LSB July 2022 LR

THE
BULLETIN
THE LAW SOCIETY OF SA JOURNAL
VOLUME 44 – ISSUE 6 – JULY 2022
IN THIS ISSUE
A week in the life of a
community lawyer
Lawyers who volunteer
Delivering legal
services in remote areas

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This issue of The Law Society of South Australia: Bulletin is
cited as (2020) 44 (6) LSB(SA). ISSN 1038-6777
CONTENTS
LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
6 A week in the life of a CLC lawyer
Q&A with Natalia Kasprzyk and
Alexandra Psarras
12 How a community legal network is
delivering legal services to hard-toreach
places – By Michelle Ford
18 Bridging community and law: The
role of the community lawyer
By Dharani Rana
19 Spreading the word: SA laws in 14
languages – By Gabrielle Canny
20 Giving back to the community: Two
lawyers explain why volunteering
means so much to them
&A with Alice Tester and Will Gray
31 Urgent investment needed for
important justice reinvestment
initiative – By The Hon Robyn Layton
AO QC
FEATURES & NEWS
22 Walk for Justice raises more than
$80,000 – By Rebecca Ross
24 Heading in a new direction? SA’s
change of position on rules of
construction – By David Kelly
30 An Analysis of the Law Society of
South Australia’s Cloud Computing
Guidelines: Resilience
By Mark Ferraretto
27 Lucinda Byers appointed Chief Legal
Officer of Legal Services Commission
REGULAR COLUMNS
4 From the Editor
5 President’s Message
10 Wellbeing & Resilience: Vicarious
trauma: Everyone’s problem
By Zoe Lewis
16 Young Lawyers: Event wrap-up:
Young Professionals Gala – By Daisy
McLeod, Meghan Fitzpatrick & Mikayla
Wilson
27 From the Conduct Commissioner:
Outgoing Commissioner outlines main
casues of complaints – By Greg May
28 Tax Files: Trust issues? There may be
a solution – By Briony Hutchens
32 Risk Watch: Need to know now?
“Last minute” is no excuse for lack of
clarity of instructions – By Grant Feary
34 Family Law Case Notes
By Craig Nichol & Keleigh Robinson
36 Bookshelf
37 Dialogue: A roundup of recent
Society meetings & conferences
By Rosemary Pridmore
38 Gazing in the Gazette
Compiled by Master Elizabeth Olsson
Executive Members
President:
J Stewart-Rattray
President-Elect: J Marsh
Vice President: A Lazarevich
Vice President: M Tilmouth
Treasurer:
F Bell
Immediate Past
President:
R Sandford
Council Member: M Mackie
Council Member: E Shaw
Metropolitan Council Members
T Dibden
M Tilmouth
A Lazarevich M Mackie
E Shaw
J Marsh
C Charles
R Piccolo
M Jones
G Biddle
Country Members
S Minney
(Northern and Western Region)
P Ryan
(Central Region)
J Kyrimis
(Southern Region)
Metropolitan Council Members
D Colovic E Fah
N Harb L MacNichol
L Polson M Young
KEY LAW SOCIETY CONTACTS
Chief Executive
Stephen Hodder
stephen.hodder@lawsocietysa.asn.au
Executive Officer
Rosemary Pridmore
rosemary.pridmore@lawsocietysa.asn.au
Chief Operations Officer
Dale Weetman
dale.weetman@lawsocietysa.asn.au
Member Services Manager
Michelle King
michelle.king@lawsocietysa.asn.au
Director (Ethics and Practice)
Rosalind Burke
rosalind.burke@lawsocietysa.asn.au
Director (Law Claims)
Kiley Rogers
krogers@lawguard.com.au
Manager (LAF)
Annie MacRae
annie.macrae@lawsocietysa.asn.au
Programme Manager (CPD)
Natalie Mackay
Natalie.Mackay@lawsocietysa.asn.au
THE BULLETIN
Editor
Michael Esposito
bulletin@lawsocietysa.asn.au
Editorial Committee
A Bradshaw P Wilkinson
S Errington D Sheldon
J Arena A Douvartzidis
C Borello B Armstrong
D Misell M Ford
The Law Society Bulletin is published
monthly (except January) by:
The Law Society of South Australia,
Level 10-11, 178 North Tce, Adelaide
Ph: (08) 8229 0200
Fax: (08) 8231 1929
Email: bulletin@lawsocietysa.asn.au
All contributions letters and enquiries
should be directed to
The Editor, The Law Society Bulletin,
GPO Box 2066,
Adelaide 5001.
Views expressed in the Bulletin
advertising material included are
not necessarily endorsed by The
Law Society of South Australia.
No responsibility is accepted by the
Society, Editor, Publisher or Printer
for accuracy of information or errors
or omissions.
PUBLISHER/ADVERTISER
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3/288 Glen Osmond Road
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Ph: (08) 8233 9433
Email: admin@boylen.com.au
Studio Manager: Madelaine Raschella
Elliott
Layout: Henry Rivera
Advertising
Email: sales@boylen.com.au
Junior Members
A Douvartzidis
A Kenny
Programme Manager (GDLP)
Desiree Holland
Desiree.Holland@lawsocietysa.asn.au
Ex Officio Members
The Hon K Maher, Prof V Waye,
Prof T Leiman
Assoc Prof C Symes

FROM THE EDITOR
Highlighting the amazing work of
lawyers who serve the community
MICHAEL ESPOSITO, EDITOR
Popular media representations of
lawyers seem to either fall into two
camps. The generous portrayal of a
swashbuckling champion of the underdog,
or the self-involved mercenary who has
no regard for fair play. In both cases, onscreen
lawyers’ lives are often portrayed as
glamorous.
The reality is a little different. Most
lawyers are hard-working, diligent
practitioners who are not living jet-setting
lifestyles. And those who are fierce
advocates for the rights of the vulnerable
are not doing it for the money!
In this edition, we want to highlight
those lawyers who, day in day out, go in to
bat for the vulnerable, the disenfranchised,
the frightened. We speak to Natalia
Kasprzyk from Community Justice
Services SA and Alexandra Psarras from
Women’s Legal Service (SA) about what it
is like to work as a lawyer in a community
legal centre, while Dharani Rana explains
her role as a community lawyer focussing
on homelessness with JusticeNet SA.
We also have a feature on Alice Tester
and Will Gray, two private lawyers who
give back to the community through
extraordinary volunteer efforts.
Michelle Ford, managing lawyer at
WestSide Lawyers, who writes about the
National Regional, Rural, Remote and
Very Remote Community Legal Network,
which comprises about 40 legal service
organisations across Australia and has a
mission to enhance access to justice in
areas that typically lack the infrastructure
for people to readily access legal services.
Another fantastic initiative is
Tiraapendi Wodli, the justice reinvestment
hub in Port Adelaide which delivers
community programs led by leaders in
the Aboriginal community with the aim
to reduce Indigenous youth incarceration
rates. This is a really important service that
needs extra funding to continue and build
on its great work.
This is just a tiny sample of the
members of the legal community who
work tirelessly to help those who need
it most. It was a privilege to hear these
lawyers share their stories and give readers
insight into the amazing work they do, and
the impact their work has. B
Accessible courtroom requests
in the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has provided an
update on the process for allocating
accessible courtrooms.
Where a person involved in a case
being heard in the Supreme Court makes
an accessibility request for a hearing, the
Court will list the matter in an appropriate
courtroom and source any equipment
required for the hearing (where possible).
The allocation of appropriate courtrooms
is best managed where the request is made
at least 24 hours in advance of the hearing.
Where an accessibility requirement is
not known in advance of a hearing and
chambers staff become aware of the
requirement, efforts can be made relist the
matter in an appropriate courtroom (if
available).
Civil and probate
Parties to proceedings who have
CourtSA access are able to request
assistance for a hearing via the Hearings tab
on CourtSA. The assistance options are:
• Appearing by phone;
• Appear by audio visual link;
• An interpreter; or
• Any other request.
When selected, the “Another request”
option provides a free-text field for the
user to enter the assistance requested
(i.e., hearing loop, wheelchair accessible
courtroom, etc).
Information on how to make these
requests is available at Hearings | CourtSA.
(https://courtsa.courts.sa.gov.
au/?q=node/492).
Alternatively, parties without CourtSA
access, non-parties, or the public can
contact the Supreme Court Registry to
make a request.
Criminal
Requests for assistance in criminal
hearings can be made via email (preferred)
or telephone to the Supreme Court
Registry.
It is anticipated that when CourtSA
goes live in the criminal jurisdiction,
accessibility requests will be able to be made
via the portal in a similar manner to that
described above for the civil jurisdiction.
REGISTRY CONTACT DETAILS
Supreme Court (Civil)
CAAPMSupremeCourtCivil
Registry@courts.sa.gov.au
8204 2444
Supreme Court (criminal)
CAAPMHigherCourtClient
ServicesCAA@courts.sa.gov.au
8204 2444 B
4
THE BULLETIN July 2022

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Community engagement an
important part of what we do
JUSTIN STEWART-RATTRAY, PRESIDENT
The legal profession has a proud
history of helping the community.
The principles of justice and equality
that form the basis of legal education
seem to engender a sense of duty and
responsibility to the wider community,
which is why we see many lawyers engage
in significant pro bono work, or use their
qualifications and experience in numerous
volunteer roles.
The Law Society itself also has had a
strong community focus throughout its
history.
In addition to its key function
to represent the interest of the legal
profession and uphold the integrity
of the profession, its formal objects
include undertaking community
education concerning the law and the
legal profession, undertaking activities
designed to improve access to justice, and
advocating strongly and publicly for the
maintenance and protection of legal rights
and freedoms.
The Society is involved in a number of
community-facing activities, some more
widely known than others.
One of the lesser-known services
is the Speaker’s Bureau. Community
organisations are able to make a request to
the Society for a speaker, and the Society
will try to find a suitable speaker for that
organisation’s event.
The Speaker’s Bureau serves a
number of purposes – it is a way for the
profession to educate the community
about important legal issues, it boosts
the profile of the profession, and gives
lawyers valuable and rewarding experience
in a public speaking role.
Anyone that is interested in nominating
as a speaker can contact the Society at
mcs@lawsocietysa.asn.au.
Some of the more visible community
services are the See a Lawyer and
Advisory services.
The Society administers an advisory
service where members of the public can
book a 20-minute consult for $35 (or $25
for concession) with a suitable lawyer. This
is a highly valuable community service
as sometimes all it takes is 20 minutes
with the right lawyer to help someone
clarify what their next steps should be in
resolving a legal issue.
Similarly, the See a Lawyer service is
an online tool that helps connect people
with a suitable lawyer. The reason why this
is such a highly used service is that the
Law Society is a trusted organisation and
individuals have confidence that the Law
Society’s service will help them find the
right law practice for them.
In exciting news, we are in the
process of significantly upgrading our
See a Lawyer service to make it easier for
people to search for a suitable lawyer. The
new tool will allow users to enter in any
search term (eg “child custody”; “Centrelink
payments”) rather than select the area of law
their issue pertains to, although there will
remain the option to search by area of law.
This is a far more user-friendly format
designed to be simple to navigate and
understand.
The service will also have a new
accessibility feature, which will allow
people with disability to indicate any
access requirements they may have, and
filter their search to law firms that can
accommodate their needs.
Another important role which impacts
the community is our advocacy. Although
we advocate on behalf of the legal
profession, what we advocate for generally
has benefit for the community.
As a recent example, President-Elect
James Marsh recently stood in for me
at short notice to speak on a Panel at a
public forum in the Town Hall on the
implementation and regulation of facial
recognition technology.
With SA Police announcing they
are rolling out facial technology in the
Adelaide CBD, the Society strongly
advocated for there to be legislative
protections to ensure that members of
the public were not subject to intrusions
of their privacy and any surveillance
technology was governed by strict rules
that make authorities accountable for how
they use the technology.
Another example of important
advocacy work is the recent proposed
reforms to the workers’ compensation
scheme. Despite the lack of consultation
from the Government, the Society prepared
a detailed submission outlining the potential
effects on the Bill on injured employees.
The Bill was subsequently withdrawn and
a new version introduced, and the Society
once again, with large thanks to the work
of the Accident Compensation Committee,
put together a comprehensive submission
which was guided by the overarching
principle that our workers’ compensation
scheme should exist first and foremost to
protect South Australian workers.
Lastly, an announcement on two
upcoming events.
The Society will be holding a quiz night
later in the year. It promises to be a great
night, and it will be the main fundraiser for
the President’s Charity Partner, The Heart
Foundation. More details coming soon.
And I’m excited to be hosting the
Legal Profession Dinner on Friday, 19
August at Adelaide Oval, with renowned
tennis coach Roger Rasheed as the special
guest. To register for this special event,
contact mcs@lawsocietysa.asn.au. I look
forward to seeing you all there. B
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 5

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
A week in the life of a CLC lawyer
campaign has been launched by the
A Australian Services Union in Victoria
calling for greater State and Federal
Government funding to create better
working conditions for community legal
centre (CLC) staff.
But these issues are not peculiar to
Victoria. Staffing has been an issue in
CLCs across Australia, including SA. Not
only are CLC staff generally paid less
than their counterparts in other sectors,
but staff have to deal with extremely high
caseloads, meaning they often cannot give
each case the attention it deserves.
In SA, a number of CLCs are having
difficulties recruiting and retaining
staff, and this has been exacerbated by
COVID-19 which has not only increased
demand for CLC services, but led to
rolling staff shortages.
The most vulnerable people in the
community are seriously disadvantaged
by an under-resourced CLC sector, and
it is essential that the State and Federal
Government ensure these services are
adequately funded so that people who
have legal issues that could jeopardise
their livelihoods or safety have access to
legal help.
To demonstrate the essential work
of community legal centres, we spoke
to two people about what it’s like to be a
community lawyer.
NATALIA KASPRZYK, SENIOR SOLICITOR &
PROGRAM COORDINATOR (FLAGS)
AT COMMUNITY JUSTICE SERVICES SA
What kinds of legal issues do you
assist people with?
Community Justice Services SA
provides advice and representation to
those who require assistance with legal
issues stemming from minor indictable
criminal matters and minor civil disputes
to issues stemming from separation.
I am employed as senior solicitor
and program coordinator of Family
Law Guidance and Advocacy Services
(“FLAGS”), a new program of
Community Justice Services SA that
specialises family law and provides
representation for those requiring
ongoing-assistance with property
settlements and disputes regarding
children’s care arrangements.
What might a typical week look
like for you?
Community Justice Services SA allows
for flexible workplace arrangements. As
such, I am able to perform my full-time
role (38 hours a week) by working from
8am to 6pm, Monday to Thursday.
When I worked under the generalist
section of Community Justice Services
SA, a typical week would consist of me
seeing 5-7 new clients daily for advice
only appointments (1 hour at a time)
amongst various court attendances,
ongoing work on open files, CPDs, general
administration and 8-10 cups of coffee.
Working for FLAGS, the only change is
amount of clients I see weekly which has
changed to approximately 6-8.
How do you determine whether a
person is eligible for assistance, and
what kind of assistance they need?
At Community Justice Services SA,
everyone is entitled to free advice and
appointments can be made by contacting
the Service directly.
For clients seeking ongoing assistance
and/or representation in the areas we give,
we have eligibility criteria the client must
meet to obtain our free service. These
criteria include, but are not limited to,
means, merit and complexity. We have a
guideline when it comes to the income
a client (individually and jointly with a
dependent) can earn and still use our
service, whether this is in combination
with Centrelink payments or not, and is
weighed up against the client’s expenses.
When it comes to merit, the client’s
position in the matter must have some
likelihood of success. We can also apply
other discretionary criteria to help us
determine whether a particular client
needs assistance with negotiations and/or
court representation where, for example,
English is not the client’s first language,
the client suffers from mental health issues
that prohibit them self-representing, the
client is a victim of domestic violence
and they cannot directly liaise with a legal
matter against their abuser.
The purpose of FLAGS is to assist
those who cannot be assisted with family
law matters under the generalist funding,
i.e. their income falls outside of the
eligibility criteria and/or their matter is
quite complex. We can also apply other
discretionary criteria to help us determine
whether a particular client needs
assistance with negotiations and/or court
representation.
What are the demographics of your
client base?
Community Justice Services SA
provides services to persons living south
of Adelaide, including Marion, Victor
Harbor, Kangaroo Island, as well the
Limestone Coast and extending to the
Riverland. The scope of our ongoing
assistance is subject to eligibility for those
already ineligible for or have been refused
legal aid who cannot afford to engage or
continue to pay a private solicitor.
Have you noticed any trends with
regards to the type of issues people are
6
THE BULLETIN July 2022

