Dr Rishi Gulati discusses the potential impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the law of the international civil service, commonly known as international administrative law. Undoubtedly, the pandemic is having a serious impact on international organisations, staff members, consultants and contractors of international organisations, as well as other third parties associated with international organisations. Discussing case law from the various international administrative tribunals, Dr Gulati sheds light on the key legal issues that international organisations and their employees should take into account when making decisions pertaining to employee rights in times of great stress. If you would like access to the accompanying paper mentioned in this podcast, please contact Dr Gulati directly on rishi.gulati@vicbar.com.au 

Chris Oldham discusses Immigration Law and the entangling that can occur with other jurisdictions, most notably Criminal Law. He outlines sentencing and the relevant considerations that flow from visa cancellation or the risk of visa cancellations. He also discusses other forms of visa cancellations that may be worth considering for Criminal law practices and finishes off with outlining the risks of incorrectly filling out a passenger arrival card and considerations that may be undertaken for applicants or respondents in family violence intervention order applications. 

Philip Barton examines Co-ownership Disputes.  He commences with severance of joint tenancy and adverse possession between co-owners.  However, he focuses primarily on Part 4 of the Property Law Act which covers sale and division of co-owned land and goods. He covers central concepts, VCAT’s jurisdiction, grounds for refusing an order - in particular grounds based on contracts and trusts inconsistent with sale, aspects of orders for sale or physical division, and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and County Court.

Anna Parker discusses Drafting Affidavits in Family Law Matters. She outlines what an affidavit is and the importance of drafting a sound and relevant affidavit. She provides a detailed description of the applicable rules of evidence, and other tips and tricks in preparing such a document in order to positively assist a case rather than hindering it. 

Simon Tisher presents a State Taxation Update. He discusses the changes and activity which have taken place in Victorian State Taxation over the past few years, with several legislative amendments and numerous decisions from the Supreme Court and the VCAT. This episode is tailored to the small and medium enterprise market and Simon provides general observations about state taxation litigation; the legislative changes made in 2019 in relation to economic entitlements, fixtures and the land tax valuation of heritage buildings; the duty exemption from trusts to beneficiaries; land tax and the principal place of residence exemption, land tax exemptions for primary production land; foreign purchaser additional duty and lastly, the absentee owner land tax surcharge.

Anna Parker talks about Contravention Applications in Parenting Matters. She outlines the parenting regime provided for in the Family Law Act, the applicable remedies and penalties, and discusses what constitutes a ‘reasonable excuse’. Anna provides details and outlines points and principles when representing parties in contravention proceedings, including during such times as the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Emma Heggie discusses ideas for effective uses of technology for solicitors working in the current COVID-19 climate where social distancing and working from home are currently enforced by the Government. She outlines what technologies could be useful to solicitors working remotely and assisting clients to navigate the legal system in light of the new restrictions. She also provides insightful tips on making conferences, mediations and hearings run as smoothly as possible.   Practical checklists for remote working Home office: Have you checked that your… 1) data is regularly updated to the cloud or to an offsite location? 2) back up device is ready to go so if your primary device has an issue you can keep working? 3) software updates are under control? 4) home office has the capability to video conference, keeping in mind that many smart phones / tablets / laptops have a built in camera? 5) headphones / headset is available to keep freedom of movement while you are on a telephone or video conference? 6) home office matches the flow of your normal office as much as possible? Electronic briefs: Have you considered … 1) providing counsel with an electronic brief? 2) discussing the most efficient way to provide the brief with counsel to save time? 3) whether email is possible, or if the attachments are too cumbersome, using a file sharing service such as Dropbox, TA law, OneDrive, Google Docs or Sharepoint? 4) how the brief can be most easily updated, such as by using a file sharing platform as a single central location for all brief documents? 5) generating an index, such as one exported from your file management program, adapted from a court portal, or by the following file naming structure: YYYY-MM-DD [Document Title – including reference to any annexures] [Index number]? 6) bookmarking the PDF file, if all documents are provided as a single PDF file? 7) providing documents in a searchable PDF format or using OCR so they can be searched? File based work Have you considered whether … 1) clients would want to conduct a court event or ADR by video rather than facing delays? 2) a video conference (such as by Zoom) with the client and counsel ahead of an electronic court event or ADR would assist with building trust in the process? 3) in case of court events being unable to proceed by video, whether they would be suitable for mediation or arbitration? 4) some work can be brought forward now to avoid delays when face to face events resume? Some technology to consider: Videoconferencing / video calls Zoom (zoom.us and most app stores) Microsoft Teams (https://products.office.com/en-au/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software and most app stores) Google Hangouts (https://hangouts.google.com/ and most app stores) WhatsApp (most app stores) FaceTime (iPhones and iPads)   Productivity Scanning documents: CamScanner (most app stores) Team communication: Slack (most app stores) Workflows: Trello (most app stores) Checklists: Wunderlist (most app stores) Limiting time on non-work websites: StayFocusd (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji?hl=en) Notetaking: GoodNotes (most app stores) Annotating PDFs: LiquidText (most app stores)   Data backup / file sharing iCloud (https://www.icloud.com/) Google Drive (www.google.com/drive) Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) Microsoft OneDrive (https://support.office.com/en-au/onedrive) Microsoft SharePoint (https://products.office.com/en-au/sharepoint/collaboration)

Dr Ian Freckelton QC discusses disciplinary proceedings undertaken against legal and health practitioners before VCAT. He identifies that in such proceeding the stakes are high; claims made against a practitioner can have resounding effects on their reputation and commercial viability, their family life, and their physical and mental health.

Scott Cromb discusses a plan of attack when dealing with statutory demands. He first outlines what a statutory demand is and shares insights into the three key stages in the life of a statutory demand.

Glen Pauline discusses Franchising and focuses on the New Franchising Code of Conduct, some case law concerning breaches of the Code, and key take outs from those decisions.