ByLawyers News and Updates

NSW – Workers compensation – weekly benefits

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Injured workers in NSW who have been receiving weekly benefits for more than five years, risk losing their entitlement from September 2017 unless they can establish a whole permanent impairment of at least 21%.  This assessment can only be achieved by obtaining a Medical Assessment Certificate via the Workers Compensation Commission. Note this assessment cannot be obtained by agreement with the insurer.

Practitioners should be aware that these workers are being contacted by the insurers about this issue and may therefore contact their lawyer seeking advice. Funding for the provision of advice and medical assessment can be obtained from the Workers Compensation Independent Review office (WIRO).

NB: Injured workers and employers may also be contacted by insurers or icare to notify them of changes, as two insurance companies (CGU and QBE) are no longer providing claims service to workers compensation at 31 December 2017. This is a purely administrative change.

VIC – Emailing in the Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court (Chapter I Email Service Amendment) Rules 2017 which come into effect on 1 August 2017 requires parties in civil matters to include an email address for service in documents filed with the Court and provide that ordinary service may be effected by email to that address.

Documents are to be served either as attachments to a covering email or by including in the email an operative hyperlink to the documents being served.

Time management

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By Guy Dawson, CEO

 

 

Time is finite.
We all have the same quantity.
It cannot be enlarged or extended.
It is set and settled.

 

 

 

So the use of our time, effectively or clumsily, productively or wastefully, differentiates between good outcomes and modest ones. Many of us say: How can we do more when we work all day already? This fails to appreciate that it is the effective use of time, not just time spent, that counts.

So, the question is how to use time effectively?

Not surprisingly it starts with spending no time at all on work through automation.

Interactive data bases populating pre-written letters and documents with automatic entry of accounts to client ledgers. Sublime – concentrate on the law not the production. Introducing such a system is astonishingly time saving to those who have not experienced it before.

It progresses to introducing a system that provides direct access to information that may be needed to find an answer to a legal question or to a practice or procedural issue without any time spent looking for it. Information retrieval can be a major, time-consuming activity in all but the rote work in a practice, and even then there are occasions you need to look something up.

Having established a sewing machine system for handling matters, attention needs to be given to the time spent in communications with staff members, particularly in dealing with the many questions that arise each day such as customer complaints, wage increases and holiday rosters. By having in place a management system that deals with the various office policies and procedures, and that is accessible, and readily understood, by all staff is a major time saver. It also empowers staff members by providing them some independence.

The nature of legal practice is such that no one has the time to devote to administration unless it is critical. Despite good intentions the only consideration given to time usage is at best occasional, when forced on the principal, usually in situations such as a failure to meet a time constraint.

In a truly contradictory fashion time spent on the practice, which is largely seen as the most non-productive expenditure of time is in fact the most productive time saving activity of all!

Assets and liabilities list

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A new ‘tear off’ assets and liabilities list has been added to the retainer instructions Wills, powers of attorney precedent. This list may assist clients when they wish to provide more detail in their planning, as well retained by the client with their personal documents.

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