

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GROW YOUR LEGAL PRACTICE – PANEL DISCUSSION

There are many challenges facing today’s small law firms. Recently, LEAP have conducted a study with their clients, exploring the challenges commonly associated with running a small legal practice. This research reveals that in the first year of operations, 67% of firms complain of spending too much time on administrative tasks, 57% struggle with attracting new clients, 40% find it difficult to manage cashflow and 44% are not able to attain a healthy work-life balance.

On Thursday, 11th October LEAP are hosting a networking breakfast event in Sydney with the sole purpose of helping small law firms address these challenges. Our own editor Brad Watts will join a panel of experts, Rose Dravitzki (Clarence Chambers), Roxanne Hart (oLegal) and Youssef Maksisi (Maksisi Lawyers), to explore the topic of effective practice management.

During this interactive presentation, the panellists will draw on their many years of legal experience and share their personal stories of starting and managing their own practices. Attendees can look forward to engaging with the speakers and hopefully taking away some practical tips and strategies enabling them to differentiate, grow and enjoy their own practices.

Whether you are looking for new ways to grow your legal practice, need some new ideas for the management of your firm, or are simply curious to hear from others about the approaches taken to build and develop their practices, we invite you to attend this free event. We also encourage you to come with plenty of questions for the panel and make the most of the substantial amount of experience LEAP have collected together for this event.

REGISTER TODAY

For those unable to attend, the By Lawyers Practice Management Guide and the related Reference Manual 101 Policies & Procedures are always available to assist By Lawyers and LEAP subscribers with practice management ideas and issues.

 

Supervised legal practice – A new podcast from By Lawyers and LEAP

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Many small firms have lawyers on the team who are still in their first two years of practice and therefore subject to a condition on their practising certificate that they may only engage in supervised legal practice.

Join our Senior Consultant and Editor Brad Watts and LEAP National Marketing Manager Claire James for a discussion on the ways in which proper supervision is important for both the firm and for junior lawyers and how it can be an essential element of running a successful small law firm, as a means to ensure delivery of high quality client outcomes and a vital risk management tool.

The President of the NSW Law Society recently highlighted the importance of senior practitioners meeting their supervisory obligations to junior practitioners who are subject to the restriction of supervised legal practice in their first 2 years. This podcast discusses the factors which impact – and sometimes impede – proper supervision in small legal practices and how the By Lawyers guides and precedents can help firms comply with their supervision requirements.

The podcast covers the general supervision requirements and also looks at some specific By Lawyers precedents which can assist firms with their supervision obligations, such as Retainer Instructions and To Do lists.

Oh, and with some help from John Grisham, we also learn why Australian lawyers are better than American lawyers!

 

Sentencing amendments – Criminal law – NSW

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Important sentencing amendments commenced in NSW courts on 24 September 2018, under the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Amendment (Sentencing Options) Act 2017 which amends the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999.

The cumulative effect of the amendments is a significant overhaul of sentencing options in all courts, the likes of which has not occurred since the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 was introduced. The stated intent of the sentencing amendments is to reduce the number of offenders in custody by replacing largely unsupervised sentencing options with highly supervised ones, thereby having fewer people in gaol for breaches of bonds/orders. Whether the legislation achieves its aims remains to be seen, but practitioners need to be on top of the changes from today.

The amendments include:

Intensive Correction Orders (already existing) – substantially augmented and strengthened.

  • Available for all offenders sentenced to any custodial penalty up to 2 years (except for certain serious offences).
  • Mandatory supervision for all Intensive Correction Orders and can include conditions such as home detention.
  • Home Detention abolished as a stand-alone penalty.
  • Suspended sentence (s 12 bond) abolished.
  • Pre-sentence report (now called an Assessment report) mandatory.

Community Correction Orders introduced – replaces bonds under s 9

  • Good Behaviour Bonds (s 9) abolished.
  • Mandatory supervision for all Community Correction Orders and can include conditions such as community work.
  • Community Service Orders abolished.
  • Pre-sentence report (now called an Assessment report) not mandatory.

Community Release Orders introduced – replaces bonds under s 10(1)(b)

  • Bonds under s 10(1)(b) (without conviction) abolished.
  • Community Release Orders can be without conviction at the court’s discretion.
  • Conditions available for Intensive Correction Orders and Community Correction Orders are not available for Community Release Orders.
  • Pre-sentence report (now called an Assessment report) not mandatory.
  • Presumption that domestic violence offenders will receive only custody, or a supervised order, not Community Release Orders.

The By Lawyers Criminal (NSW) Guide has been updated to deal with these amendments in an easily understandable way.

A full description of the sale and purchase process – Conveyancing – NSW

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By Lawyers is pleased to announce the publication of new reference materials within our Conveyancing Guides which provide a full description of the conveyancing process for both sale and purchase. These descriptions provide details on the procedure to follow when conducting a sale or purchase, using the precedents available in the By Lawyers Conveyancing (NSW) Guides, together with LEAP and InfoTrack.

The full descriptions follow the typical progression of a residential sale or purchase and include screen shots to assist with the procedural aspects of running the matter in LEAP. These descriptions are not intended to be a substitute for our comprehensive Conveyancing commentaries, or the detailed Matter Plans and To Do lists provided in our Guides – rather they are intended to be complementary, providing the user with more detailed explanations on the very practical aspects of running a conveyancing matter from start to finish.

Areas covered include:

  • How to open a file;
  • How and when to order quality and title searches;
  • How to create the contract with the correct order of documents;
  • How and when to enter matter information into LEAP;
  • Arranging an exchange;
  • Completing settlement figures and directions – adjusting council rates, water, sewerage, strata.
  • Preparing for settlement – both paper and electronic.
  • Post-settlement procedure.

