Be precise when drafting wills

The recent case of In the Estate of Nies (deceased) [2014] SASC 93 considers the meaning of ‘children’ when referred to in a will. The will contained a fairly standard clause which provided that all of the deceased’s estate was given to “……..such of my children as shall survive me and if more than one […]

Client consent is not a cure for conflict ills

Some practitioners mistakenly assume, when acting for multiple parties in a matter, any conflict of interest concerns will be overcome by the clients’ consent to act. The requirements to obtain consent under rules 8.3 and 8.5 of the Professional Conduct and Practice Rules 2005 (the rules) do not trump a practitioner’s obligations to avoid conflicts […]

Updated audit checklist

Ensuring files are regularly audited is good risk management as well as good file management practice. It also means potential issues are resolved before a claim arises. The LPLC audit checklist has been available to help firms conduct their own audits since 2005 and has recently been updated.  It is designed to guide practitioners through […]

Family law, children and claims

Sometimes claims arise because the practitioner did not know the law or failed to check whether the law had changed. Family law is one of those areas which is subject to regular review and amendment and for this reason it always pays to double check. While LPLC does not get a large number of family […]

Responding to a subpoena for a client file

LPLC often receives queries from practitioners who have been served with a subpoena issued by a third party to produce a client file. The issues for practitioners are the file is ostensibly owned by the client, an ongoing duty of confidentiality is owed to the client and the client will usually have a claim for […]