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
seeking assistance with, the volume of
people seeking assistance, and/or the
complexity of the work involved?
I haven’t been able to identify any
trends, per say, however I have noticed
the complexity of matters has increased
in recent years. In family law matters, the
prevalence of domestic violence, increased
use of illicit substances and mental health
concerns contribute to the complexity of
family law matters. Social factors such as
these, collectively and individually, have
always been a feature of some separations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased
the frequency of matters that involve these
factors which can, in turn, increase the
complexity of the legal issues at hand.
Apart from COVID-19, has anything
else contributed to the increased
demand in CLC services?
As the Service and its reputation has
grown over time, community members are
now aware of our presence and the scope
of our services. I see that more and more
people who are not eligible for legal aid
seek assistance with their civil disputes and
representation with their family disputes
and criminal matters.
Do you find you have to turn some
people away due to lack of resources?
If so, do you know approximately how
many you have to turn away, and do
you try to direct them towards other
avenues they could pursue?
We try not to turn people away due to
a lack of resources and instead find key
referrals so they can still be supported.
However, our resources are limited and
we cannot help everyone even when they
may meet our criteria. There are some
areas of assistance such a personal injury,
victims of crime, Workcover or intellectual
property that the Service is not funded
to provide advice about and in those
instances, clients are referred to private
practitioners at the time they enquire for
an appointment with the Service. Then
there are matters in which we may provide
general advice to clients but refer to
other community-based services which
are funded to provide specialised advice
and ongoing assistance, for example
employment law (youth), family mediation
and legal advice clinics for assistance with
minor civil claims. In matters where we
are providing assistance, if an issue arises
concerning the client’s ongoing merit
comes into question, for example, their
position becomes untenable and they
refuse reasonable advice going forward,
we have to re-assess their eligibility for
continuing assistance.
Can you talk about the kind of impact
your service has on vulnerable clients?
The common denominator amongst
our diverse clients relates to finances –
they all cannot afford private solicitor fees.
As such, by the time they find out about
and engage with our service, they will have
already faced this obstacle in their pursuit
to access justice. On top of this, some are
struggling with their mental health, fleeing
a dangerous situation at home, are at risk
of homelessness, or have prejudice to the
legal system from past experiences. Most
legal proceedings take time and keeping a
client engaged and focused is not easy, let
alone when they are experiencing some
or all of the above issues. However, it is
extremely rewarding to see your client
come out the other side, happy with the
outcome we were able to get for them.
One example I can think of is a client
who lived in a remote regional town. This
client found themselves in a dispute with
their former partner over the ongoing care
of their young children.
There was history of domestic violence
between the parties and ongoing drug
abuse as well as neglect of the children.
This client was not eligible for legal aid and
could not afford a private lawyer. CJSSA
was the only resource available to this client
and, after almost three years in the Court
system, we helped this client retain primary
care of the children and remove them from
a negative environment on a final basis.
How are people directed towards your
services? Do you find that the majority
of people who need legal assistance
know where to go, or have you found
there is a significant lack of awareness
about CLCs and who people should
contact for suitable legal assistance?
Community Justice Service SA has
existed in the community (in one form
or another) for almost 40 years. Locally,
we are well known by other services and
private practitioners in the southern area.
We have a well-resourced website and
social media presence on LinkedIn and
Facebook. Despite this, there is still a
significant lack of awareness about CLCs
in the professions in SA. People seem to
think there is Legal Aid and then that’s it,
there’s no other way to get free assistance.
Alternatively, some people think we are a
part of the Legal Services Commission. As
our presence expands (with programs like
Bushfire Community Legal Program and
FLAGS) clients and practitioners alike will
become more aware of our service, what
we actually do and first-time clients will
stop asking whether we are “real” lawyers
or not.
Have there been any initiatives at
your CLC to enhance access to legal
services?
We have made applications for
additional funding grants to get more
solicitors and more specialised programs
so that we can extend our ability to assist
people accessing legal services.
In recent years, we have re-designed
our website so more information is
available to clients, and they can make
appointments online. We have gained a
bigger presence on social media (Facebook
and LinkedIn) to build awareness of our
place in the legal sector.
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 7

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
QUESTIONS – BULLETIN ARTICLE RE CLCS
ALEXANDRA PSARRAS – SENIOR SOLICITOR,
WOMEN’S LEGAL SERVICE (SA)
PROGRAM – TEMPORARY VISA HOLDERS
EXPERIENCING VIOLENCE
What kinds of issues does the
Women’s legal Service (SA) assist
people with?
We assist women with a wide range of
legal issues including immigration, family
law, minor criminal law, intervention order
matters, and general advocacy.
What might a typical week look like for
you?
I work within a specialist program at
the Women’s Legal Services SA, which
assists women on temporary visas Holders
Experiencing Violence. Therefore, my role
includes not only meeting with clients and
representation work but also stakeholder
engagement meetings, community legal
education workshops, and research.
I am most passionate about
community legal education and
strategizing different ways we can meet
with community groups and leaders,
stakeholders and organisations who can
potentially benefit from our services. This
is because community legal education
allows us to increase the capacity of
women to make informed choices about
their own lives and that of their children.
Having the information up front allows
women to reach out for assistance from
services like ours and other community
services when they are in need.
A typical week for me is very hectic.
I am not only dealing with my own
caseload, but I also need to be able to
respond to walk-ins and callers on the
intake line. We average over 100 phone
calls each week for legal assistance. I also
have to juggle, in between all of this,
meetings with stakeholders, administrative
tasks and assisting junior solicitors.
Sometimes I am not sure how I manage to
survive the week!
How do you determine whether a
person is eligible for assistance, and
what kind of assistance they need?
First, we meet with or talk to the
client over the phone to determine what
their legal issues are. At this first meeting
may make also provide referrals to the
Red Cross for financial support where
possible and other non-legal services
where necessary. Following the initial
appointment, the client’s matter is then
assessed against our merit criteria. If a
woman is successful in receiving ongoing
legal representation, we provide legal
assistance free of charge up to and
including trial or AAT appearances.
What are the demographics of your
client base?
30-39, separated, single parents and
experiencing violence. Predominantly
seeing trends of clients from India, Iran,
Africa and surrounding countries in my
program but Women’s Legal Service SA
has a diverse range of clients. Our clients:
• Range from 15 years old to 82 years of
age,
• 10 per cent of our clients identify as
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
• 10 per cent live in outer regional or
remote areas of SA (500+ women)
• 20 per cent are living with a disability or
mental health issue
• 20 per cent are homeless
• 65 per cent are victims of domestic/
family violence
Have you noticed any trends with
regards to the type of issues people are
seeking assistance with, the volume people
seeking assistance, and/or the complexity
of the work involved?
The most common legal issues
are immigration and family law and in
both areas of law the complexities are
magnified by factors such as:
• family violence,
• lack of access to safe housing and
accommodation,
• lack of access to financial resources or
assistance,
• trauma and associated mental health
issues,
• lack of knowledge of their rights in
Australia, and
• limited access to interpreters.
Unfortunately, the reality for many of
the women who access our services and
for women in my program, COVID-19
and the economic pressures that are
being experienced by many families, have
exacerbated family violence. With so
much uncertainty women are reluctant
to seek help or go back to abusive
relationships because of lack of finances
and/or accommodation. I expect that
the situation will only become worse as
housing affordability and the cost-ofliving
increases.
In addition, many of the clients
who access my service have multiple
legal issues in addition to the usual
challenges of finding safe and affordable
accommodation and obtaining financial
assistance because many of my clients
have no source of income and are
ineligible for government assistance. It is
not uncommon for the women to have 2,
3 or even 4 legal matters that need to be
addressed simultaneously.
8
THE BULLETIN July 2022

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
What do you think are the main factors
contributing to the types of problem
women experience when they come to
you for help?
It is more difficult for temporary
visa holders to access financial help and
housing and accommodation due to their
visa status which does contribute to their
increased vulnerability and the ability
for perpetrators of violence to continue
to abuse these women. COVID-19 also
did and continues to provide a legitimate
excuse for perpetrators of violence to
use when attempting to isolate victims
and their children. As such the challenge
for women seeking assistance from us is
that the current external environment has
created the perfect storm with regards to
increasing their level of vulnerabilities.
I must admit at this point, that we have
been fortunate that women who access our
services are also able to access non-legal
supports within the organization. We have
financial counsellors, family advocates
and will have on board within the next
few weeks, mental health specialists to
assist our clients as they navigate the legal
system. Without the support of these
specialist services it would be difficult to
manage the complexities of our clients
legal and non-legal needs.
Do you find you have to turn some
people away due to lack of resources?
If so, do you know approximately how
many you have to turn away, and do
you try to direct them towards other
avenues they could pursue?
The reality for a service like ours,
and my program which has only two
solicitors working within it, is that demand
far outstrips our resources. We have on
average between 2,000 to 2,500 women
reach out to us each year seeking help. The
sad reality is that we can only help about
15 per cent of the women who contact
us. Therefore 85 per cent of women are
not able to obtain legal help from us. We
refer women to legal assistance providers
like ours and to private legal practitioners
where it is appropriate to do so. We also
provide over 4,000 referrals to community
services, and government agencies.
What are some of the ways that
Women’s Legal Service (SA) has a
positive impact on women?
We have already had a few women
who have successfully obtained permanent
residency through our program. We
have assisted most in providing further
documentation or information where
possible to apply for either permanent
residency or a new temporary visa which
have either been successful or are being
assessed. In relation to family law matters
we have assisted women in relation to
children’s issues and a small amount of
property matters.
For our clients the main feeling they
would experience is relief. Living in limbo
and not knowing whether they can stay
in Australia and whether they would be
able to continue to be in their children’s
lives due to their immigration status has
a massive burden on their emotional
wellbeing. Many of our clients come from
countries where it is not safe for them
or their children to return to, as such any
help to assist them in remaining in safety
where they do not live in constant fear has
a profound impact on their lives and the
lives and futures of their children.
How are people directed towards your
services? Do you find that the majority
of people who need legal assistance
know where to go, or have you found
there is a significant lack of awareness
about CLCs and who people should
contact for suitable legal assistance?
There are many referral pathways to
accessing our service. For my program
clients are usually referred to us through:
• Red Cross Australia
• domestic violence services and
• other community services.
We find that awareness of Women’s
Legal Service SA and the services we
provide is increasing, however, we
recognise that we do need to continue to
work hard in maintaining relationships
with external stakeholders and community
groups so as to raise awareness. For the
women who access my program they are
often surprised by the fact that there is
free legal help available.
I do feel that in South Australia there
needs to be greater awareness about
community legal centers and the role that
we provide in helping the community. It is
very easy to get in contact with us and we
encourage everyone to reach out and ask
questions if you are unsure as to whether
we can help a woman.
Have there been any initiatives at
your CLC to enhance access to legal
services?
Because we are a state-wide service, we
have an extensive outreach calendar that
covers over 13 different locations across
South Australia. We also provide free
community legal education workshops to
community organisations and community
groups. We are always exploring new ways
of increasing access to legal help for as
many women as possible.
One initiative that we are proud of is
the “Ask MARIA” app which is an app
that provides general information on a
wide range of issues including finance,
housing, immigration and respectful
relationships in nine different languages.
The app is unique because it allows
women to obtain information in audible
form. This is really useful because there
is a significant cohort of women who are
not literate in their own language. This
app allows women to be able to access the
information they need and to link in with
services in their own regional areas. B
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 9

WELLBEING & RESILIENCE
Vicarious trauma: Everyone’s problem
ZOE LEWIS, WELLBEING & RESILIENCE COMMITTEE
It is easy to say that employees should
safeguard their own mental (and
physical) health through the adoption
of healthy habits, such as adequate
sleep and exercise. However, employers
cannot escape the fact that they too are
responsible for this safeguarding. The High
Court has recently made this clear in the
case of Kozarov v Victoria. 1
Although the four separate judgments
follow different lines of reasoning, one
theme is common: employers must give
genuine consideration to the mental
wellbeing of their staff in order to avoid
potential liability for psychiatric injury.
This case related to Ms Kozarov, an
employee of the Specialist Sexual Offences
Unit (SSOU) of the Victorian Office of
Public Prosecutions (OPP). She was a
recently admitted solicitor and her work
routinely involved engaging with survivors
of trauma and exposure to descriptions and
depictions of their traumatic experiences.
After working in this role for a while,
she was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) resulting from
vicarious trauma related to her employment
and was later diagnosed with Major
Depressive Disorder (MDD) as well. Ms
Kozarov pursued a claim on the basis of
the negligent failure of her employer to
prevent psychiatric injury to her while she
was working in the SSOU.
There are some differences of opinion
between the various judgments as to when
and how the employer’s duty of care arose,
and what actions constituted a breach
of that duty. On the one hand, it was
considered that, given the nature of the
work (which included carefully reviewing
graphic material such as child pornography),
a duty arose as soon as the person
commenced employment and was breached
as soon as the employer failed to respond to
signs of adverse psychiatric impact.
There were considered to be many
signs that Ms Kozarov was experiencing
work-related PTSD. These included
the fact that she raised concerns in
staff meetings about how her work was
impacting on her as a mother, such as
making her feel paranoid about leaving her
children in anyone else’s care due to the
risk of abuse. She signed a staff memo
which raised concern about caseloads and
experiences of stress. She tried to refuse to
take on an additional case but was assigned
the matter anyway, despite its horrific
content. She also left work one day due to
dizziness and then commenced a period
of two weeks sick leave.
Some of the High Court judges
thought however that these warning signs
weren’t even a necessary factor but that
the employer was obligated to take active
steps to protect the psychiatric health of
Ms Kozarov and her colleagues because
of the circumstances of this particular
type of employment. On this view, the
work to be performed was inherently and
obviously dangerous to the psychiatric
health of the employee and therefore the
employer was duty-bound to be proactive
in the provision of measures to enable the
work to be safely performed.
Some of the Justices were at pains
to clarify the interpretation of the earlier
case of Koehler 2 , in particular, to make clear
that it was not necessary for the employee
to show that there were evident signs
of adverse impact on her mental health.
Instead, it was enough that the employer
had failed to provide a safe system of work,
and that this failure caused the exacerbation
and prolongation of her PTSD and
subsequent development of MDD.
The reality is that working as a lawyer
might mean that vicarious trauma is
inevitable. This is perhaps most obvious
for those working in criminal law matters,
as was the case for Ms Kozarov, but is
also true of many areas of law, including
family and personal injury. Employers and
employees alike must be vigilant about the
inherent risks of the work being done and
the need to have preventative measures in
place, as well as strategies for dealing with
psychiatric injury which is not successfully
prevented.
Clearly this is not just something
for employees to manage via self-care
strategies. Instead, employers need to
consider practices such as adequate
staffing to prevent overwork or burnout
and rotation of work to give people a
break from distressing content.
What is Vicarious Trauma?
Vicarious Trauma (VT) is “the negative
transformation in the helper that results
(across time) from empathic engagement
with trauma survivors and their traumatic
material, combined with a commitment
or responsibility to help them”. 3 Or, put
simply, “being traumatised by what we see
10
THE BULLETIN July 2022