While these new resources are ideally suited to those with little or no hands-on experience with conducting conveyancing matters, they will also be of benefit to those unfamiliar with running conveyancing matters in LEAP, or who need to step in and conduct a conveyancing file for another team member who is on leave.

Another great advantage provided by these full descriptions is the ability to delegate conveyancing tasks to junior staff and have them understand the conveyancing process without having to direct them every step of the way.

Like all of the practical resources in the By Lawyers Conveyancing Guides, these new reference materials provide firms not currently taking on conveyancing work the ability to do so easily.

Notice to complete – Conveyancing – NSW

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The commentary in the By Lawyers Conveyancing NSW Guide and 1001 Conveyancing Answers (NSW) has been updated to highlight some important considerations brought to light in the recent decision on the NSW Court of Appeal in Namrood v Ebadeh-Ahvazi [2017] NSWCA 310, namely the importance of issuing a Notice to Complete before purporting to terminate and the distinction between the completion date and the actual date of completion.

The ‘completion date’ is specified in the contract, but because time is not of the essence and settlements are often delayed, the actual completion date can be a later date. Any provision in a contract providing that something must be done on or by completion is not necessarily a requirement that it be done on or before the completion date

The facts in this case were that the contract of sale provided for work to be done on or by completion. When the completion date passed a notice of termination was served by the purchaser without first serving a notice to complete making the completion date of the essence. The work was subsequently finished and as no essential completion date had been established by a notice to complete, the purported termination by the purchaser failed, was deemed a repudiation of the contract and the deposit paid was forfeited to the vendor. The fact that a time and date for settlement is agreed does not of itself make time of the essence and justify termination.  Either the essentiality of time must be agreed at the outset, or it must be made essential by serving a notice to complete.

This case also highlights the potential issues that arise with inserting special conditions regarding compliance with works notices, which necessarily override s 11 of the Law Society Contract by virtue of the definition of ‘normally’ therein.

The commentaries in the By Lawyers Conveyancing Guides – Acting for the Purchaser and Acting for the Vendor, as well as the relevant sections of 1001 Conveyancing Answers NSW, have been updated accordingly.

 

Online Court Protocol – Supreme Court Equity Division – NSW

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New and revised Practice Notes dealing with Online Court Protocol in the Equity Division of the NSW Supreme Court have been added to the By Lawyers Litigation commentaries.

Our NSW litigation author has amended the Acting for the Plaintiff and Acting for the Defendant commentaries in our Supreme Court – Equity Division Guides to incorporate these important procedural changes brought in by the recent amendments to Practice Note SC Eq 1 and the introduction of the new Practice Note SC Eq 14. These Practice Notes apply concurrently to all cases in the Equity Division General List that are case managed by the Registrar in Equity.

Important points to note about the new provisions of the Practice Notes include:

Online Court

  • All matters will be managed via Online Court.
  • If the Registrar in Equity determines that certain matters are to be heard in open court the times and location of directions hearings may change and the Practice Note requires that the daily Court list should always be checked.
  • Failure to submit requests or consent orders in the Online Court in accordance with the time frames set out in the Practice Note will be treated as a non-appearance in the proceedings, upon which the Registrar will issue a notice and a subsequent failure may result in the proceedings being dismissed.

Mediation/ADR

  • The initial timetable should consider reference and/or mediation.
  • If the parties have not attempted to resolve the dispute through mediation or other appropriate ADR procedures, they should expect a mediation date to be allocated prior to or when a matter is set down for hearing.
  • If the Court makes an order for court annexed mediation, the parties are to attend upon the Registrar in Equity, using the Online Court, within 24 hours of the order being made to obtain a date for mediation.

Consent Orders

  • Agreement will be reached between the parties on a timetable for the preparation of matters for trial and/or reference and/or mediation and Consent Orders. Evidence of this agreed timetable will be transmitted to the Registrar using the Online Court by no later than 2:30 PM on the second day preceding the Online Court sitting.
  • All Consent Orders will be made using Online Court; emails will not be accepted. The text of any orders the parties are seeking must be fully set out in the Online Court request.

Trial Length Estimates

  • When parties are seeking to have the matter set down for hearing, the parties will be expected to give full details of the trial, to ensure that the estimate of the length of the hearing is accurate. Annexure B to Practice Note SC Eq 1 provides for a Direction the Court will give requiring practitioners to monitor the estimate for the length of the trial.
  • If the hearing is likely to be longer than five days the trial date will be set in consultation with the Chief Judge in Equity.

The move to case management via the Online Court in the Equity Division is a significant shift in Court process and one of which all practitioners need to be well aware and prepared to embrace. The up to date and practical focus of the By Lawyers Supreme Court Guides ensures it is easy to understand and comply with the new procedures.

Register of Companion Animals – NSW

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The next stage of the amendments to the Companion Animals Act 1998 has now commenced, including implementation details for the Register of Companion Animals.

Part 9 of the Act now sets out the details that are required to be kept for registered companion animals. It also provides for the access to the Register which will be allowed for the public, veterinarians, local authorities and other relevant agencies. The register will be available via the NSW Pet Registry website.

Public access is already available via the NSW Pet Registry and access for government departments, local authorities and vets is through the old NSW Companion Animals Register, which will be phased out by the end of 2018. Thereafter, access for government departments, local authorities and vets will also be via the new Register of Companion Animals, through the NSW Pet Registry site.

The By Lawyers commentary on companion animals, located in our Neighbourhood Disputes NSW publication, has been updated accordingly.

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