ByLawyers News and Updates

Anti-money laundering – All states

by

Anti-money laundering policy

Commentary on the importance of law firms having an anti-money laundering policy has been added to the By Lawyers Practice Management guide. This new section of commentary assists firms to deal with the risk of money laundering and suggests procedures that can be adopted to reduce those risks.

This new commentary contains links to the Anti-Money Laundering Guide for Legal Practitioners published by the Law Council of Australia. There are also links to helpful guidance materials published by the various state Law Societies.

By Lawyers Practice Management guide

The Practice Management guide provides assistance for all firms, whether start-up, breakaway, or well established. It covers the following main areas:

  • How to perform a Legal Practice Health Diagnostic Check – a very useful tool for identifying existing strengths and areas where the firm can improve, or as a check-list for start ups.
  • Business planning for a law firm – including a SWOT analysis and environmental scan.
  • Ethics and professional responsibility – crucial to establishing and maintaining reputation and managing risk.
  • The solicitor/client relationship – how to value and manage client relationships.
  • The essentials of managing the work performed by law firms including, matter and data management, financial management and trust accounting.

The publication also contains many helpful precedents, such as:

  • Example costs disclosures.
  • Example invoices.
  • An example mission statement for a law firm.
  • A risk management plan.
  • Employment forms – including an application for employment and a new employee check-list.
  • An example asset register.
  • Forms for conducting file reviews.
  • Document safe custody records.
  • An example law firm client satisfaction survey.

Conveyancing To do lists – All states

by

The By Lawyers Conveyancing To do lists have been enhanced. As a result of recent feedback from a subscriber, space has been added next to the checkboxes in the Sale of Real Property and Purchase of Real Property guides. This extra space can be used to enter the date that a task has been completed, or any other note relevant to that particular aspect of the matter’s progression.

This small but important enhancement to the utility of these popular precedents will be extended to other guides in due course.

To do lists precedents are available in most By Lawyers guides. They reside within Folder A. Getting the matter underway on the matter plans and are an essential matter and risk management tool.

The Conveyancing To do lists chronologically set out the usual steps to be completed in a sale or purchase matter and allow team members working on the file to tick off each step as the matter progresses. This ensures that nothing important is missed. It also assists with seamless continuity when multiple people are working on a matter. These documents can be of particular assistance to team members who are unfamiliar with a particular area of law, or when assigning a task to more junior staff and assessing their progress or providing training.

To do lists can be printed out and attached to the file for manual completion, or ‘pinned’ to the top of the LEAP matter and competed electronically.

In order to pin a To do list to the top of the correspondence window in a LEAP matter, simply right-click on the precedent after it has been saved into the matter and select ‘Pin to top’. It will then stay at the very top of all correspondence in the matter as a handy reminder and reference tool.

By Lawyers love feedback from subscribers! If you have a suggestion or request, please don’t hesitate to get in contact: askus@bylawyers.com.au.

Costs agreements – All states

by

Enhanced automation of Costs agreements for LEAP users

As part of By Lawyers ongoing objective to provide seamless and intuitive entry of information in our precedents, the automation of all Costs agreements has been enhanced.

With the use of the ‘LEAP for Word’ add-in and the creation of new LEAP fields, the By Lawyers Costs agreements precedents now offer LEAP users the following features:

New Questions – LEAP for Word add-in

Intuitive questions for inserting applicable fee scale, fixed fee and initial amount to be held in trust. The questions appear in the LEAP for Word panel:

 

Simply complete the required information and click the ‘Update Document’ button for this information to populate in the correct location:

 

For further information on using the LEAP for Word add-in, see the document ‘Working with By Lawyers precedents’ available in Folder A on all By Lawyers Guides.

Hourly rates – New LEAP fields

When charging professional fees on an hourly rate, the rates for relevant staff members now populates automatically from the ‘Rates’ information completed for each staff member in the ‘Staff Members’ section of your firm setting:

Disbursements – New LEAP fields

The ‘Disbursements’ section now populates from the information completed in the ‘Disbursements’ tab within ‘Firm Details’:

 

Estimate of total professional fees and disbursements – New LEAP fields

The ‘Estimate of total professional fees and disbursements’ section now populates from the information completed in the ‘Accounting’ tab within ‘Matter details’ in each matter:

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions: askus@bylawyers.com.au.

Small business clients – FED

by

A folder of new precedents for clients who are commencing or operating small businesses has been added to all Purchase of Business, Companies and Partnerships guides.

