ByLawyers News and Updates

Training and supervision – Podcast

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Training and supervision of junior professional staff is a critical area for law firms. It impacts directly on many key areas of the practice: quality and consistency of output, productivity, team harmony and staff retention – and perhaps most importantly of all client satisfaction.

Our Managing Director Brad Watts recently shared some thoughts, as part of a LEAP global podcast series, about how By Lawyers practical legal guides can assist with training and supervising junior lawyers. Brad has 25 years of legal practice experience and is one of the contributors to the By Lawyers Practice Management guide.

Listen to the podcast to hear how By Lawyers guides can assist firms and individual solicitors with their training and supervision requirements.

By Lawyers guides include detailed commentaries and reference materials which are powerful tools to help ensure junior lawyers  have the guidance and support they need, improving productivity and retention of staff, while easing the pressure on principals and more senior lawyers.

Enjoy practice more, with By Lawyers.

 

 

1 July updates – FED and All states

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1 July updates are a big focus for By Lawyers. This is because many commonwealth and state legislative instruments provide for scheduled indexing of relevant monetary amounts and increases in government fees and charges.

These updates can include court filing fees, lodgement fees for property dealings, minimum weekly compensation amounts for Workers Compensation and various fines.

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

We also monitor and update for legislative indexing and increases which occur regularly at other times. These include 1 January changes and also other specific dates prescribed by some statutes.

The 1 July updates have been applied to the following By Lawyers publications:

  • Conveyancing and Property;
  • Criminal;
  • Litigation;
  • Family;
  • Estates;
  • Injuries; and
  • Employment.

Stay updated with By Lawyers guides and precedents. Happy new financial year!

Insolvency To Do lists – FED

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The By Lawyers Bankruptcy and Liquidation guides have been updated with the inclusion of four Insolvency To do lists.

These new precedents provide practical guidance for practitioners as they progress through a matter.

The To Do lists provide helpful prompts for each important step to be taken in a matter when acting for either the creditor or the debtor in both personal and corporate insolvency matters, including:

  • Liquidation;
  • Winding up;
  • Deeds of company arrangement;
  • Debt agreements;
  • Personal insolvency agreements; and
  • Bankruptcy proceedings.

The new To Do lists can be found in folder A. Getting the Matter Underway in the By Lawyers Bankruptcy and Insolvency guides and will assist practitioners in safely and efficiently managing their matters.

Improving written submissions – All states

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A new article ‘Improving Written Submissions’ by Judge Alan Troy of the District Court of Western Australia has been added to the Reference Materials folder on the matter plan in all By Lawyers Litigation guides.

His Honour’s article, first published in Brief, the Journal of the Law Society of Western Australia, is full of valuable tips for improving written submissions. It will greatly assist practitioners when they are preparing submissions for all types of matters, in all courts.

The article emphasises the need to use clear and plain English, to be brief and succinct, to persuade the court via credible legal argument and to logically structure the submissions. His Honour recommends stating the main point of the argument at the outset and introducing each topic with a brief summary of the real substance of the issue to which it relates.

Drawing on his substantial experience both as an advocate and on the bench, Judge Troy gives specific and very practical guidance on how practitioners can best construct written submissions with these tenets in mind. His Honour’s tips include the use of a chronology, ways to structure both the text and the arguments and the importance of ruthless final editing.

By Lawyers are very pleased to make this helpful article available to our subscribers across Australia.

Privacy Act notifications – FED

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Two helpful new precedents have been added to the By Lawyers Practice Management guide to assist law firms required to make Privacy Act notifications to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has indicated that it considers law firms are subject to the mandatory disclosure provisions.

Privacy Act notifications are required where data breaches are likely to result in ‘serious harm’ to clients. These must be promptly reported to the OAIC and to the affected clients.

Notification is mandatory if the firm is aware of reasonable grounds to believe an eligible data breach has occurred. Firms becoming aware of a breach must make a rapid assessment, remediate if possible, then notify if required, without delay.

There is no specified form of notification to the affected individuals. A precedent is now provided on the matter plan – see Letter to client re Privacy Act data breach notification.

Notification to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner should be done via the online Notifiable Data Breach form on the OAIC’s website, also linked to from the matter plan. However, sometimes the very data breach which requires the notification to be made can also make reporting online impossible. To assist in such circumstances, a precedent letter is now provided on the matter plan where the online form cannot be accessed – see Letter to OAIC re Privacy Act data breach notification.

National Mortgage Form – All states

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New content added

New content on the National Mortgage Form has been added to the Mortgages Guides in each state.

The National Mortgage Form is an Australia-wide initiative. It standardises the content and presentation of mortgages lodged for registration via all lodgement channels with land registries in the various participating Australian states and territories.

Mortgagees and property practitioners across all participating jurisdictions must adopt the National Mortgage Form. The previous previous mortgage forms used in each Land Registry will no longer be accepted.

The National Mortgage Form allows for incorporation of any registered common provisions, or other registered dealings.

For further information, user guide and link to the current webform version of the National Mortgage Form, see the ARNECC website.

Compatibility with PEXA and Sympli

The Mortgage is created and registered within PEXA. For further information, see the PEXA Community user guides ‘How to create and register a mortgage in PEXA’ and ‘How to create and register a second mortgage in PEXA’. These are available on all By Lawyers Mortgages matter plans.

