Mar 19, 2015 –
Practitioners will be aware of the impending commencement of the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA)
and the repeal of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1986 (SA) (“the Current Act”).
This “Brave New World” starts on 1 July 2015.
Assessment
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May 14, 2014 –
There are many types of risks faced by law firms. Performing a self-audit of your firm's risk management
procedures and practices is an efficient way to determine your firm's professional risks.
Disaster can present in many forms and a contingency
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Apr 16, 2012 –
On 8 March, 2012 the Full Court (Justices Gray, Kourakis and Blue) unanimously dismissed an appeal from a decision of a Judge of the District Court refusing an application by the plaintiff for solicitor/client costs and interest on costs from the beg
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Dec 30, 2016 –
Congratulations! You have completed your academic qualifications and GDLP and are now perhaps looking to be admitted and practising law.
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May 1, 2008 –
Depression affects more than 800,000 Australians each year, and 1 in 5 persons in their lifetime (that is 1 in 4
women and 1 in 6 men). It will touch everyone either directly or indirectly. Depression reduces a person’s ability to
function in all a
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Mar 25, 2013 –
There has been another wave of attempts to elicit funds from trust accounts operated by legal practitioners. These attempts are nothing new to the Society and are on the increase.
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Aug 14, 2012 –
The impact of burn out and stress on practitioners can be substantial. Time constraints and deadlines, the
expectations of expertise, the pressures to put in long hours coupled with the adversarial nature of law practice
can take their toll.
Holid
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Oct 16, 2012 –
In an Audit Report for the period ended June 2011, the auditor notes that a practitioner had failed to make a required deposit to the Combined Trust Account (CTA) for the CTA period ended May 2011 and that no Notice of Withholding was provided to the
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Jun 24, 2014 –
From 1 July, costs law will be found in Schedule 3 of the Legal Practitioners Act. The new rules apply if a client first instructs a law practice on or after 1 July.
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Oct 16, 2016 –
The importance of making file notes is an oft-repeated topic in the Bulletin, yet Law Claims still regularly encounters difficulties in defending practitioners because critical advice provided to clients is not able to be proved to have been given du
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Apr 17, 2015 –
Adherence to time limits - both in relation to commencing proceedings and once proceedings are issued - is one of the most important areas of practice and one where the Courts are interpreting time limits more strictly than before.
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Mar 1, 2008 –
It has been just over a decade since Lawguard, Law Claims and the Law Society issued warnings and
recommendations about giving certificates in financial transactions. These warnings came as a result of a run of Cases, that highlighted the practical
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Mar 16, 2016 –
Practitioners will recall that in May 2016, in Attwells v Jackson Lalic Lawyers Pty Ltd
[2016] HCA 16, the High Court affirmed the basic tenets of the doctrine of advocate’s
immunity (as explained in Giannerelli v Wraith [1998] HCA 52 and D’Orta Ek
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Apr 14, 2016 –
It is common for solicitors to be instructed by third parties – most often accountants –
to prepare documents and/or act in transactions (or even litigation) on behalf of
clients. Whilst there is obviously nothing wrong with such arrangements of
t
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Jul 1, 2018 –
My office received a large number of complaints involving deceased estates. There are many reasons for them.
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Aug 25, 2014 –
I know what you're thinking: "Not another article on Fees and Billing! Haven't we just had one of those?" Well, yes, but it was nearly two years ago. Given the commencement of the substantial amendments to the Legal Practitioners Act 1981 (LPA) relat
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Feb 1, 2017 –
Several recent claims received at Law Claims have again underlined the crucial importance of being cautious and diligent in your everyday work. These claims, both against (different)
practitioners administering deceased estates resulted from mistake
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Jun 25, 2016 –
The Ethics and Practice Unit has become aware of a growing and worrying trend in Australia whereby emails between lawyers and clients are being intercepted and criminals (or "fraudsters") are impersonating the clients and authorising payments from th
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Dec 1, 2017 –
With people living longer, the issue
relating to a client’s capacity to give
instructions to make a Will has become a
more prevalent problem. Legal practitioners are having to keep up with medical developments on cognitive disabilities to be comfo
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Sep 12, 2011 –
The Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules are the culmination of work undertaken over a
period of two years by the Law Council of Australia and its constituent bodies to
develop a single, uniform set of Australian Solicitor’s Conduct Rules.
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Jun 6, 2012 –
Mark Livesey's recent Bulletin article (February 2012) on the obligation of solicitors to meet the fees of barristers engaged, properly identified how a failure to meet that obligation can undermine the easy and important relationship usually enjoyed
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Feb 14, 2014 –
When a claim is finalised, Law Claims asks the insured
practitioner to complete a questionnaire which
provides us with valuable feedback about many
issues.
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Nov 1, 2012 –
Fee disputes are more often than not a
trigger for a professional negligence
claim brought against practitioners.
Typically, the practitioner sues the client for
unpaid fees and is then met with a claim/
allegation of professional negligence.
I
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Oct 1, 2015 –
As practitioners would be well aware, the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”) allows persons in, or contemplating a marriage or a defacto relationship to
enter into agreements providing for the distribution of their assets in the event of the brea
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Jul 25, 2014 –
The provision contained in the Legal Practitioners (Miscellaneous) Amendment Act 1981 and the Legal Practitioners Regulations 2014 dame into force on 1 July 2014. Those provisions include new requirements for withdrawing money from trust on account o
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