The new library of precedents provides a suite of documents which practitioners can provide to their clients who own and operate small businesses, to assist them with the day-to-day running of their businesses. These documents can be provided to clients both when they are setting up or purchasing a new business and when required for existing businesses. The documents are general in nature so they can be customised and amended as required for the needs of different clients. The precedents are designed to apply across various sectors, whether traditional storefront retail or online and whether supplying products or services.

The helpful new precedents available in the folder include:

  • Website terms of use – multiple precedents catering for different types of small business;
  • Example tax invoice;
  • Credit application form;
  • Liability waiver and consent form; and
  • Returns and refunds policy.

Subscribers will find the new ‘If Required – Library of precedents for small business clients’ folder located in:

  • Purchase of Business matter plan for each state – in the Reference materials folder;
  • Companies matter plan – in folder D. Running a company; and
  • Partnerships matter plan – in folder B. Establishing a partnership.

This practical material was added to these existing By Lawyers publications in response to requests and suggestions from By Lawyers subscribers. The precedents provide practitioners with additional tools so they can better assist their clients with all aspects of their businesses.

Casual employment – FED

by

Recent amendments to the Fair Work Act

There is a new statutory definition of ‘casual employee’ from 27 March 2021. There is also an expanded statutory pathway for regular casual employees to convert their employment status to full time. Employers now have an obligation to offer permanent employment in certain circumstances.

Some relief has been granted to employers for underpayment claims from employees incorrectly classified as casual. This addresses instances of ‘double dipping’.

The Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Act 2021 has introduced significant amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 including:

Statutory definition

Section 15A provides that a person is a casual employee if they have been offered and have accepted employment on the basis that the employer gave ‘no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work according to an agreed pattern…’.

Conversion to permanent employment

Additionally, for casual employees who fall outside the modern award framework there is a statutory obligation for employers to offer conversion to full or part-time employment, unless there are reasonable business grounds not to do so. This does not apply to small business employers.

Casual Employment Information Statement

Employers must provide casual employees with a Casual Employment Information Statement, before, or as soon as practicable after, they start their employment. This is additional to the Fair Work Information Statement.

Off-setting casual loading to prevent ‘double-dipping’

Employers are provided with relief for underpayment claims from employees incorrectly classified as casual.

Regular casual employee

The previous definition of ‘long term casual’ is replaced with ‘regular casual employee’. The definition relates to the element of employment on a regular and systematic basis, but without any specific time requirement.

By Lawyers keeps you up to date

For further details see the By Lawyers Employment Law publication which has been updated accordingly.

Wills guide review – TAS

by

The continuing commitment of By Lawyers to updating and enhancing our publications has seen a Tasmanian Wills guide review completed.

Subscribers using this publication will find a re-ordered and extended matter plan, plus a revised and updated commentary.

The commentary revisions and enhancements arising from this Wills guide review include:

  • The Overview has been expanded and re-ordered;
  • Additional practical guidance added under the new heading ‘Taking instructions for wills’;
  • New commentary on testamentary capacity and the test set out in the leading case of Banks v Goodfellow (1870) LR 5 QB 549 at 565;
  • Enhanced commentary and links to legislative provisions regarding the formal requirements for a valid will;
  • Newly consolidated commentary under  new heading: Revocation, marriage, divorce and revival;
  • Expanded commentary on Informal wills, with links to cases;
  • Re-ordered section on the rules of succession on intestacy, with relevant links to the Intestacy Act 2010 and the Relationships Act 2003;
  • Expanded commentary on executors and trustees, including solicitors as executors;
  • New commentary section focusing on the requirements for valid execution of a will, including issues such as blind witnesses, gifts to witnesses, and solicitors as witnesses;
  • Extensive discussion of the law on challenges to the validity of a will;
  • A new section called Finalising the matter which emphasises the importance of terminating the retainer.

A new To Do List precedent has also been added to the matter plan, under Folder A. Getting the matter underway. The new precedent provides a checklist of all usual and necessary steps in the preparation of a will for a client. The To Do list will assist practitioners and their support teams with both workflow and risk-management.

Family law cases – FED

by

A number of recent family law cases have been added to 101 Family Law Answers.

These new family law cases are located in the following sections of this helpful reference manual:

Costs orders

For a discussion of interim lump sum payments see Russo and Russo & Ors [2020] FCWA 182 at [61]-[66].

Settlement offers

In Paradin & Paradin [2020] FamCAFC 245 an order that the husband pay the wife’s costs was set aside. The husband had rejected the wife’s Calderbank offer because it was ambiguous and was not specific as to breakdown of payments. Strickland J stated at [57]:

… I am reminded … of what the Full Court said in Pennisi, namely, it is critical to consider the context in which an offer is made … And, as was said by the Full Court in Cross & Beaumont [2008] FamCAFC 68 … at [51] that context can be that ‘[i]f the recipient of the offer is demonstrably unable to comply with his or her obligations under the proposed settlement, it is difficult to see how the offer could be relied upon in support of an application for costs’.