It is expected that the new Electronic Lodgement network Operator, Sympli, will have corresponding capability when it commences later this year. Details on Sympli will be added to by Lawyers guides as soon as Sympli becomes operational.

Transition to E-conveyancing – All states

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The By Lawyers commentary ‘A brief explanation to the transition to E-conveyancing‘ has been updated.

This very practical and topical commentary is available in all By Lawyers Conveyancing & Property Guides, including Sale, Purchase, Mortgages and Leases.  It helps all practitioners to get up to speed on the ever-accelerating transition to E-conveyancing.

The recent updates cover:

Important new industry mandated time frames

NSW – From 1 July 2019, mainstream property dealings including transfers, mortgages and discharges of mortgage, caveats, withdrawals of caveat and transmission applications must be lodged electronically.

VIC – Land Use Victoria has mandated that complex land transfer transactions must be lodged and managed online from 1 August 2019, bringing almost all transactions online. Duties Online enhancements are scheduled to take effect from 17 June 2019.

Details of the new Electronic Lodgement Network Operator, Sympli

The second ELNO, Sympli is coming soon to join PEXA in the e-settlement space. Sympli promises an intuitive and user-friendly platform.

Information regarding the new settlement agent network, SettleIT.

SettleIT, an InfoTrack initiative, is a shared network of specialist settlement agents that handle e-settlement processing on behalf of property practitioners. With one click, a SettleIT agent
can be booked to provide a personalised, fixed-price service to take a conveyancing matter through to settlement.

Keep up to date with By Lawyers

By Lawyers Conveyancing guides provide all the information required to conduct conveyancing, including electronic property transactions, confidently and efficiently.

New criminal precedents- All states

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By Lawyers have added over 50 new criminal precedents to the matter plans in our Criminal guides for all jurisdictions. These practical and helpful new precedents will save practitioners time and make matter management easier.

The new criminal precedents cover many of the tasks required when acting for a defendant in criminal proceedings, from arrest, attendance at the police station and bail, to court attendance, sentencing and appeals.

As part of this significant enhancement to our Criminal guides, we have introduced a new type of precedent which is particularly useful for criminal practitioners – Attendance notes.  Attendance note precedents are pre-drafted, detailed file notes which both record work usually performed on a matter and act as a reminder of the necessary components of various common tasks.

An extensive selection of new precedent letters have also been added to the appropriate folders in the Criminal matter plans. These letters are designed to assist practitioners:

  • arrange bail for their clients;
  • seek disclosure from the prosecution;
  • gather evidence from the client and their witnesses;
  • arrange for witnesses to attend court;
  • advise clients on their plea; and
  • inform clients of sentencing outcomes.

By Lawyers are always working to improve and expand our content. These new precedents increase the value of our criminal guides for practitioners who advise and represent clients in criminal matters in all states of Australia.

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Water access rights – SA

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New commentary on water access rights has been added to the By Lawyers Sale and Purchase Guides (SA).

The new content covers the right to take and use water in South Australia which is regulated under the Natural Resources Management Act 2004. Under the Act, rights in relation to the ability to take and use water include water licences, water access entitlements and stock and domestic rights.

Information in relation to water licences and water access can be found on the Department for Environment and Water website.

Ownership of water rights is recorded on the Water Register.

By Lawyers do not currently offer a full commentary on the increasingly complex and valuable rights attaching to the usage, allocation and trading of water, but the new content in the Sale and Purchase Guides assists as a starting point for SA practitioners who are called upon to advise clients in relation to the rights attaching to water in various circumstances, whether in the context of property transactions, property development, or stand-alone water trading transactions.

Helpful interactive links are also provided in the new content to allow users to quickly access the detailed information available on the Department for Environment and Water website and the WaterConnect website.

Mortgages – inaccurate certification – QLD, NSW, SA, VIC, WA

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Case law update – mortgages – inaccurate certification by ELNO subscriber

In the recent case of Perebo Pty Ltd v Wayville Residential Investments Pty Ltd & Ors [2019] SASC 35, the South Australian Supreme Court considered the effect of an inaccurate certification made by the mortgagee’s solicitor upon lodgment of a mortgage. The mortgage was held to be enforceable despite the solicitor for the mortgagee inaccurately certifying that the mortgagee held a copy of the mortgage granted by the mortgagor.

The Registrar General in each state is entitled to rely upon the certification of a subscriber to an Electronic Lodgement Network Operator (ELNO) that a mortgagee holds a mortgage granted by the mortgagor in the same terms as the instrument that is lodged. However where there is inaccurate certification, the instrument registered pursuant to the certification is not necessarily invalidated merely by that fact. The instrument will of course be invalidated if it is fraudulent, or falls within one of the other exceptions to indefeasibility.

However, while the mortgage might not be invalid, by giving an inaccurate certification, the mortgagee, or the mortgagee’s representative such as a solicitor, may face disciplinary action from the applicable regulator, or the risk of being suspended or terminated as a subscriber to the ELNO.

The By Lawyers Mortgages commentaries have been updated to include a summary of this case and a link to the full decision.

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