WELLBEING & RESILIENCE
and observe” 4 . The greater our exposure
to traumatic material, the greater our risk
of experiencing VT.
What does VT look like?
Common signs include:
• Avoiding certain files or clients
• Engaging in risk-taking behaviour
• Insomnia
• Withdrawing from others
• Nightmares
• Fear about safety of self or others
• Irritability
• Emotional numbness.
It can lead to long-term issues
including changes to our core beliefs about
ourselves, others and the world around us. 5
What are some ways we can we change
our work environment to reduce the
risk and impact of VT?
• Limit the frequency of exposure to
traumatised clients where possible
• Implement systems and procedures for
dealing with trauma in the workplace
• Provide formal training in dealing with
trauma survivors
• Establish a culture which encourages
debriefing in an emotionally honest
manner
• Mark files with a content warnings and
restrict access
• Set limits on how much time is spent
working on a file at a time and take
breaks
• Avoid taking such files home and
where possible create physical
boundaries in the hope that this creates
some mental space from the content
when engaging in other activities 6
Endnotes
1 [2022] HCA 12.
2 Koehler v Cerebos (Australia) Ltd (2005) 222 CLR 44.
3 Pearlman and Caringi, 2009, 202-203 from
https://professionals.blueknot.org.au/
supervision-and-practice/.
4 https://nswbar.asn.au/docs/webdocs/
vicarious.pdf
5 https://nswbar.asn.au/docs/webdocs/
vicarious.pdf
6 https://nswbar.asn.au/docs/webdocs/
vicarious.pdf
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LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
HOW A COMMUNITY LEGAL NETWORK
IS DELIVERING LEGAL SERVICES TO
HARD-TO-REACH PLACES
MICHELLE FORD, MANAGING LAWYER, WESTSIDE LAWYERS
Non-profit legal services play
an important role in helping
disadvantaged and vulnerable members of
the community obtain access to justice. This
is particularly important in regional, remote
and rural and very remote areas where
access to legal services is extremely limited.
Providing an effective legal service
in country areas comes with many
challenges. For this reason, in April this
year Community Legal Centres Australia
initiated a national network to bring
together community legal workers to
foster collaboration and support between
rural, regional, remote and very remote
legal communities, to share resources
and knowledge and seek to increase the
availability and access to legal services
within RRRR communities.
The network has adopted the name
“The National Regional, Rural, Remote and
Very Remote (RRRR) Community Legal
Network” and currently has around 40
members from across Australia.
This article seeks to raise awareness of
the types of services that are available in
RRRR communities, the challenges faced
by members of these communities in
accessing justice, and the impact of those
challenges on the community.
Who Are We? What Do We Do?
As an insight into who we are, how we
help RRRR communities achieve access
to justice, and some of our hopes and
challenges, we are sharing with you some
member accounts.
Anne Lewis is the Director of the North
Queensland Women’s Legal Service
(NQWLS). She has worked in Community
Legal Centres in North Queensland since
1992 and has advocated for increased
access to justice for vulnerable people
living in rural, regional and remote
areas through increased resources for
Community Legal Centres (‘CLCs’) as a
key part of her work.
NQWLS has offices in Townsville
and Cairns and assists women living in
RRRR communities, from Sarina in Central
Queensland to the Torres Strait in the north
and west to the Northern Territory border.
NQWLS provides legal advice,
casework assistance and representation
in the areas of family law, domestic
and family violence, migration, child
protection, sexual assault, human rights
and discrimination, and Victim Assist.
They also deliver and develop CLE
resources and undertake law reform work.
Legal information, resources and referrals
can be provided in any area of law.
Anne has witnessed first-hand the
challenges for women living in RRRR
communities across the top half of
Queensland, and suspects those challenges
are similar to those faced by people living in
RRRR communities right across Australia.
The vast majority of women who
seek help from NQWLS as a specialist
women’s legal service are impacted by
domestic or family violence and need legal
help and a range of supports to escape
violence and find safety for themselves
and their children.
Services needed by women living in
RRRR communities are often scant or nonexistent
in some places and every free legal
and support service is stretched to capacity
and then some. Responding to domestic
violence and rebuilding lives after trauma
and family breakdown requires an integrated
community response which can offer wraparound,
trauma-informed services.
Increased training about the ‘why’ and
the ‘how’ and the social benefits of holistic
service delivery options, is an ongoing need
for service providers across the justice
Bushfire Community Legal Program solicitor Holly
McCoy outside the Parndana (KI) Recovery Centre in
December 2020.
system, for police, the courts, lawyers, for
community support networks and for the
public. Education will support change.
NQWLS works collaboratively with
its CLC and community partners in its
region to provide education, resources and
training in the community to the extent
resources will allow.
When asked why NQWLS decided
to be part of the RRRR network, Anne
enthusiastically described a range of
benefits envisaged by herself and her
organisation, including the potential to
create stronger connections with likeminded
individuals and organisations
who are also working to create change.
“Collaboration will always achieve more than
working alone especially when tackling the social
issues that surface at a time of crisis in a woman’s
life. Separation or Domestic/Family Violence
are often just one of many issues a woman might
12
THE BULLETIN July 2022

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
CLCSA Chair Catherine McMorrine (left), Legal Officer Holly McCoy and Project Officer Ippei Okazaki (right) receiving the Australian
Institute for Disaster Resilience Community Project Award SA 2021 from then Emergency Services Minister Vincent Tarzia
need help and support with when she contacts us.
NQWLS believes our services and communities
are strengthened by being united in purpose.”
Anne noted that the CLC sector is
better resourced now than it ever was in
the early days, however she raised concern
that challenges for vulnerable people are
changing and growing due to population
growth, increased social problems, climate
change, and living in a digital world which
all serve to create further pressures on
health, education and legal assistance.
“The CLC sector works hard to adapt and
meet the changing needs of the community and we
do an awesome job for those whom we can reach.
For those who are beyond our reach and who
cannot reach us, we must aim to do more and this
continues to be an enormous challenge for CLCs.
The RRRR network has the potential to strengthen
and unite CLCs and find new ways of reaching out
further than before. It is exciting to see the RRRR
Network re-establishing and energised.”
Holly McCoy is a Solicitor who worked
tirelessly on the Bushfire Community
Legal Program provided by the
Community Justice Services of South
Australia. She spent 18 months traveling
fortnightly to Kangaroo Island and a
handful of trips to the Yorke Peninsula,
post the 2019/2020 Black Summer
fires. The purpose was to deliver free
legal advice, information, referrals and
education to assist the community with
their relief and recovery efforts.
Holly now travels throughout South
Australia to bushfire high risk regional/rural
communities to deliver free legal education
and advice to assist communities with their
bushfire preparedness and resilience.
When asked about the challenges
faced by members of RRRR communities,
Holly cited the lack of public transport
and the distances people are required to
travel to access legal services and Courts
as a major barrier to accessing justice.
Whilst organisations do deliver outreach
services, they tend to be located in the
main township which is often inaccessible
to many people due to distance and
transportation issues.
COVID-19 has shown us how services
can utilise electronic service delivery such
as videoconferencing, however Holly
believes that service providers and Courts
may have become too reliant on such
delivery methods as many people in remote
RRRR areas experience unreliable (or no)
access to telecommunications or internet.
Holly is concerned that community
members are often unaware that a number
of services are available to them. Outreach
services are often ad hoc and poorly
advertised.
From a legal perspective, the lack of
access to appropriate legal services results
in matters escalating and becoming all
consuming, whereas with early intervention,
they could have been swiftly resolved or,
potentially, avoided all together. These
issues further compound (and/or are
compounded by) mental and physical
health, financial, and family difficulties.
Linda Ryle is Chairperson of the Board
of Directors, Aboriginal Family Legal
Service Southern Queensland (AFLSSQ).
She was born and raised in a small rural
community in Northern Queensland,
and is a proud Birrigubba and Kamilaroi
Woman. AFLSSQ is an Aboriginal Legal
Service, a family legal service.
Linda has a long history in Aboriginal
Affairs since the late 1990s (initially in
North Queensland). She had a tenured
engagement with Rural Regional and
Remote Aboriginal Communities,
particularly in the context of Professional
Business and Governance Support at both
the operational and organisational levels,
as well as collaborative and egalitarian
approaches to Community Development.
Linda also conducts research and
coaching in the area of Culturally
Principled Legal Practice.
AFLSSQ services a geographical area
equivalent to six times the size of the state
of Victoria. From Gladstone in the North
East across to the NT and SA borders,
South to the border of NSW. AFLSSQ
has a head office in Roma, Regional offices
in Toowoomba, Murgon/Cherbourg and
Beerwah, and they also support 9 satellite
offices (all RRRR community locations).
When asked about the challenges faced
by members of the communities they
serve in accessing justice, and the impact
of those challenges Linda remarked
on the sheer vastness of Queensland,
a decentralised State where 80.6% of
AFLSSQ clientele hail from Very Remote
locations. Indeed it was Linda who was
the catalyst for the inclusion of RRRR in
the name of our network – the fourth R
representing Very Remote communities,
because the experiences and challenges
faced by this cohort is very different to
less remote communities, thus deserving
its own recognition.
Linda described how First Nations
families have suffered horrific abuses and
injustices perpetrated by non First Nations
people and systems, since colonisation.
“First Nations families (and in particular
First Women) remain the most disadvantaged,
disregarded, misrepresented and demonised across
all sectors in Australia today. Incarceration is a
key element in the destruction of First Women
and their families – with their children then falling
into the care of the State.”
Linda referred to the Australian Law
Reform Commission Report Pathways to
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 13

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
Justice Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Peoples which found that Out of Home
Care for First Nations children was a
pathway to juvenile offending and Adult
Incarceration. 1
Linda explained how the vast distances
which encompass the geographical service
areas AFLSSQ commit to support, the
dearth of First Nations (and other)
Culturally Principled Legal (and support
services) Professionals to fill AFLSSQ
team vacancies, and the uncertainty of
funding and the shortfall of adequate
levels of funding to support services such
as AFLSSQ all serve to create challenges
in providing appropriate services.
“The lack of the understanding by funding
providers (Government and other), of the needs
to be met and the Human Rights entitlements
of First Nations families as a fundamental
right, persists.”
Linda would like to see First Nations
individuals, kin and community being
afforded the apparent luxury of choice
of professional, ethical and affordable
legal (and ancillary service eg: Alternative
Dispute Resolution) support. She would
also like to see an increase in Culturally
Principled Legal Services and Practitioners,
and Legal Profession Peak Body
understanding or support (or willingness
to change) their approach to First Nations
professionals and community (beyond
the cosmetic RAP aims), and a more
egalitarian as opposed to competitive
approach by funding providers.
Linda values the RRRR Network for
the opportunity to share information,
resources and awareness of the issues,
collegiality, strength in numbers, and hopes
that the recognition of Very Remote
communities by the network will create
dialogue and attention to the plight of First
Nations people living in very remote areas.
Cheryll Rosales is a Solicitor working with
Uniting Communities Law Centre (UCLC)
in South Australia, for the Disability
Advocacy Service. UCLC operates under
the umbrella of Uniting Communities
(UC), which is a not-for profit community
services organisation working alongside
more than 80,000 South Australians each
year to reduce inequality, improve wellbeing,
overcome disadvantage and support people
to live the best lives they can. They value
diversity and are committed to providing
respectful, accessible services.
UCLC provides generalist legal
advice to those who live in the central,
eastern and hills suburbs of Adelaide
as well as state-wide legal and advocacy
services in the areas of Social Security
law (Centrelink), Consumer Credit, Elder
Abuse, Disability Advocacy (NDIS access
and reviews) and mediation.
Cheryl describes the biggest challenges
UCLC lawyers have seen is that those who
live in regional, remote or very remote areas
of South Australia have limited knowledge
about the existence of services that could
be of assistance to them. “Exacerbated by the
pandemic, our services have been unable to travel to
the regions to get to know the communities, speak
to them about what they perceive to be their needs
and support them in a way they would like to be
supported. Whilst we provide services and advice by
phone or via video conference to these areas, it has
not allowed us to build relationships or trust in the
community. As a result of not having relationships
in the regions we have been limited in our ability to
assist people access supports and services they may
be entitled to.”
UCLC has joined the RRRR Network
to form relationships, gain the trust of
those who live regionally and assure
them that they do not have to live in
Adelaide to receive assistance. They hope
to become a visible part of the regions
and fulfill the purpose of their state-wide
services and actually provide services right
across the State!
Law Council of Australia, National
Strategic Plan - Rural, Regional and
Remote Lawyers and Communities
In 2017-18 the Law Council of
Australia undertook a wide-ranging
national review into the state of access
to justice in Australia – known as the
Justice Project. 2 Its focus was on justice
barriers facing those with significant
social and economic disadvantage, as well
as identifying what is working to reduce
those barriers. Rural, Regional and Remote
(RRR) Australians were amongst those
considered a priority group.
The full Report was published in
August 2018, with a separate report
detailing the findings in relation to Rural,
Regional and Remote (RRR) Australians. 3
Alarmingly, despite the Report being
published nearly 4 years ago, very little
appears to have improved. The same
issues identified in the Report have been
highlighted by our members as ongoing
concerns, as can be seen above.
The common threads between
our member accounts and the Justice
Report are:
• Cost, distance and lack of public
transport, poor technological access
and/or capability are common access
to justice barriers.
• There are significant concerns
regarding levels of unmet legal need
particularly inland and more remote
communities, with some regions being
critically underserviced.
• Difficulties in recruiting and retaining
local lawyers which imposes additional
cost and distance burdens on residents,
who need to travel further to find help,
or miss out altogether.
• With the increase in the use of
technology service delivery, RRRR
residents are more likely to be digitally
excluded.
• A decline in local court circuit services
in RRRR communities significantly
exacerbates distance, transport and
cost barriers for residents. Some
people may give up on attending court
despite the personal costs and in some
cases the delay in having their matter
heard effectively means that their case
is already lost.
• Certain groups of people are
particularly under-represented,
including people living in very remote
areas and Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people.
• The main barriers constraining RRRR
Australians from accessing justice are
financial costs, distance and transport,
problems accessing technology, and
limited awareness of services available.
• Services are underfunded, with funding
calculated “per capita” in particular
geographical areas rather than on the
actual cost of providing the service,
including travel costs.
The RRRR Network is pleased to
note that the Law Council has taken on
board the findings of the Justice Report,
and in November 2020 it produced its
National Strategic Plan 4 to address the
challenges faced by RRRR lawyers and the
communities they serve, including, but not
limited to:
14
THE BULLETIN July 2022

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
• difficulties in recruiting and retaining
lawyers, and ensuring succession plans;
• general shortages of lawyers in RRR
areas;
• conflict of interest problems due to
scarcity of locally available lawyers; and
• scarce and over-stretched legal
assistance services.
In March 2021, the Law Council of
Australia officially launched the Rural,
Regional and Remote (RRR) National
Strategic Plan 2021-2023. 5 Many very
good recommendations were made, and
it is hoped that these will be followed
through and supported by adequate
funding and resources.
The RRRR Network is keen to
collaborate with the Law Council for
discussion on progress since the National
Strategic Plan was launched.
Country Cabinet, South Australia
RRRR members are excited to learn
of the new “Country Cabinet” in South
Australia, which is an opportunity for The
Premier, government ministers and chief
executives to spend time visiting people,
businesses and organisations across each
region, to gain a better understanding
of the day-to-day experiences of people
living, working and doing business in South
Australia, through open communication
between government and community.
RRRR members in South Australia
are looking forward participating in the
Country Cabinet to have some input into
the policies, projects, services and funding
the government offers to South Australian
RRRR communities for access to justice
and related support services.
On behalf of the National Regional,
Rural, Remote and Very Remote (RRRR)
Community Legal Network, thanks to Anne
Lewis (Director of the North Queensland
Women’s Legal Service), Holly McCoy (Solicitor,
Community Justice Services of South Australia),
Linda Ryle (Chairperson of the Board of
Directors, Aboriginal Family Legal Service
Southern Queensland), and Cheryll Rosales
(Solicitor, Uniting Communities Law Centre
(UCLC) in South Australia) for your invaluable
contributions.
Michelle Ford is the managing lawyer at
WestSide Community Lawyers, which has offices
in Hindmarsh (servicing Adelaide’s West), and
Port Pirie (servicing the Mid North and Outback
regions). B
Endnotes
1 ALRC Report 133 pg 75, para 2.76 https://
www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/
final_report_133_amended1.pdf
2 The Justice Project Final Report https://www.
lawcouncil.asn.au/justice-project/final-report
3 The Justice Report Final Report Part 1 https://
www.lawcouncil.asn.au/files/web-pdf/Justice%20
Project/Final%20Report/Rural%20Regional%20
and%20Remote%20%28RRR%29%20
Australians%20%28Part%201%29.pdf
4 National Strategic Plan https://www.lawcouncil.
asn.au/files/pdf/policy-statement/RRR_NSP.pdf
5 https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/rrr-law
THE LAW FOUNDATION OF
SOUTH AUSTRALIA FELLOWSHIP
NOTE: Any person who would have been otherwise eligible to apply for a
Law Foundation Fellowship in 2021 but could not do so as the Fellowship
was not offered in 2021 due to COVID-19, may apply this year (2022).
The Law Foundation is a non-profit organisation. Its objectives include:
(a) the support of legal research which is of value in law reform;
(b) the promotion and provision of legal education and information for legal
practitioners, students and members of the public;
(c) the provision of legal services to the community.
The annual LAW FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP offers funding up to $50,000 (inclusive of GST) to enable the
successful applicant to pursue a course of legal or legally related academic or other study outside of the State
of South Australia. Academic merit or the academic level of the proposed course will not be the only criteria
for eligibility but the outcome of the study must offer a benefit to the general community and the legal
community of South Australia.
Applicants must be graduates of the Law Schools of the University of Adelaide, Flinders University or University
of South Australia OR legal practitioners with not less than 5 years’ experience in South Australia and who hold
current Practising Certificates.
Graduates who hold full-time academic positions are not eligible for the Fellowship.
Applications for the Fellowship are now invited and will close on 30 SEPTEMBER 2022.
Application criteria and general information can be obtained from the Foundation as follows:
www.lawfoundationsa.com.au OR
The Executive Officer, Law Foundation of South Australia Incorporated
PO Box 6381, Halifax Street ADELAIDE SA 5000 July 2022 THE BULLETIN 15
Ph 0429 266 611