Contributions – Conduct and family violence

Benson & Drury [2020] FamCAFC 303 saw the Full Court dismiss an appeal by the de facto husband against a 5% adjustment in the de facto wife’s favour. The adjustment had been made due to the impact of family violence upon her contributions, based on the arguments raised in Kennon. However, the Full Court stated that the primary judge was in error for not considering the Kennon argument in a holistic way. At [35] they stated:

…The contributions which have been made significantly more arduous have to be weighed along with all other contributions by each of the parties, whether financial or non-financial, direct or indirect to the acquisition, conservation and improvement of property and in the role of homemaker and parent. All contributions must be weighed collectively and so it is an error to segment or compartmentalise the various contributions and weigh one against the remainder.

101 Family Law Answers is available as a related guide and also in the reference materials folder in all By Lawyers Family Law publications. It provides more detailed information and relevant family law cases. It is separated into the various Family Law matter types – Property Settlement, Children, Financial Agreements and Divorce. It also covers general procedural issues and the enforcement of orders.

Invoice recitals – All states

by

The precedent invoice recitals from the By Lawyers reference publication 101 Costs Answers have been added to various other matter plans. This makes an enormous amount of valuable, drafted By Lawyers content more readily available to all users.

The useful library of invoice recitals provides assistance to practitioners and support staff when preparing invoices in any matter. These recitals, which detail the work usually completed in a variety of matter types, are now available on each relevant matter plan. The appropriate recital appears directly below the invoice precedent.

Invoice recitals are provided for the following areas of law:

  • Conveyancing
  • Criminal
  • Employment
  • Enduring guardianship NSW
  • Estates
  • Family law
  • Injuries, works compensation, victims support
  • Insolvency
  • Leases
  • Mortgage
  • Power of attorney NSW
  • Retirement villages NSW
  • Sale and purchase of business
  • Security of payments NSW
  • Wills

101 Costs Answers is located in the Reference materials folder on every By Lawyers matter plan. It contains practical, detailed commentary on all aspects of legal costs and disbursements. It also contains fully compliant costs agreement precedents for all common areas of law.

Purchase of real property – TAS

by

The By Lawyers Purchase of real property guide for Tasmania has been reviewed and enhanced.

Enhancements resulting from this extensive review, which will assist Tasmanian property practitioners, include:

  • Various sections of commentary have been revised and re-ordered, to better reflect the usual flow of the purchase process.
  • The Matter plan now includes a separate section for Property Transfer Duty.
  • There are new and amended commentary headings, for improved searchability.
  • The commentary under the Property heading has been expanded to include a discussion of the various types of title.
  • Commentary under the Price and Taxes headings has been re-organised and expanded.
  • The coverage of Disclosure and Property Transfer Duty has been enhanced with references to the standard contract and common practice.
  • There is new commentary on the Submission of Transfer and Notice of Sale.
  • New commentary has been added on the specific stages of the settlement process for purchase of property.
  • All precedents have been reviewed and enhanced where necessary to reflect current practice.

Practitioners are also reminded of the Library of special conditions located on both the Sale of real property and Purchase of real property matter plans. These useful precedent clauses are located in Folder C. Contract and Folder D. Negotiations and exchange, respectively. This extensive library contains eighty drafted special conditions which can be cut and paste into the contract, either directly or with bespoke amendments, to suit the specific requirements of almost any transactions and circumstances.

This review is part of the continuing commitment of By Lawyers to updating and enhancing our publications to help our subscribers enjoy practice more.

Court books – All states

by

Court books are an indexed collection of all documents that the parties rely upon in proceedings, collated for convenience of use during a hearing. They are commonly used in all litigation matters and are compulsory in some courts, especially in specialist lists and on appeal.

A court book ordinarily includes all pleadings and evidence. It generally omits any irrelevant documents, even if they were disclosed in the proceedings. For example, a voluminous bundle of documents may have been produced under a subpoena issued by one of the parties in the lead-up to the hearing, but the party only seeks to rely on a few documents out of the bundle. The court book will contain the subpoena itself plus those relevant documents only.

A properly compiled and indexed court book allows solicitors, counsel and the bench to have a common reference point and easily navigate to relevant documents and issues as the hearing proceeds.

Two new precedents for creating court books have been added to every By Lawyers litigation guide in Australia.

The precedents Court book cover page and Court book index are customised for each court in each jurisdiction. They comply with each court’s requirements and will assist practitioners in compiling court books in all types of litigation.

 

Connect with us