YOUNG LAWYERS
Sold-out Young Professionals Gala
hits the right vibes
DAISY MACLEOD, COWELL CLARKE, MEGHAN FITZPATRICK, JONES HARLEY TOOLE AND MIKAYLA WILSON, SEDSMAN LEGAL
The 2022 Young Professionals’ Gala
was held on Friday, 20 May at Chateau
Apollo. The sold-out event saw over
220 young lawyers and professionals
in attendance and enjoying a night of
networking, free flowing champagne, and
hours of dancing. The night ran seamlessly
thanks to the extremely helpful staff
of Chateau Apollo and assistance from
the Committee’s Society Representative,
Kate Walkley. A highlight of the night
was the talented DJ Tania Smith of
‘Choonsandmoovz’ who, due to popular
demand, played for an extra hour after the
official ending time of the event (and of
course, it would not have been a young
professionals gala without ending the night
with Horses). A big thank you to Tania for
keeping the “vibes” high all night (as the
young ones say...). The Young Lawyers’
Committee would like to thank our major
sponsor, Burgess Paluch Legal Recruitment
for their continued support. A special
thanks also to Chateau Apollo for their
hospitality on the night.
Tiah Brooks (left), Meghan Fitzpatrick, Lucy Schapel, Julia Welnter, Daisy Macleod and Mikayla Wilson
Rebecca Scarabotti (left), Philippa Ewens, Timisha Ward, Libbee Coulter, and Emma De Favari
Back row - Brittany Law (left), Vageli Dimou, Mikayla Golding Ciara Fanning-Walsh
and Ella Cameron; front row – Kassandra Girolamo and Tyson Leung
Back row - Jackson Jury, Richard Hopkin, Joel Lisk, Thomas Hill, Zac Mizgalski,
and Matthew Del Corso; Front row - Karishma D’Souza (left) and Carlie Frantzis.
16
THE BULLETIN July 2022
Julian Amato (left), Patrick Kerin and
Luke Typek
Jake Hammond, Hamish Hill and
Marcus Walker

YOUNG LAWYERS
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Tania Smith on the decks
Clare O’Mahoney (left), Emily Wishart and Helena
Errey-White
Meghan Fitzpatrick (left) and Tiah Brooks
Josh Rahaley (left), Alex Hamam, Katia Safieddin,
Brielle Tilbrook, Bonnie Doyle, and Jack Dean
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July 2022 THE BULLETIN 17

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
Bridging community and law:
The role of the community lawyer
DHARANI RANA, COORDINATOR AND SOLICITOR, HOMELESS LEGAL AT JUSTICENET SA
Dharani Rana provides assistance at a Homeless Legal clinic.
Community lawyering is not an instinctive
skill 1 acquired by lawyers throughout
the course of law school or traditional
private practice. Although community
lawyering does involve standard lawyering
tasks (e.g. providing legal advice, having
knowledge of the law and legal processes,
research), it also requires different types of
skills to effectively communicate with and
assist people from different communities.
More often than not, a community
lawyer will not belong to the community
they are attempting to serve, so it
would be sensible to humble ourselves,
acknowledge our ignorance and limitations
and curb the instinct to take the lead as a
lawyer in a situation with a client whose
circumstances and priorities are likely
completely different from our own. I have
seen clients who have come to clinics
primarily to vent about their experiences
within the justice system, appointments
which typically end with clients thanking
lawyers for just listening to them rather
than giving specific information about
lodging a formal complaint. In our fee for
service profession, we can err in devaluing
this type of work as ‘non-legal’ when it
can save society the vast cost of ill-fated
proceedings. This also gives community
lawyers an early insight into gaps, patterns
and injustices within the legal system, all of
which are crucial to advocating for policy
changes and legislative reform. 2
In other instances, clients want
affirmation that their plan to handle a
particular issue is correct or that self-drafted
statements read well rather than wanting
a lawyer to take the reins. This ultimately
educates and empowers people, assisting
them to organise communities and advocate
for systemic change rather than relying
on lawyers, particularly where funding for
community legal services is precarious and
lawyers are not always accessible.
Nonetheless, lawyers working in
the community need to remain vigilant.
Clients have different needs, sometimes
non-legal needs. Ultimately, it is important
for a community lawyer to build and
maintain relationships with other nonlegal
community organisations using
triaging skills to refer clients to relevant
and appropriate services. Health Justice
partnerships such as JusticeNet’s Homeless
Legal and many others around the country
aim to embed this interdependence in their
service delivery design by co-locating with
a multitude of services and delivering legal
assistance at sites which are already familiar
to and trusted by clients.
Community lawyers contribute to
community development and empowerment
by helping people understand their
legal rights, sharing knowledge and
information and providing legal assistance
where possible. 3 Theoretically, in a truly
representative and thriving democracy, there
would be no need for a bridge between
community and the law. But until this is
achieved, funding for community lawyers is
vital 4 so that these organisations continue
to support clients through traditional legal
work and empowering clients to advocate
for themselves and their communities with
the aim of creating systemic change.
Skills learned in community lawyering
are transferrable interpersonal skills which
seek to centre humanity and service at the
core of our profession. They are useful
skills to have at any stage in a career. One
of the joys of being a community lawyer
is seeing the life-changing impact your
assistance can have on a person who would
have otherwise gone without help due to
systemic barriers. We love seeing lawyers
who volunteer at our clinics feeling a little
more connected to the community and a
whole lot more motivated about the good
you can do by being a lawyer.
Homeless Legal is a discrete task assistance
service running weekly clinics out of Hutt Street
Centre, Catherine House, Baptist Care and
SACAT. JusticeNet’s current referral partners in
this service are MinterEllison, Dentons, Gilchrist
Connell and JWS. To refer a client, get involved
with the clinics or attend a Homeless Legal training
session, please contact Dharani Rana at hlegal@
justicenet.org.au or (08) 8410 2280. B
Endnotes
1 Tammi Wong, ‘Race-Conscious Community
Lawyering: Practicing Outside the Box’ [2008]
(July-August)
Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and
Policy 165, 166.
2 Luz Herrera, ‘Community Law Practice’ (2019)
1 (Winter) Daedalus, the Journal of the American
Academy of Arts & Sciences 106, 111.
3 Luz Herrera, ‘Community Law Practice’ (2019)
1 (Winter) Daedalus, the Journal of the American
Academy of Arts & Sciences 106, 107.
4 See, eg, Lauren Croft, ‘LCA president: “It’s
important that justice remains human-centred”’,
LawyersWeekly (Online, 3 February 2022)
.
18
THE BULLETIN July 2022

FEATURE
Spreading the word:
SA laws in 14 languages
GABRIELLE CANNY, CEO OF THE LEGAL SERVICES COMMISSION
As lawyers, we are sometimes accused
of speaking a strange and baffling
language. And for new migrants, that legal
lingo can seem especially impenetrable.
To help migrants understand essential
elements of the law, a new range of legal
publications are being produced by the
Legal Services Commission with a grant
from the Law Foundation of SA. These
guides can also support the work of legal
practitioners who work with CALD clients.
The Law For You guides will be
available in 14 languages and that is a
first in South Australia; never before have
SA legal publications been delivered in so
many languages.
New migrant communities played a
key role in the creation of the guides and
the selection of their content. The guides
cover major life events and common legal
issues including renting a home, buying a
car, getting married or dealing with a car
accident. They also look at topics such as
raising a family, workers’ rights, dealing
with police and fines, separation and
divorce, family violence, and purchasing
goods or services.
The guides are in languages including
Urdu, Khmer, Spanish, Thai, Arabic,
Burmese, Mandarin Chinese, Dari,
English, Hindi, Nepali, Persian, Swahili
and Vietnamese.
These publications are noteworthy for
their simplicity and lack of legal jargon
– but it was challenging to determine the
level of detail we included in them. As
lawyers, we often want to give the most
comprehensive legal outline to clients.
But in this situation, we needed to strip
things back to the most essential points to
give migrants an accessible overview that
introduces them to key aspects of the law.
The first iteration of the Law For You
publications was produced in 2014 and,
with funding from the Law Foundation.
Rhe guides are now being substantially
revised and translated into a number of
additional languages (including Urdu,
Khmer, Spanish and Thai). The guides
are part of the Commission’s Migrant
Information and Legal Education
program that has reached nearly 50,000
people since it was established in 2004.
It empowers people from new and
emerging communities to achieve greater
self-reliance and social mobility through
improved awareness of their rights and
responsibilities under Australian law.
The Legal Services Commission
provides legal information to all South
Australians - and that must include
those for whom English is not their first
language. In their first years of settlement,
they often have limited opportunities to
The Law For You booklets give new migrants an
overview of key laws and can also support the work
of legal practitioners who work with CALD clients.
understand and learn about Australian
laws. They face language barriers and a
lack of knowledge about where to turn to
get help with legal issues at an early stage.
The Law for You guides respond to those
challenges and can be life changing. They
give new migrants a ‘take home’ package
of information that they can continue to
refer to in their own homes and at times
of legal difficulty.
The new publications are being
produced by our Community Legal
Education unit and will be available
in coming months on the Commission’s
website www.lsc.sa.gov.au and in
hardcopy. B
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July 2022 THE BULLETIN 19

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
Giving back to the community:
Two lawyers explain why
volunteering means so much to them
More than 100 years ago, during World
War I, the Law Society of South
Australia administered the Red Cross
Information Bureau out of the Verco
building on North Tce (incidentally, the
current Law Society premises is behind
the Verco Building’s façade). A significant
portion of the legal profession put their
hand up to volunteer for the service, which
entailed lawyers fielding requests from loved
ones seeking information on missing South
Australians who had been fighting overseas.
This task particularly suited lawyers as it
involved extensive investigations to search
for facts amid a maze of misinformation,
logistical obstacles, and the fog of war.
Looking back at the history of
community service by lawyers serves as a
reminder of the proud legacy of pro bono
work in the legal profession.
Even a much more recent review of
some of the Law Society’s Justice Award
recipients, who are acknowledged annually
for their outstanding service to access
to justice in the community, reveals an
enduring commitment to helping people
in need.
Lawyers do have a unique set of
skills which, combined with an education
rooted in principles of justice and equality,
seems to engender a sense of duty to use
that expertise to serve others. In a recent
Law Society survey, 82% of respondents
reported that they engage in pro bono
work, averaging about 6.3 hours of pro
bono work per month.
For this special community edition,
we spoke to two lawyers who, while they
have a very busy day job, contribute an
extraordinary amount to the community.
Alice Tester, a solicitor at Roach Corporate
Law, and Will Gray, who has recently set
up his own practice after several years
working as a solicitor in mid-sized law
firms, have generously given what little
spare time they have to discuss their
volunteering activities, why they choose
to volunteer, and what they get out of
serving the community.
20 THE BULLETIN July 2022
Alice Tester (middle) at a Rotary sausage sizzle
ALICE TESTER
How did you and your firm become
involved in Rotary?
We initially reached out to Rotary as
the firm’s founding director, Daniel Roach,
had connections with others who were in
the Rotary Club of Seaford. I also have
a long history of involvement in various
community and charity groups, and it
seemed a good fit! It flowed naturally
from there and as a member I attend Club
meetings and then at one Club meeting I
put up my hand for a board position and I
am now involved in that side of things in
the Club too.
What kind of community activities to
you do as part of Rotary?
The community activities I have been
involved in so far with Rotary include
fundraising BBQs at Bunnings Seaford,
cleaning up the Seaford Wetlands, and
collecting and delivering various household
items to Coolock House. We are also
involved in raising money for the building
of a medical facility in Mbale, Uganda.
The projects therefore range from local
community to international causes. There
are so many different causes and projects
that the Club is involved in and it’s going
to be exciting to be involved in those
further projects moving forward.
Can you tell us about the service for
domestic violence women that you are
involved in?
The Rotary Club of Seaford has a
relationship with Coolock House, which
provides safe and secure temporary housing
for families. Our firm is one of the collection
points for various household items that
we then deliver to Coolock House for the
families there. We have delivered a couple of
times, but we are always looking for more
donations! We are happy to provide the
“wish list of items” from Coolock House if
anyone is interested. We have also shared this
on our firm’s Facebook page.
You are heading up a walkathon
to raise money for bowel cancer in
memory of Daniel Roach. Can you
please tell us a little bit about Daniel?
As part of our corporate membership
with the Rotary Club of Seaford, the firm
is in the process of organising its own
project to run through the Club. We have
talked about organising something in
memory of Daniel.
Daniel was an amazing person and
boss. I will always appreciate his patience
and teachings and guidance when I was
a new grad. He also had a great sense of
humour. He is terribly missed.
As Daniel was one of those people
who would go for a run before work, we
thought a walkathon would be a good
idea. Here we would be raising money
for a charity involved in cancer research
or similar. We are still planning and
organising however and will send out
details when the project is more finalised!
You are the vice-president of the
Southern United Netball Association.
What does this involve?
In my role as vice-president of SUNA,
I assist with certain communications and
meetings with clubs and members, review
internal regulatory and policy documents,
and attend various community events put
on by SUNA such as the ANZAC annual
match and the Carnivals where many clubs
and teams come to participate and play
netball. It has been a great role and I have
developed some great relationships with
others in the community.

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
What motivates you to do so much
community work?
I haven’t really thought about this
before – it’s just something I’m drawn
to – probably reflective of my upbringing
and values I have seen around me
including from my Mum and Nana. It is
important to recognise the privilege you
may have, and not everyone is so lucky –
we need to recognise that and help others
but also listen to them and ask them what
they need.
How do you manage your work and
volunteer commitments (and other
commitments)?
I think it is about deciding what are the
priorities in your life and making time for
those priorities.
Is your firm supportive of you being
so heavily involved in community
organisations and activities?
They definitely are – we are all
encouraged and are active in the
community in various ways and roles, and
we recognise the importance of this and
of giving back.
What would you say to people thinking
about putting their hand up to
volunteer in the community?
Everyone has a lot going on in
their lives, with work, family, and other
commitments, however even if you can
spare an hour a fortnight or even a month,
you can still contribute and help the many
good causes around your community and
even interstate and internationally. There
is such an amazing network of volunteers
who do an amazing job and if everyone
puts a little time in it’s amazing what can
be achieved.
Will Gray (right) at the SA Racquetball Championships.
WILL GRAY
How did you get involved with
Salvation Army’s will drafting service?
Through my previous employer,
Camatta Lempens, who were a long-term
supporter of the service. As a junior in the
Wills and Estates team at the time back in
2015-16, I had the opportunity to assist on
several occasions, and have continued to
do so ever since.
Can you tell us a bit about the
experience of writing pro bono wills,
The most common clients are older
couples who are cash poor, and for whom
the service provides an opportunity to
access a lawyer when they otherwise may
not have been able to do so. We also do
assist single parents, those without stable
housing and other struggling people.
What makes the pro bono wills service
such a valuable service?
Many of these clients would not have
accessed Estate planning services without
such an offering, and the first meeting
occurs at a Salvation Army venue, which
can be a safe space for some of the people
we meet. It makes the law accessible.
Would you recommend other lawyers
consider being involved in services like
the Salvation Army’s?
Absolutely, and the man to contact is
John Tobin, who would love to hear from
lawyers keen to be involved. I also assist
with the Cancer Council on a pro bono
basis and they too are often in need of
volunteer Solicitors. My new firm, Gray
Matters Legal, has signed up to the National
Pro Bono target of 35 hours per year year
which really is a minor commitment in the
grand scheme of things, given it is less than
1 hour per week. I certainly intend to better
that by some margin and am hopeful of at
least 100 hours per year, which still doesn’t
seem enough!
What does your role as President of
Campbelltown Squash Club involve?
A little bit of everything. We field over 25
teams in the Squash SA Pennant competition
and have over 150 members, we run regular
events both competitive and social, and I
assist with coaching and refereeing. I’m very
lucky to have a fantastic Committee behind
me doing most of the work. We also regularly
meet with key stakeholders in an ongoing
effort to continue to grow and improve what
we offer. The Campbelltown Council and
the “ARC” (our facility) are fantastic and
very supportive of us. Particularly in smaller
sports, finding committee members is tough,
and I think people from a professional
environment add value to any committee and
I certainly encourage lawyers to help out with
their local sports club.
Have you been able to put your legal
skills to good use as President?
Perhaps more so quasi-legal skills:
active listening, patience and mediating
potential disputes are certainly of
assistance when volunteering in sport.
I have also assisted Squash SA with
Disciplinary Tribunals and a legal
background certainly assisted with this.
How did you get into coaching and
what has that experience been like?
I was captain of squash in year 12 at
school, and was asked by the coordinator
to come back the following year to look
after the division 1 boys the following year.
I’ve never looked back and am now in my
15 th year of coaching. It’s a great way to
give back and I keep saying I’ll only stop if
I don’t enjoy it, which hasn’t happened yet!
I understand you play squash as well.
What is it about squash that you
particularly enjoy?
Initially it was just to play with friends,
and I suppose I accidentally became a good
player by enjoying it so much and wanting
to play all the time, and now in a selffulfilling
prophecy one of the reasons I love
it is because I can play it well and I’ve had
the opportunity to play a few professional
tournaments in SA and even managed a
(lucky) win against a player then ranked in
the top 250. I love the high intensity and
the split-second tactical decisions, but more
importantly I have formed so many close
friendships through the sport. It’s a fantastic
community to be a part of.
How do you manage your work and
volunteer commitments (and other
commitments)?
With great difficulty! I have been
fortunate to have always been supported in
my sporting and volunteering endeavours
by my employers and now running my
own firm allows me to commit more time
to these other commitments. I like to
be busy - a good day for me will always
consist of some form of exercise and
something social. B
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 21

EVENTS
Walk for Justice raises more than $80,000
REBECCA ROSS, CEO & PRINCIPAL SOLICITOR, JUSTICENET SA
The Walk for Justice is a triple pronged
event: drawing attention to the
importance of access to justice (A2J),
signifying the important role pro bono
publico work done by lawyers plays in A2J,
and raising funds for the public interest
law clearing houses (PILCH) 1 around the
country.
National Pro Bono Day has long
been a fixture in the Australian Law
Week celebrations and marked by Walks
for Justice across the country. This year
National Pro Bono Day was held on 17
May 2022 and saw the return of the inperson
Walk for Justice in South Australia
(SA) after a two-year hiatus. JusticeNet SA
has run the SA event since its inception as
the state’s PILCH in 2008, but in 2020 it
went virtual in the face of the pandemic
and in 2021 was not held at all.
After coming into this role in late
2021, the question I was asked most
was “will the Walk for Justice be coming
back?”. This is a testament to how unique
the event is in the way it involves all facets
of the justice system: community lawyers,
private lawyers, government lawyers,
in-house lawyers, paralegals, politicians,
government officials, allied-legal roles,
judges and the people we serve.
The record-breaking success of this
year’s Walk for Justice with over 450 walkers
and raising just over $80,000 reflects the
goodwill there is in South Australia to stride
forward together for those in need. The
result has spurred tremendous confidence
in what can be achieved in the justice space
in SA given the altruism (and fitness) of
those in power.
National Law Week’s core purpose is
well summarised on the NSW Law Week
website as an ‘annual festival that is all
about creating greater access to justice
for Australians’ (www.lawweeknsw.org.
au). This might seem like an aspirational
or noble aim, but its importance has been
22 THE BULLETIN July 2022
enshrined in UN sustainable development
goals (SDGs), as Goal 16:
“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for
sustainable development, provide access to justice
for all and build effective, accountable and
inclusive institutions at all levels” 2 .
Goal 16 is one of three UN SDGs
that form JusticeNet’s raison d’ être, the
other two being End Poverty (SDG 1) and
Reduce Inequalities (SDG 10).
The goal of the SDGs is to create a
shared blueprint for peace and prosperity
for people and the planet, now and into
the future 3 . The fact Goal 16 is included is
a crucial reminder for those of us working
in the justice arena that we are part of
a social ecosystem which needs endless
tending so as not to be taken for granted.
To underscore how crucial this is
at the moment, the central topic of the
2022 World Justice Forum was the decline
in the rule of law and how to better
support SDG 16. This is an annual event
bringing together participants from 116
countries to learn, to collaborate and
strategise on how to advance Equal Rights,
Anticorruption, Open Government and
Access to Justice. They were particularly
focussed on glaring new statistic:
‘Almost 85% of the world’s population now
live in a country where rule of law is declining,
according to the World Justice Project 2021
Rule of Law Index. The COVID-19
pandemic exacerbated these trends, including
rising authoritarianism, declining civic
space, delayed justice, and other longstanding
governance weaknesses.’ 4
The World Justice Forum attendance
list is a catalogue of global justice
rockstars; Legal Empowerment Fund
Director Atieno Odhiambo, The
Hague Institute for Innovation of Law
(HiiL) CEO Sam Muller, UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle
Bachelet, Praxis Conflict Centre CEO
Christine Birabwa-Nsubuga and many
more 5 .
It should be noted that in the lineup
this year were a number of large
technology companies, a truth the justice
system does not always welcome but is
a modern day reality. It is an interesting
barometer for the future to see the
projects which were awarded the winners
of this year’s World Justice Challenge, with
three of the five prizes this year awarded
to legal technology innovations 6 .
Adequately supported and
appropriately directed pro bono work is one
tried and tested way to address SDG 16 7 .
The events of the World Justice Forum
this year show us that now more than
ever, those of us in the legal profession
must do what we can to uphold the rule
of law. Whilst we (may) remember the
‘warm and fuzzy’ feelings from pro bono,
it is important to remember A2J is vitally
important not only for equality but social
prosperity 8 .
A most heartfelt thanks to those who
either came along or supported from afar,
this year’s Walk for Justice. The team at
JusticeNet are buoyed by the generosity
and vibrancy of the A2J community in
South Australia. The purple sea of people
walking along the banks of the Karrawirra
Pari, kept us in-step with the beat of
global justice. So, to answer the perennial
question, ‘Yes, the Walk for Justice is back!’.
In 2021, JusticeNet assisted over 570 people
through its programs, conservatively generating
$5 million worth of legal work on behalf of
disadvantaged South Australian’s. 2022 is
already on track to exceed this and we are looking
for more referral partners. If you are interested in
learning more about pro bono work or joining the
JusticeNet pro bono clearing house, please contact
JusticeNet at admin@justicenet.org.au or call
0884102280. B

EVENTS
Chief Justice Kourakis cutting the ribbon to open the walk
Top Individual Peta Spyrou (middle) raised $2823,
and won a Sunset Catamaran Cruise.
Top student team the AULSS raised $1892 and won a BBQ Buoy on the Torrens
Top team LK Law raised $8380 and won the after works food and drinks package, donated by Simon Bryant
and Lot 100 and served by JusticeNet staff
Endnotes
1 For a history of PILCH inception in Australia
see: Burchell, Samantha; Hunt, Emma, ‘From
conservatism to activism: the evolution of the
Public Interest Law Clearing House’ [2003]
AltLawJl 2; (2003) 28(1) Alternative Law Journal
8
2 See: ‘Goal 16’, UNDP Sustainable Development
Goals | United Nations Development
Programme (undp.org)
3 For more information, see: ‘The SDG’s in
Action’, UNDP
4 ‘Leaders to address the global decline of rule
of law’, World Justice Forum
5 ‘Leaders to address the global decline of rule
of law’, World Justice Forum
6 See: ‘World Justice Challenge Winners
announced in The Hague’ World Justice Forum
7 Nathan Kennedy, ‘Why do pro bono?’ The
Lawyers Weekly Show, Issue 128, May 2018
8 For more information see: Australian Pro
Bono Centre
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 23

LEGAL INTERPRETATION
Heading in a new direction? SA’s change
of position on rules of construction
DAVID KELLY , CIVIL LITIGATION COMMITTEE
On 1 January 2022, the Legislation
Interpretation Act 2021 (the 2021
Act) came into effect, repealing and
replacing the Acts Interpretation Act 1915
(the 1915 Act). By force of the 2021 Act, 1
“section headings” became part of the
substantive law, scrapping the approach
that the community was previously
required to take for more than 100 years
prior. This article briefly examines the
Parliament’s change of position, and some
of its possible implications.
The change of position
Section 19(2) of the 1915 Act provided
that: “the following do not form part of
an Act, subject to any express provision to
the contrary: (a) section headings […].” 2
As explained in D C Pearce and
R S Geddes, Statutory Interpretation in
Australia, 3 (Pearce and Geddes) the traditional
justification for excluding section headings
from the analysis was that they are inserted
by the draftsperson, and may not have
been debated in the Parliament.
However, that policy was reversed by s
19 of the 2021 Act. Section 19(1) provides
that: “except as provided in subsection
(2), everything appearing in an Act or
legislative instrument is part of the Act or
instrument”; in turn, s 19(2) sets out the
material to which s 19(1) does not apply,
none of which includes section headings. 4
The change of position on section
headings was deliberate. On 6 May 2021,
the Legislation Interpretation Bill 2021 (the
Bill) was read a second time, the speech in
the Upper House recording (underlining
added): 5 “This is different from the Acts
24 THE BULLETIN July 2022
Interpretation Act, which provides that
section headings […] do not form part
of an act […]. This change is the most
significant change proposed by the bill.”
The Explanation of Clauses confirmed
that: 6 “This means, in particular, that
section headings will now form part of
an Act.” On 26 August 2021, the second
reading of the Bill continued in the Lower
House, to like effect. 7
The Parliament appears not to have
expressly identified either the relevant
“mischief ” being targeted, or its
justification for the reform. However, it
is possible to infer that it reflected the
assessment that having regard to section
headings would enhance, and provide
additional guidance to those tasked with,
construction. It may also be deduced that
the Parliament considered that the Courts
had interpreted provisions in a way that
differed from how they would have been
interpreted had section headings formed
part of the text.
Effect of s 19 of the 2021 Act
The premise of s 19 of the 2021 Act
is that having regard to section headings
has the capacity to affect the meaning to
be given to at least some provisions. It
follows that there may be a need to revisit
the authorities dealing with the meaning
of provisions that have been construed in
accordance with the 1915 Act, namely:
• without having regard to section
headings as part of the text; and
• only having regard to section headings
in the event of ambiguity, and then only
as possibly informative “extrinsic
material”, which is subject to entirely
different principles. 8
And, because the 2021 Act preserves
the 1915 Act’s extension of the approach
taken to section headings in statutes
to other “legislative instruments” (as
defined), 9 the consequences of the
reformulation are potentially very wide. In
particular, in light of the broad definition
of legislative instrument in s 4 of the
2021 Act, the reform may affect the
construction of:
• regulations;
• rules;
• by-laws;
• proclamations;
• notices published in the Gazette or
under the Legislation Revision and
Publication Act 2002 (the Revision Act);
• a code or standard made, approved or
adopted under a statute;
• any other instrument of a legislative
character made or in force under an
Act; and
• any other instrument prescribed by the
Legislation Interpretation Act Regulations
2021.
As the State’s argument in the Court
of Appeal in Disorganized Developments
Pty Ltd v South Australia 10 which concerned
the validity of regulations made under the
Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA)
demonstrates, dispute about the meaning
of a provision by reference to a section
heading continues to be a live issue.
It follows that it will be important to
monitor changes to section headings now
that they are part of the text. Such changes

LEGAL INTERPRETATION
may be demonstrated by amendments to
sexual offences under the Criminal Law
Consolidation Act 1935 (SA). For example,
in 1994, s 74 provided for the offence
of “persistent sexual abuse of a child”. In
2008, further amendments replaced the s
74 offence with a recast version in s 50,
headed “persistent sexual exploitation of a
child”. Later, in 2017, s 50 was amended
again, including changing the heading to:
“unlawful sexual relationship with child”. 11
Further examples of decided cases
where the possible effect of section
headings in construction has arisen
include:
• A Gallo Pty Lt & Ors v Hollowwood
Pty Ltd & Ors 12 – which concerned
the effect of the section heading
“Alterations and other interference with
the shop” on the ambit of s 38 of the
Retail and Commercial Leases Act 1995
(SA);
• Jansen & Anor v Salisbury Wrought
Iron Works Pty Ltd & Anor 13 – which
concerned the inconsistency between
the section heading of, and operative
words in, r 104 of the Magistrates
Court (Civil) Rules 1992 (SA);
• Pringle v Police 14 – which concerned
whether use of the word “etc” in the
section heading to s 47H of the Road
Traffic Act 1961 (SA) meant that s
47H was not-exhaustive, such that the
Governor could approve apparatus of
a prescribed kind for tests and analyses
beyond those set out in the section; and
• Yuen v Police 15 – which
concerned whether a weapon
was a “fighting knife” within the
meaning of those words, which
were used in a section heading in
the Summary Offences (Dangerous
Articles and Prohibited Weapons)
Regulations 2000.
In some cases, the amendment in
the 2021 Act could tip the balance.
For example, in Onody v Return to Work
Corporation (SA), 16 the Full Court
considered (in obiter) whether a heading
within the “impairment assessment
guidelines” made by the Minister under
the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA) (i.e.,
a legislative instrument) was a section
heading or a “chapter heading”, and
therefore, part of the text. 17 Blue J and
Stanley J divided on that “constructional
choice”. 18 Parker J inclined to the view that
the heading was not a section heading,
and therefore, not part of the guidelines
for the purposes of construing them. Had
the 2021 Act applied, the section heading
would have been part of the guidelines,
potentially affecting their meaning, and the
outcome for the worker, and conceivably,
subsequent cases decided or compromised
on the basis of the dicta in Onody.
Beyond the guidelines in Onody, other
legislative instruments prepared by the
Executive to which s 19 of the 2021 Act
would apply include, for example, the
“Ministerial building standards” made
under the Planning, Development and
Infrastructure Act 2016 (SA). 19 Many other
examples exist.
Section 19 of the 2021 Act would also
apply to legislative instruments prepared
by bodies outside of government, such as,
for example, the Building Code of Australia,
which forms part of the “Building
Rules”. 20 The meaning of the Building
Rules is especially important because
they are at the heart of defect claims in
residential construction cases, which are
frequently litigated.
Could a section heading generate
ambiguity?
An unintended consequence of the
2021 Act may be that a section heading
could be argued to generate ambiguity in
circumstances where under the 1915 Act
there was none.
Ragless v Prospect District Council 21
illustrates the point. There the
Supreme Court had to interpret s 47 of
the Town and Development Act 1920 (SA).
Section 47 appeared in a group comprising
ss 44 to 49 under the heading “General
provisions relating to plans of subdivision
and plans of resubdivision.” The heading
was relied on by the plaintiff. Albeit not
dispositive of the s 47 issue, in examining
the various headings throughout the
statute Murray CJ observed (underlining
added): 22 “The first group consists of
three sections (22 to 24), with the heading
“New roads of streets”. When the
contents of these sections are examined,
it will be seen that the heading is far from
appropriate. […] The plans, however,
are not confined to those which shew
“new roads or streets”, and therefore, the
heading imperfectly describes the contents
of the group.”
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 25

INTERPRETATION
A related, proposed amendment
The Parliament appears to have
anticipated this issue, and proposed a
related amendment to try to deal with it
by amending s 7(3) of the Revision Act to
(underlining added): “provide a mechanism
for alteration of any incorrect or
inaccurate headings etc that were included
in legislation administratively before the
enactment of this new provision.”
The second reading of the Bill
on 6 May 2021 further explained that
(underlining added): “To mitigate any risk
that may arise as a result of the change, a
savings provision has been added to allow
section headings and the like, which had
not previously formed part of the act and
had not been enacted by the parliament,
to be amended once administratively. The
amendment would be undertaken by or
under the supervision of the Commissioner
for Legislation Revision and Publication.
This is to ensure any errors in headings
that had been inserted administratively can
be corrected without having to undertake
legislative amendments.”
What is an “incorrect or inaccurate”
section heading?
As enacted, however, no such
provision premised on a section heading
being “incorrect” or “inaccurate” found
voice. Rather, Sch 1 Pt 3 cl 11 of the 2021
Act amended s 7(3) of the Revision Act to
provide that: “material that, immediately
before the commencement of [s 19 of the
2021 Act], appeared in legislation, or in
a Bill before the Parliament, but did not
form part of the legislation or Bill may be
omitted or varied when the legislation is
revised after the commencement of that
section (but may not be so omitted or
varied more than once).”
26 THE BULLETIN July 2022
One possible reason for not premising
that remedial mechanism upon a section
heading being incorrect or inaccurate may
have reflected, in the case of ambiguity,
the inherent difficulty of demonstrating
that a section heading is incorrect or
inaccurate.
In any case, even if a section heading
was so varied, room may be left to argue
that the varied section heading still
conflicts with or otherwise affects the
interpretation of the substantive text in
issue.
Additionally, and more fundamentally,
solving the problem by omission of a
section heading seems incongruous with
the intended inclusion of section headings,
which was “the most significant change”
the 2021 Act made.
Moreover, expressly allowing
administrative alteration to a section
heading seems to entrench the argument
against having regard to section headings
referenced by Pearce and Geddes on
the basis of the lack of exposure to
Parliamentary scrutiny.
There may be also attempts to
challenge or review the power, or exercise
of the power, to omit or vary (and thereby
“impliedly repeal”) section headings on the
basis that as from 1 January 2021 they are
“part of ” the text – particularly in a case
where the substantive provisions may be
drafted so as to depend upon the express
words of the section heading (e.g., the
effect of “etc” contended for in Pringle).
Implications
Whilst it is not suggested that the
change of position from the 1915 Act to
the 2021 Act as to section headings being
part of the text of Acts and legislative
instruments is “wrong”, it will require the
profession to take great care to ensure that
existing understandings of their proper
construction remains good. B
Endnotes
1 Section 19.
2 With minor exceptions, that approach prevails at
Cth level (Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth), 13(3))
and in NSW (Interpretation Act 1987 (NSW), s
35(2)), NT (Interpretation Act 1987 (NT), s 55(2)),
Tas (Acts Interpretation Act 1931 (Tas), s 6(4)), Vic
(Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (Vic), s 36(3)),
and WA (Interpretation Act 1984 (WA), s 32(1)).
3 LexisNexis, 7 th ed, 2011, [1.27] and [4.54].
4 With minor exceptions, this approach prevails in
ACT (Legislation Act 2001 (ACT), s 126(2)) and
Qld (Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (Qld), s 14(2)).
5 South Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative
Council, 6 May 2021, 3364 and following.
6 South Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative
Council, 6 May 2021, 3365 and following.
7 South Australia, Parliamentary Debates, House of
Assembly, 26 August 2021, 6998 and following.
8 2021 Act, s 16. See Redman v Return to Work
Corporation (SA) [2021] SASCA 25, [100]-[112]
(Livesey JA). See further Pearce and Geddes, [3.13]-
[3.11], [3.15]-[3.28].
9 1915 Act, s 14A. 2021 Act, s 3.
10 [2022] SASCA 6, [44] (Livesey P).
11 The changes to the offence, including the
terminology of the heading of the offence, were
recently debated in the Lower House during
the Second Reading of the Statutes Amendment
(Child Sex Offences) Bill 2021: Parliamentary Debates,
Legislative Council, 19 May 2021, 306.
12 [2012] SASC 187, [37] and [47] (Nicholson J).
13 [2007] SASC 73, [38] (Anderson J).
14 [2021] SASCA 52, [57] (Kelly P, Lovell and
Doyle JJA).
15 [2012] SASC 149, [94] (White J).
16 (2019) 133 SASR 109.
17 Onody v Return to Work Corporation (SA) (2019)
133 SASR 109, [118] (Stanley J).
18 Onody v Return to Work Corporation (SA) (2019) 133
SASR 109, [50], [63], [65], [69], [73] (Stanley J).
19 Section 80.
20 Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act, ss 3(1), 79.
21 [1922] SASR 299.
22 Ragless v Prospect District Council [1922]
SASR 299, 307.

FROM THE CONDUCT COMMISSIONER
Communication and money:
Outgoing Conduct
Commissioner reflects on the
main causes of complaints
GREG MAY, LEGAL PROFESSION CONDUCT COMMISSIONER
will soon be moving on from my role as
I Legal Profession Conduct Commissioner.
My last day will be 31 July 2022.
For my final article for the Bulletin, I
will be reflecting on a few things from my
time as Commissioner.
The first thing I will say is that it seems
to me that there are two main reasons that
complaints are made by clients. The first
is poor communication. The second is
money.
From a communication point of
view, the problems are usually one of the
following:
• not giving advice that is sufficiently
clear, or at least sufficiently understood
by the client;
• not managing a client’s expectations
– in any number of respects (eg as
to timing of the matter, timing as to
something you have said you will do,
the outcome of the matter, or your
costs);
• simply not responding in a timely
fashion (or, often, at all) to a client’s
emails or phone calls.
It’s important to remember that many
clients who complain to my office are
those who are involved in a legal matter
for the first time. They are not in any
way experienced in what the legal system
has in store for them! They simply don’t
understand the system, they don’t know
how long something is meant to take, and
they certainly don’t appreciate how busy
you are!
So, it’s important that you:
• answer a client’s calls and/or emails –
even if just to say you’re busy or away
and that you’ll get back to them as soon
as you can;
• tell a client if there is going to be a delay
in what you’ve said you’ll do, and why;
• don’t pretend you have done something
for a client when you actually haven’t
done it yet.
And now let’s talk money. Because
some of you aren’t very good at doing that
with your clients – in fact, some of you are
terrible at it!
What you are obliged to tell your client
about costs is set out in Schedule 3 of the
Legal Practitioners Act. At its simplest, and
yet at its most important, for most clients
you MUST:
• estimate the total legal costs (or a range
of estimates of the total legal costs)
and explain the major variables that will
affect the calculation of those costs; and
• tell the client of any substantial change
to that estimate (or range of estimates)
as soon as is reasonably practicable after
you become aware of that change.
If you don’t comply with that obligation
then you run a number of significant risks:
• the client doesn’t have to pay your fees
(unless you first have them adjudicated
by the Supreme Court);
• you therefore (and quite obviously)
can’t sue the client to recover your fees
(unless you first have them adjudicated
by the Supreme Court);
• you may have engaged in misconduct.
So, let’s just imagine that you agree that
most of those outcomes are bad. The good
thing is that to avoid them, all you have to
do is comply with the Legal Practitioners Act!!!
Sorry for the sarcasm, but it is
warranted. I’m sure I only see the tip of
the iceberg, but there are many lawyers
who still don’t do what they need to do in
this respect. And I’m sure that they know
they should! Is it just embarrassment at
how much lawyers charge? Is it that they
think the client won’t continue to instruct
them if they actually know how much it’s
likely to cost?
If that’s the case, then please get over
it! The downside is much worse, and
your client will always appreciate full costs
disclosure (ie the truth!!!) so that he or she
can make a fully informed decision about
how to proceed.
So, on to a slightly different, but related,
topic. After 8.5 years in this role, what are
my impressions of the profession generally?
I still admire it enormously, as I always
have. As you all know, the profession
provides a critical service to the community.
Everyone works hard. Many of you do
work for clients who are disadvantaged in
any number of ways. But many of you
also do work for clients who are extremely
challenging, and who don’t understand what
you are trying to do for them. Some of
you need to do better at explaining things
to those clients (although I do accept that
some of them can’t be told!).
And I am, frankly, staggered at how
many of you still don’t comply with the
costs disclosure requirements. In the first
five years or so, I made on average about
20 misconduct findings a year. In the last
few years that has increased to the low 30s,
with that increase being directly attributable
to Schedule 3 breaches.
Some might think that that’s not
too bad in a profession that comprises
more than 4,000 people. But it’s still too
many, and just getting the basics right
about communication and money would
undoubtedly mean a lot fewer unhappy
clients than there are now. B
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 27

TAX FILES
Trust issues? There may be a solution…
BRIONY HUTCHENS, DW FOX TUCKER LAWYERS
Trusts have become one of the most
popular private investment vehicles
for families in Australia, with over 900,000
reported to be in existence. While they
enable great flexibility, they can also be
fraught with problems when they are
not administered properly or their terms
overlooked. The recent Victorian Supreme
Court case of McGowan and Valentini Trusts
[2021] VSC 154 (McGowan) is an excellent
example of things that can go wrong, but
also of the fact that these problems need
not be fatal to the effective operation of
the trust.
Briefly, the facts of the McGowan case
were as follows:
• By separate deeds dated 14 February,
1977 Giuseppe and Norma Valentini
created two trusts, one for each of their
children Anna and Peter (1977 Deeds).
The trustee of each trust was named
in the deeds to be I.N. & G. Nominees
Pty Ltd (ING) and the deeds were
signed by Giuseppe and Norma on
behalf of ING as its directors.
• ING was not incorporated until 25
September, 1978, and therefore was not
in fact in existence as at the date of the
1977 Deeds.
• In November, 1977, Giuseppe and
Norma purchased land at Victoria
Street, North Geelong. The land was
registered in the name of Giuseppe and
Norma jointly and subsequently passed
to Norma on the death of Giuseppe
under a survivorship application.
• At all times, the land was recorded as
an asset of the trusts despite never
being transferred into the name of
ING and despite there not being any
express declaration that the land was
purchased by Giuseppe and Norma on
behalf of the trusts.
• The trusts, on their terms, vested
absolutely in Anna and Peter when
they each turned 30 years old, being 1
January, 1988 in the case of Anna and
14 February, 1991 in the case of Peter.
• On 23 June, 1991, being after the date
that the trusts, on their terms, vested,
28 THE BULLETIN July 2022
Deeds were executed by the settlor,
ING (as trustee) and Peter and Anna
(as beneficiaries) purporting to vary the
terms of the trusts to, amongst other
things, extend the vesting date and
widen the class of beneficiaries (1991
Deeds).
• ING has at all times continued to
administer the trusts and, from the date
of the 1991 Deeds, has administered
the trusts in accordance with the terms
as amended by those Deeds, including
making distributions to beneficiaries
who only qualified as beneficiaries
following the 1991 Deeds.
The facts raise a number of questions
that the Court was required to consider,
including:
• Whether the trusts were validly
established by the 1977 Deeds even
though the trustee was not in existence
at that time.
• Whether the Victoria Street land was an
asset of the trusts even though the land
was purchased and held in the name of
Giuseppe and Norma, not in the name
of ING, and there was no express
declaration that they did so on behalf
of the trusts.
• Whether the trusts came to an end
when they vested in accordance with
the terms of the 1977 Deeds, or
whether they continued beyond that
date.
• Whether the 1991 Deeds were an
effective exercise of the amendment
power contained in the 1977 Deeds
(given that the trusts had, on the terms
of the 1977 Deeds, already vested
absolutely in the beneficiaries).
• Whether the 1991 Deeds operated
to create new trusts over the trust
property.
Each of these issues, both individually
and as a whole, created a number of
possible consequences for tax purposes,
including whether the income and expenses
in relation to the properties were properly
returned as part of the trust income and
taxed to the beneficiaries of the trust, and
whether any capital gains tax consequences
occurred on the purported vesting of
the trust and/or the possible creation of
new trusts pursuant to the 1991 Deeds.
The potential financial impact of these
consequences could be significant.
In considering the issues, the Court
took a pragmatic approach and in doing so
held that:
• The trusts were validly settled
and created by the 1977 Deeds
notwithstanding that the trustee (ING)
was not in existence at the time.
• Until ING came into existence,
Giuseppe and Norma were the trustees
of the trusts, given that in signing the
deeds, albeit in the erroneous belief
that they were doing so as directors of
ING and not in their personal capacity,
it can be inferred that they agreed to
undertake the role of administering the
trusts.
• Upon ING being incorporated, it took
over as trustee of the trust in place of
Giuseppe and Norma.
• The Victoria Street property, as well
as other properties subsequently
purchased in the name of ING,
were properly assets of the trusts.
Even though there was no express
declaration of trust in respect of
these properties, and in the case of
the Victoria Street property it was not
even held in the name of the trustee
of the trusts, there was a sufficient
body of evidence to support the
conclusion that the property was held
as an asset of the trusts. This evidence
included statements made by Giuseppe
and Norma to family members as
to the existence of the trust and the
properties being held in those trusts,
and all available financial statements
and tax returns showing the properties
as an asset of the trusts.
• The trusts did not come to an end on
the original vesting date, but instead
continued on the terms contained in
the 1977 Deeds until such time as they
were wound up.

TAX FILES
• The 1991 Deeds were a valid exercise
of the power of amendment contained
in the 1977 Deeds and did not
create new trusts. In this regard, it is
important to acknowledge that:
a. The power of amendment in the
1977 Deeds was a very broad power
and, on its words, did not contain
any limitation to it being exercised
after the trusts had vested in the
beneficiaries absolutely.
b. Peter and Anna, being the
beneficiaries in whom the original
trusts vested, consented to the
variations. This was important in
assisting the Court in overcoming
any perceived inconsistency with
the power of amendment being
capable of being exercised after the
trusts had vested.
c. The new trusts declared by the
1991 Deeds were consistent in their
purpose with the trusts declared
by the 1977 Deeds in that they
were, broadly, for the benefit of
Peter and Anna and their relatives.
As such, the Court found that the
substratum, or basic purpose, of
the trust had not changed. There
was sufficient continuity of trust
property, beneficiaries and the
constitution of the trusts for it
to be held that the 1991 Deeds
effected a continuation of the
existing trusts, not the creation of
new trusts.
The decision of the Court that the
original trusts did not come to an end and
that the amendment power was capable of
being exercised after the purported vesting
of the trusts is particularly interesting
given it contradicts the ATO’s statements
in Taxation Ruling TR 2018/6 that once
the vesting date has passed, the trust vests
and the interest of the beneficiaries in
the trust become fixed, and the power of
amendment cannot be exercised to extend
the vesting date of the trust. Whether the
Commissioner will review this position
in light of the McGown case remains to
be seen. If he does, however, it is likely
that any scope to amend the deed after
the vesting date will depend on the terms
of the amendment power and any other
relevant facts, such as beneficiary consent,
that may be required.
It is not uncommon for many of the
issues encountered in the McGowan case
to be uncovered by practitioners when
undertaking dealings for clients in relation
to their trusts, particularly in respect of
older trusts settled in the 1970s or 1980s.
There is often a lack of documentation
surrounding the acquisition of assets of
these trusts and it is surprisingly common
to find assets registered in the name of
persons or entities who are not the current
trustee of the trust.
The McGowan case is therefore
comforting in that it reassures practitioners
that these issues are not always fatal.
However, it should be noted that each
case revolves around the particular facts
of that case and while the McGowan
case is encouraging, it does not present
clients with a get out of jail free card in all
circumstances.
It is clear from the judgment of the
Court that the validity of the 1991 Deeds
to vary and continue the terms of the
original trusts relied heavily on the fact
that the amendment power did not, on
its terms, prohibit amendments being
made after the trust had vested in the
original beneficiaries, and the fact that
the original beneficiaries consented to the
exercise of the power after the vesting.
These factors, and particularly the broad
terms of the amendment clause, may not
always be present. It does, however, give
us hope that there sometimes can be a way
forward when these problematic issues are
encountered.
Tax Files is contributed by members of the
Taxation Committee of the Business Law Section
of the Law Council of South Australia. B
MEMBERS ON THE MOVE
MEMBERS ON
THE MOVE
Stephen McEwen QC wishes to advise
the profession that he now practices solely
as a mediator, from 30 A Market Street,
Adelaide.
Enquiries as to fees and availability can be
directed to:
Email: stevekmcewen@gmail.com
Mobile: 0407 554 305
STEPHEN MCEWEN QC
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 29

CLOUD COMPUTING
An Analysis of the Law Society
of South Australia’s Cloud
Computing Guidelines: Resilience
MARK FERRARETTO, SOLICITOR, EZRA LEGAL
This is the fourth of five articles that
analyse the Law Society’s Cloud
Computing Guidelines against candidate
cloud systems and on-premises systems.
My thesis is that the caution expressed in
the Guidelines should be applied as much
to on-premises systems as cloud systems to
obtain the best risk profile for a practice’s
information systems.
In this article we discuss system
resilience.
Resilience
This category is broader than the
others and comprises more loosely-related
topics, being system availability, incident
management, data portability and system
audits.
When analysing on-premises systems
against these categories we find a mixed
bag. Most on-premises systems are usually
comprised of a single computer, or a
single computer for a single purpose (one
practice management server for example).
Many on-premises systems also do not
have a Business Continuity Process or a
Disaster-Recovery Plan. Should a system
fail, outages can last for hours or even
days. Recovery is usually complex and can
be incomplete. For example, data may be
recovered to the end of the day before
the outage occurred, losing that day’s
transactions. Incident management is adhoc.
The main advantage of on-premises
systems in this context is that practitioners
usually have someone to yell at when
things go wrong.
Cloud systems generally perform
better in this category. Dropbox business
claims an availability of 99.9999999%
per year. That is an average downtime of
0.03 seconds each year. Google claims a
comparatively paltry 99.9%, or 8 hours, of
downtime per year, and provides service
credit if this metric is not met. Actionstep
promises a ‘Recovery Point Objective’,
a best-efforts target, of 4 hours for an
Table 4 Resilience
AVAILABILITY
INCIDENT
MANAGEMENT
outage and promises to restore data up
to 5 minutes before the outage occurred.
From an availability point of view, cloud
services win hands-down.
Incident management is usually more
structured with cloud providers, although
the regimens vary. Microsoft, for example,
sends push notifications to Microsoft 365
administrators as soon as an incident occurs.
It also publishes a list of past incidents and
resolutions. Dropbox conducts audits on a
regular basis, as does Microsoft. Microsoft
allows for additional audits to be performed
for an additional cost.
Overall, cloud systems are more
reliable, available and outages are managed
in a more structured and transparent way.
While data portability may seem a nonissue
with on-premises systems, a deeper
look indicates this may not be the case.
This is particularly so as many practices
store their ‘source of truth’ in a practice
management system and migrating data
out of practice management systems
is quite difficult, regardless of whether
the practice management system is on
premises or cloud-based.
Non-practice management data, such
as email and file data is more portable in
AUDIT
DATA PORTABILITY
Dropbox Not specified Not specified Not specified Files can be exported.
Dropbox Business 99.9999999% Not specified
Google Workspace
Microsoft 365
99.9% with
service credits
99.9% with
service credits
Access to audit data
once per year
Files can be exported
Not specified Not specified All data can be exported
Will notify user
ASAP
Standard auditsfree.
Custom audits
available
LEAP Not specified Not specified Not specified
Actionstep
On Premises
RPO: 5 min
RTO: 4 hours
Usually low
Yes
Depends on IT
provider
Not specified
Usually none
All data can be exported
Data can be exported on
request
Request data up to 20
days after termination
Depends on software
and PMS
the on-premises context as the data does
not need to be exported or downloaded.
However, with faster network connections,
export of email and file data from most
cloud systems is also becoming more
convenient.
Verdict
Overall, the much greater availability
of cloud systems would lead to cloud
winning this category. Outages can cost
firms thousands of dollars per hour in
lost income. The combination of very
high availability coupled with stronger
incident management and audit procedures
provided by cloud services offset the
perceived control offered by keeping
data on-premises. Most cloud service
data is portable, with the exception
being the practice management systems.
However, data portability in the practice
management system context is an issue
that comes with practice management
systems themselves, and not necessarily
because they are cloud-based.
Cloud takes this category
In our next, and final, article we wrap
up the analysis and give some thoughts
risk, cloud and on-premises systems. B
30 THE BULLETIN July 2022

LAW IN THE COMMUNITY
Urgent investment needed for
important justice reinvestment initiative
THE HON ROBYN LAYTON AO QC
Tiraapendi Wodli is a community-led
justice reinvestment project aimed at
addressing the high incarceration rates of
Aboriginal people from the Port Adelaide/
Enfield area. Justice reinvestment is about
investing in local community initiatives
that focus on early intervention and
prevention, and to address the underlying
issues that lead to involvement in the
criminal justice system.
This important project began in
earnest on 2018 and is a collaboration
between the Tiraapendi Wodli Aboriginal
leadership group, the local Aboriginal
community, Australian Red Cross and
Justice Reinvestment SA (JRSA). It aims to
reduce imprisonment rates by strengthening
the health, safety and lives of Aboriginal
families, children and young people. This
is achieved by focussing on four major
priority areas; the needs of families with
school aged children, young people, men,
mothers, and adults and young people in
contact with police and justice systems.
These needs are delivered using a strength
-based approach in a small building referred
to as “The Hub”, which has an “open
door” policy for Aboriginal people. It is
used by more than 350 people per month
and some 120 are regular service users.
The types of assistance that Aboriginal
people are able to obtain at the Hub
include regular monthly programs
with culturally connected workshops
and information sessions; leadership
opportunities and personal development
pathways; customised mental health and
wellbeing assistance; financial counselling;
navigating connections to other services
to meet needs; practical customised family
stability assistance; housing assistance;
work readiness and employment assistance;
and first aid training. There is also a
regular men’s yarning group that enable
and support men’s personal development;
information and education sessions;
drug and alcohol awareness; individual
counselling; “Handy Murras” workshops
(also available for women) to develop
practical skills such as home repairs; music
programs; fitness programs (also available
for women and include youth boxing);
learner driver accredited workshops (also
available for women and youth). There
are also women’s yarning circles that often
centre around a variety of creative arts
groups as well as a “family tree group” lead
by women Elders to trace and share family
histories to strengthen cultural connection
(also open to men and youth).
Tiraapendi Wodli receives three-way
support: non-financial support and advocacy
from Justice Reinvestment South Australia
(JRSA); funding from the SA Department
of Human Services (DHS); and critical
support in money and kind by the Australian
Red Cross (ARC). There is also additional
funding from some small but important
philanthropic funds. Tiraapendi Wodli
was successful in securing basic funding
from the former Liberal Government
of $850,000 over two years to ensure the
program could continue until 2023. This
combined funding enables some full time
and part time employees to deliver services
at the Hub. Additional person power is
provided by a small volunteer group of
enthusiastic and dedicated Aboriginal
Community Advocates who regularly
assist in the delivery of Hub services and
contribute to the overall program.
This combined funding is however
only enough to cover to cover the
delivery of basic services and does not
allow for any stretch programs to meet
other important needs, which often do
not involve large amounts of money.
By way of illustration, in recent months
after much advocacy work, an additional
$50,000 has been made available from SA
Department of Correctional Services to
enable much needed post prison release
services to be delivered through the Hub
for the next 12 months.
Also urgently being sought is an
amount of $50,000 for a period of 12
months commencing July 2022 to fund
an independent research body with
experience in justice reinvestment projects,
to implement a comprehensive, objective
and culturally informed research process.
The purpose of this research is to build
on project learnings and demonstrate the
effectiveness of the Justice Reinvestment
project, involve the community in the
process, and ensure confidence by
documenting its findings. This in turn can
be used to attracting ongoing financial
support to continue and expand the work
of Tiraapendi Wodli. The Project is always
seeking person time and funding support.
Please visit the website at http://www.
tiraapendiwodli.org.au/. B
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 31

RISK WATCH
Need to know now? “Last minute” is no
excuse for lack of clarity of instructions
GRANT FEARY, LEGAL RISK COUNSEL, LAW CLAIMS
The recent NSW case of About Life
Pty Ltd v Maddocks Lawyers [2021]
NSWSC 1370 is of critical interest to
all practitioners who deal in commercial
matters. The judgment contains extensive
consideration of solicitors’ duties when
acting in commercial transactions
involving “side deeds” and demonstrates
the high standard of care imposed upon
practitioners, especially where matters are
being dealt with urgently.
THE FACTS
The client company (About Life)
was successful – to the tune of some
$13m – in its claim against the solicitors
(Maddocks) who had acted in relation
to an assignment of a lease. About Life
ran a chain of organic supermarkets but
needed, for cash flow purposes, to sell one
of its most successful stores (in Double
Bay, Sydney). An agreement was reached
with a competitor, Harris Farms, for
Harris Farms to purchase the Double Bay
store and in particular for Harris Farms
to take an assignment of the company’s
leasehold interest on the Double Bay store.
The Double Bay store was in a prime
position in a very good shopping centre
and the lease of that store was a valuable
commodity.
Some three years prior to the
transaction in question the company had
however granted a right of first refusal
(in what was known as a “side deed”) in
relation to any assignment of the lease of
the Double Bay store to Woolworths. This
was part of a separate transaction in which
About Life acquired several small grocery
stores close to Double Bay owned by a
subsidiary of Woolworths.
When dealing with the sale to Harris
Farms, representatives of About Life
had, unfortunately, forgotten about the
Woolworths’ right of first refusal and the
solicitors for the company did not seek full
and timely instructions as to whether any
such right existed. Woolworths found out
about the impending sale to Harris Farms
and successfully sought an injunction
restraining the sale on the basis that they
had not been given the chance to exercise
their right of first refusal.
The circumstances in which Maddocks
acted involved some urgency. Maddocks
were instructed on 13 April, 2017 which
was the day before the Easter weekend.
About Life had received an irrevocable
offer from Harris Farms to buy the Double
Bay store for $8m, which offer was open
for acceptance until 21 April, 2017.
A draft contract prepared by Harris
Farms’ lawyers was provided to Maddocks
on Thursday 13 April, 2017 however at
that time About Life had not yet agreed
the purchase price. On 21 April, 2017 (a
Friday) Harris Farms agreed to increase
the sale price to $10m which price
was accepted by About Life. This was
communicated to Maddocks by email from
About Life at 9:23 am with the sale to
proceed that day.
At 4:37 pm on 21 April, 2017
Maddocks sent an email to the directors
of About Life regarding changes to be
made to the contract which included the
following question:
32
THE BULLETIN July 2022

RISK WATCH
“Are you able to confirm that to the best
of your knowledge it [the lease provided to
Maddocks] is an accurate and complete copy
of the lease? (It appears to be, however if for
example there are any side-deeds or variations,
then the document is not ‘complete’).”
The principal director of About Life,
Ms Phillips, read the email at about the
time she was leaving the office to go to her
daughter’s 18 th birthday celebration. The
email did not trigger Ms Phillips’ memory
that in 2014 About Life had in fact entered
into a side-deed with Woolworths which
granted Woolworths a “right of first refusal”
should About Life seek to assign its
leasehold interest in the Double Bay store.
The sale proceeded on the basis that there
were no relevant side-deeds.
Approximately one month later, a
representative of Woolworths asked
Ms Phillips if About Life had sold the
Double Bay store to Harris Farms. This
was when Ms Phillips remembered that
Woolworths had a right of first refusal to
the assignment of the Double Bay lease.
NEGLIGENCE FOUND
The Court found that Ms Phillips’
memory would have been triggered had
proper instructions been taken from
About Life earlier in the transaction rather
than late in the afternoon on the day the
contract of sale was due to be signed. It
was also said by Rees J that
“while, in theory, it was not ‘too late’ for About
Life to act upon [the] request for instruction,
the request was made so late, in urgent
circumstances and inadequately explained such
that it was not understood by the client, and
obviously so. As a consequence Maddocks did
not discharge its duty to the client to protect the
client’s interests in the proposed transaction.”
The Judge was therefore critical of the
rather elliptical way in which the question
of side-deeds was raised, i.e. it was not a
direct question (”Are there any side-deeds?”)
but merely an enquiry as to whether the
entire lease had been provided.
DAMAGES
The damages payable by Maddocks
were assessed at nearly $16m being “the
difference between the trajectory which the company
took, being external administration, and the
trajectory it would have taken if it had entered
into a contract with Woolworths at the outset.
About Life’s damages are the gap between the two
trajectories.”
CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE
About Life was found to have failed to
take reasonable care of its own interests
because, of course, the Directors – in
particular Ms Phillips – knew of the sidedeed
and had access to it as part of the
company’s records. Rees J assessed the
company’s contributory negligence at 20%.
Her Honour found that where a
company is proposing to sell a substantial
asset it is reasonable for the company’s
officers to check the company’s records
in respect of that asset to ensure that
the solicitor is provided with accurate
and important details about the asset
in question. Her Honour also found
however that where the client is new
to the solicitor, is giving instructions
on an urgent matter of high value and
importance, is stressed and distracted
(as Ms Phillips was found to have been)
the solicitor should bear greater
responsibility to elicit this information.
Maddocks therefore had to bear 80% of
the loss assessed, around $13m.
CONCLUSION
The judgment, although lengthy
(some 736 paragraphs), will repay
careful consideration by all practitioners
especially as regards the duties imposed
on practitioners dealing with urgent
commercial transactions.
One wonders whether the same result
would have been reached by the Court had
Maddocks’ enquiry regarding any sidedeed
been more directly worded and sent
earlier than the “last minute”. I suspect that
even if the Court found a breach of duty
in those (postulated) circumstances, the
assessment of the contributory negligence
would have been much less favourable to
the client company.
The risk management lessons are
therefore to seek full instructions in clear
and direct terms as soon as possible.
Practitioners who are insured with
the SA Professional Indemnity Insurance
Scheme have access to a number of
document packages — including
documents relating to Commercial Leasing
and the Acquisition and Sale of Businesses
— which provide a good starting point
when seeking instructions in commercial
matters. Risk Management Practice
Packages (lawsocietysa.asn.au)
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 33

FAMILY LAW CASE NOTES
Family Law Case Notes
CRAIG NICHOL & KELEIGH ROBINSON, THE FAMILY LAW BOOK
PROPERTY – DE FACTO THRESHOLDS
– “BREAKDOWN” OF A DE FACTO
RELATIONSHIP IS THE TRIGGER POINT
FOR JURISDICTION – AGGREGATE
OF CIRCUMSTANCES SUPPORTED
CONCLUSION THAT RELATIONSHIP HAD
BROKEN DOWN
In Fairbairn v Radecki [2022] HCA 18
(11 May, 2022) the High Court (Kiefel
CJ, Gageler, Keane, Gordon, Edelman,
Steward and Gleeson JJ) heard an appeal
from a decision of the Full Court of the
Family Court of Australia.
The New South Wales Trustee &
Guardian (Trustee) as case guardian
for the de facto wife sought orders for
sale of a home to pay the wife’s care
accommodation. The de facto husband
argued the Court lacked jurisdiction as the
parties had not separated.
While the trial judge agreed; the Full
Court found that decision contained error
as it imputed an intention to separate
rather than assessing indicia.
The High Court held (from [29]):
“A de facto relationship will have
broken down when, having regard to all
the circumstances, the parties no longer
‘have a relationship as a couple living
together on a genuine domestic basis’. …
[30] … It is the ‘breakdown’ or ‘end’
of a de facto relationship that is the trigger
point for the … Court to be seized of
jurisdiction to make a property settlement
order … It would make no sense for
… jurisdiction to arise before a de facto
relationship had ended …
( … )
[33] … [C]ohabitation of a residence
… is not a necessary feature of ‘living
34 THE BULLETIN July 2022
together’. … Two people … may
not reside in the same residence, but
nonetheless be in a de facto relationship
…
[34] The fact that here the appellant
was placed into an aged care facility may
be relevant to the existence or breakdown
of a de facto relationship … but it could
not … be determinative of that issue. …
( … )
[46] Whilst there had been a degree of
mutual commitment to a shared life, that
commitment ceased when the respondent
refused to make the ‘necessary or desirable
adjustments’ in support of the appellant
and … acted contrary to her needs. ( … )
[47] In aggregate, these circumstances
support the conclusion that there had
been a breakdown in the parties’ de facto
relationship …”
The appeal was allowed, with the
appeal to the Full Court dismissed.
PROPERTY – COURT ERRED IN
CONSIDERING HUSBAND’S DEFECTIVE
DISCLOSURE WHEN ASSESSING
CONTRIBUTIONS – INCLUDING
CAPITALISED VALUE OF PENSION IN ASSET
POOL AND CONSIDERING PENSION UNDER
S 75(2) IS “DOUBLE DIPPING”
In Mayhew & Fairweather [2022]
FedCFamC1A 53 (12 April, 2022) the Full
Court (Austin, Tree and Gill JJ) heard a
husband’s appeal from orders of Wilson
J for a 60:40 division in the wife’s favour
after a relationship of between 34 and 36
years.
The husband’s appeal grounds
included the treatment of his alleged
defective disclosure and double counting
of his pension, where its capitalised value
was included in the asset pool, but also
considered as part of the wife’s s75(2)
adjustment.
As to the husband’s defective
disclosure, the Full Court said (from [13]):
“… [I]n order to be considered
under s 79(4)(a) or (b) of the Act, the
defective disclosure must relate to a
direct or indirect, financial or nonfinancial,
contribution ‘to the acquisition,
conservation or improvement of any of
the property of the parties to the marriage
or either of them’…
[14] The usual way in which defective
disclosure is taken into account is either
by adding a sum to the pool, reflective of
an estimate of the value of undisclosed
property … or under s 75(2)(o) of the
Act. … [W]e are satisfied that by factoring
it in to the analysis of contributions, the
primary judge erred … ”
As to the treatment of the husband’s
pension, the Full Court continued (from
[23]):
“ … [I]t seems inconceivable that the
quantum of the income stream was not
expressly taken into account in arriving at
its notional capital value, and its assurance
likely was reflected in the capitalisation rate
applied to the income stream, and hence
it was already valued by reference to that
feature. … [E]ven if that were not so …
how his Honour could have been satisfied
that some aspect or quality of the pension
had not already been taken into account in
arriving at its notional value, is completely
unclear. To thus use both the income
stream and its assurance as the justification
… for an adjustment of 2.5 per cent … is
to ‘double dip’ and thus to err.”

FAMILY LAW CASE NOTES
The appeal was allowed and the case
remitted for rehearing.
CHILDREN – ARTIFICIAL CONCEPTION
PROCEDURE – RESPONDENT LACKED
STANDING TO BRING A PARENTING
APPLICATION WHERE SHE AND THE
DECEASED MOTHER WERE NOT IN A DE
FACTO RELATIONSHIP
In Wickham & Toledano [2022]
FedCFamC1F 32 (3 February, 2022) Carew
J heard an application for parenting orders
by the maternal aunt and her husband in
respect of twins born in 2021 where their
birth mother died in that year.
The respondent (Ms B) was the former
partner of the late mother. After a short
engagement and at least five separations,
their same sex relationship ended in April,
2021.
The interim issue before the Court was
Ms B’s standing to apply for a parenting
order.
It was agreed that per s 60H(1) of the
Act, the respondent was a parent if she
and the birth mother were in a de facto
relationship at the time of carrying out of
the artificial conception procedure which
resulted in the birth of the children ([20]).
Carew J said (from [21]):
“Whether or not Ms B and the
respondent lived in a de facto relationship
at the time the artificial conception
procedure was carried out is a question of
fact …
( … )
[51] … [T]he relationship between the
respondent and Ms B was short. … It was
an intense and volatile relationship. They
maintained their own residences despite
Ms B spending time, including overnights,
at the respondent’s residence … They
owned no property together. They had no
joint accounts. …
[52] It could not be said that [at the
time of the procedure] … that they had a
relationship as a couple living together on
a genuine domestic basis.
[53] Accordingly, I find that the
respondent is not a parent within the
meaning of the Act.”
The Court then found (at [75]) that
Ms B was not a person concerned with
the care, welfare and development of the
children within the meaning of s 65C(c)
(for reasons including that she had “no
relationship with the children”), such that
her application was dismissed and the case
was otherwise listed for a final hearing.
PROPERTY – INTERIM ORDERS TO SELL
THE FORMER MATRIMONIAL HOME ARE
NOT FINAL ORDERS SOLELY BECAUSE
THEY RENDERED THE WIFE’S FINAL
APPLICATION OTIOSE – WIFE RETAINED AN
ABILITY TO PURCHASE THE HOME
In Kartal & Templeman [2022]
FedCFamC1A 46 (4 April, 2022), Austin
J, heard a wife’s application for leave to
appeal against interim orders made by
a magistrate in the Magistrates Court
of Western Australia for the sale of the
former matrimonial home.
The parties had significant debt.
The wife sought interim orders for the
property to be transferred into her sole
name so that she could re-finance the
debt. The husband sought the interim sale
of the property and for the debts to be
discharged from the proceeds of sale. The
magistrate made orders in the terms of the
husband’s application. The wife appealed.
Austin J said (from [17]):
“The wife considers the sale orders
are final because their execution would
preclude her from pressing her application
for orders granting her sole proprietorship
of the former family home at … trial.
While it is true the sale orders render
otiose her application for final relief
… that consequence does not convert
interlocutory orders into final orders.
[18] The orders are not ‘final’ because
they do not exhaust the Court’s statutory
power and are not dispositive of the
parties’ respective applications …
( … )
[22] … If the former family home is
sold according to the orders, nothing stops
the wife from purchasing the property on
the open market with the aid of the same
financial assistance she had envisaged …
to … acquire the husband’s one-half share.
…
( … )
[59] … The wife’s application was
to stop the sale by acquiring exclusive
legal title in the property. Her aim was to
preserve the home for herself …
[60] What then … brought the wife’s
application for an interim alteration of
property interests within legal principles?
Why should she have been able to preempt
the outcome of the adjustment
proceedings … by acquiring exclusive title
… ? Why should the husband have been
deprived of access to his share of the net
equity … ? These were questions she did
not answer … ”
The wife’s application was dismissed
with costs. B
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 35

BOOKSHELF
D O’Brien
3 rd ed The Federation
Press 2021
HB $180
SPECIAL LEAVE TO APPEAL
Abstract from Federation Press
This much anticipated third edition of Special
Leave to Appeal for the first time incorporates
the significant 2016 amendments to Part 41
of the High Court Rules 2004 (Cth). These
amendments established, among other things, that
the determination of most applications is now
on the papers, without an oral hearing. This book
is as comprehensive a statement of the law and
practice of applying for special leave as there is.
With reference to over 2000 decisions and relevant
statutory provisions, this work is an invaluable aid
to preparing to make or meet an application
J Trone
10 th ed LexisNexis 2021
PB $161
LUMB, MOENS & TRONE THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA ANNOTATED
Abstract from LexisNexis
This work provides commentary and
analysis focusing on the most important
decisions concerning the Commonwealth
Constitution. In addition to the detailed
annotations of each provision of the
Constitution, the Introduction provides a clear
discussion of other important constitutional
concepts such as federalism, the separation
of powers, judicial review and proportionality.
The tenth edition has been updated to
incorporate the most recent case law and
statutory amendments
M Cull
LexisNexis 2021
PB $137
ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN FINANCIAL PLANNING
Abstract from LexisNexis
Ethics and Professional Practice in Financial
Planning is a comprehensive resource that
brings together different aspects of ethics that
comprise compulsory education requirements
for both existing and new entrants to financial
planning. It discusses the application to financial
planning of ethical development, theories
and decision frameworks. Real-life scenarios,
such as Storm Financial and other cases
handled by the Australian Financial Complaints
Authority (AFCA), illustrate the hard
consequences when things go wrong and
the role that process plays in ensuring and
demonstrating ethical behaviour
ANNOTATED FRANCHISING CODE OF CONDUCT
Abstract from LexisNexis
Annotated Franchising Code of Conduct provides
some interpretative guidance based on the
limited but growing number of decided cases,
international jurisprudence where applicable,
and the author’s practical experience over 40
years of legal practice. This 2nd edition is an
annotation of Compilation 3 of the Code, and
is current as at 1 July, 2021. An essential guide
to Australian franchising for lawyers and nonlawyers
alike.
S Giles
2 nd ed LexisNexis 2021
PB $163
36
THE BULLETIN July 2022

A roundup of recent Society
meetings & conferences
ROSEMARY PRIDMORE, EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Homeless Legal Donor Circle Impact
Update
4 TMay 2022
he President, Justin Stewart-Rattray
attended a presentation by a Panel
(headed by the Honourable John Sulan
QC) as to impact of the Homeless
Legal Service on homelessness in South
Australia.
Meeting with the Aboriginal Legal
Rights Movement
11 May 2022
The CEO of the Aboriginal Legal
Rights Movement (ALRM), Mr Chris
Larkins spoke about issues currently being
experienced by the ALRM at a meeting
with Justin Stewart-Rattray and Stephen
Hodder. The issues included funding to
the ALRM and legal aid services generally;
court services in remote areas and
conflicts; and the importance to Aboriginal
children of raising the age of criminal
responsibility.
Leader of the Opposition and Shadow
Treasurer
14 June 2022
At the invitation of the leader of the
Liberal Party, David Speirs and the Shadow
Treasurer, Matt Cowdrey, Justin Stewart-
Rattray and Paul Black (Co-Chair of the
Accident Compensation Committee) met
with these members of the Opposition
to discuss the Society’s submission in
relation to the Return to Work (Permanent
Impairment Assessment) Bill 2022.
Joint Rules Advisory Committee
16 June 2022
Justin Stewart-Rattray, Alex Lazarevich
(Chair of the Civil Litigation Committee)
and Philip Adams represented the Society
at a meeting of the Joint Rules Advisory
Committee. Various potential amendments
to the Uniform Civil Rules were discussed,
along with a proposal by the Society that a
Commercial and Expedited Commercial List
be introduced (to be further considered by
JRAC) and additions to the draft Uniform
Special Statutory Rules 2022 drafted by
the Director of Ethics and Practice and
proposed by the Society, in relation to the
freezing of funds in legal practitioners’ trust
accounts under Court Order.
Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary
Standing Committee
17 June 2022
Representing the Society in an
appearance before the Aboriginal Lands
Parliamentary Standing Committee, Justin
Stewart-Rattray and Richard Bradshaw
(Co Deputy Chair of the Aboriginal Issues
Committee) spoke to the Society’s written
submission, which had been informed by
the Aboriginal Issues Committee.
Quarterly Law Council Directors’ and
associated meetings
18 – 19 June 2022
Justin Stewart-Rattray and Stephen
Hodder variously represented the Society
at quarterly meetings of Directors of the
Law Council of Australia (LCA), CEOs of
Law Societies, Joint CEOs (Law Society and
Bar Association), Law Society Presidents
and the Conference of Law Societies,
which were held in Darwin. Dr James
Popple, newly appointed CEO of the
LCA, was introduced to the Constituent
Body representatives and attended various
meetings. Matters discussed included the
production by the Law Society of NSW of
a new edition of the profile of solicitors; the
LCA’s Equitable Briefing Policy; coercive
control trauma informed practice; bystander
training; unconscious bias training; and
anti-money laundering (the view of the new
Federal Government on the inclusion of the
legal profession not yet known).
ANU Panel on Facial Recognition
27 June 2022
The President-Elect, James Marsh
stepped up at very short notice (in place
of a very ill Justin Stewart-Rattray) as
a Panel Member at a forum on the use
of facial recognition technology, which
was convened by the Australian National
University. The Adelaide City Council’s
consideration as to whether to purchase
facial recognition software for use with
new cameras to be installed in Rundle
Mall provided the impetus for the forum.
Shortly before the forum, the Council
voted against doing so. The Society
noted the need for appropriate legislation,
restrictions on the purposes for which the
technology could be used, data security
and rights of review. B
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 37

GAZING IN THE GAZETTE
3 MAY 2022 – 2 JUN 2022
A MONTHLY REVIEW OF ACTS, APPOINTMENTS,
REGULATIONS AND RULES COMPILED BY MASTER ELIZABETH
OLSSON OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
ACTS PROCLAIMED
Disability Inclusion (Restrictive Practices—NDIS)
Amendment Act 2021 (No 18 of 2021)
Commencement: 30 May 2022
Gazetted: 12 May 2022, Gazette
No. 29 of 2022
South Australian Public Health (COVID-19)
Amendment Act 2022 (No 1 of 2022)
Commencement: 24 May 2022
Gazetted: 24 May 2022, Gazette
No. 33 of 2022
ACTS ASSENTED TO
Nil
APPOINTMENTS
Magistrates Court Judicial Registrar
on a part-time basis for a term of seven years
commencing on 5 May 2022 and expiring on
4 May 2029
Timothy David Griffin
Jeanette Barnes
Gazetted:
5 May 2022, Gazette
No. 26 of 2022
Master of the District Court of South
Australia
On an auxiliary basis
From 12 May 2022 to 30 June 2022
John Gerard Fahey
Gazetted:
5 May 2022, Gazette
No. 26 of 2022
Magistrate
Magistrate of the Youth Court of
REGULATIONS PROMULGATED (3 MAY 2022 – 2 JUNE 2022)
South Australia
On an auxiliary basis
From 12 May 2022 to 30 June 2022
John Gerard Fahey
Derek Yorke Nevill Sprod
Yoong Fee Chin
From 16 July 2022 to 30 June 2023
Teresa Marie Anderson
Gazetted: 5 May 2022, Gazette
No. 26 of 2022
Supreme Court of South Australia
Puisne Judge
effective from 2 June 2022
His Honour Judge Adam Patrick Kimber
Gazetted: 2 June 2022, Gazette
No. 35 of 2022
Magistrate
South Australian Civil and
Administrative Tribunal
Member
Youth Court of South Australia
Ancillary Magistrate
South Australian Civil and
Administrative Tribunal
Member
From 2 June 2022
Melanie Kate Burton
Gazetted: 2 June 2022, Gazette
No. 35 of 2022
Police Disciplinary Tribunal
Panel Member:
Protective Security Officers
Disciplinary Tribunal
Panel Member:
REGULATION NAME REG NO. DATE GAZETTED
from 2 June 2022 until 28 April 2023
Melanie Kate Burton
Gazetted: 2 June 2022, Gazette
No. 35 of 2022
Cross-Border Magistrate
for a term of five years commencing on 2 June
2022 and expiring on 1 June 2027
Youth Court of South Australia
Ancillary Magistrate
From 2 June 2022
Matthew Alexander Holgate
Gazetted: 2 June 2022, Gazette
No. 35 of 2022
RULES
Harbors and Navigation (Fees) Amendment Regulations 2022 20 of 2022 12 May 2022 Gazette No. 29 of 2022
Motor Vehicles (Fees) Amendment Regulations 2022 21 of 2022 12 May 2022 Gazette No. 29 of 2022
Motor Vehicles (National Heavy Vehicles Registration Fees) Amendment
Regulations 2022
Rail Safety National Law National Regulations (Reporting Requirements)
Amendment Regulations 2022
22 of 2022 12 May 2022 Gazette No. 29 of 2022
23 of 2022 26 May 2022 Gazette No. 34 of 2022
Native Vegetation (Repeal of Regulation 23A) Amendment Regulations 2022 24 of 2022 26 May 2022 Gazette No. 34 of 2022
Fair Work (General) (Declared Employer) Amendment Regulations 2022 25 of 2022 2 June 2022 Gazette No. 35 of 2022
LawCare
The LawCare Counselling
Service is for members of
the profession or members
of their immediate family
whose lives may be adversely
affected by personal or
professional problems.
If you have a problem, speak
to the LawCare counsellor
Dr Jill before it overwhelms you.
Dr Jill is a medical practitioner
highly qualified to treat social
and psychological problems,
including alcoholism and drug
abuse.
The Law Society is pleased to
be able to cover the gap
payments for two consultations
with Dr Jill per patient per
financial year.
All information divulged to the
LawCare counsellor is totally
confidential.
To contact Dr Jill 08 8110 5279
7 days a week
LawCare is a member service
made possible by the generous
support of Arthur J. Gallagher
38
THE BULLETIN July 2022

CLASSIFIEDS
VALUATIONS
MATRIMONIAL
DECEASED ESTATES
INSURANCE
TAX REALIGNMENT
INSOLVENCY
FURNITURE
ANTIQUES, COLLECTIONS
BUSINESS ASSETS
MACHINERY
MOTOR VEHICLES
CARS, BOATS, PLANES
CITY & COUNTRY
ROGER KEARNS
Ph: 08 8342 4445
FAX: 08 8342 4446
MOB: 0418 821 250
E: auctions@senet.com.au
Certified Practising Valuer NO.346
Auctioneers & Valuers Association
of Australia
VALUER
Commercial & Residential
Real Estate
Matrimonial
Deceased Estates
Rentals etc.
Experienced Court
Expert Witness
Liability limited by a scheme approved under
Professional Standards Legislation
JANET HAWKES
Cert. Practising Valuer, AAPI
0409 674 122
janet@gaetjens.com.au
Take Your
Business Mobile
boylen.com.au
P (08) 8233 9433
Forensic
Accounting
Simple, clear,
unbiased advice,
without fear or
favour.
Hugh t. +61 McPharlin 8 431 80 82FCA
d m. +61 +61 8401 8139 712 1130 908
m +61 419 841 780
e. ahi@andrewhillinvestigations.com.au
e hmcpharlin@nexiaem.com.au
w nexiaem.com.au
Consulting Engineers
Australian Technology Pty Ltd
for expert opinion on:
• Vehicle failure and accidents
• Vehicle design
• Industrial accidents
• Slips and falls
• Occupational health and safety
• Statistical analysis
W. Douglass R. Potts
MAOQ, FRAI, FSAE-A, FIEAust,
CPEng, CEng, FIMechE
8271 4573
0412 217 360
wdrpotts@gmail.com
Andrew Hill Investigations
Investigating:
ABN 68 573 745 238
• workplace conduct
• fraud
• unprofessional conduct
• probity
Support services:
• forensic computing analysis
• transcription services
• information sessions, particularly
for HR practitioners on the
investigative process
• policy development.
PO Box 3626
Andrew Hill
Andrew Hill
Investigations
NORWOOD SA t. 5067 +61 8 431 80 82
m. +61 401 712 908
e. ahi@andrewhillinvestigations.com.au
Fellow AIPI
Licensed Investigation Agents
& Process Servers
Servicing the Mid North, Yorke &
Eyre Peninsula`s and Outback of
South Australia with:
• Process Serving
• Property Lockouts
• Investigations
• Missing Persons
OUTBACK BUSINESS SERVICES
P.O. Box 591,
PORT AUGUSTA. 5700
P: 0418 838 807
info@outbackbusinessservices.com.au
The Litigation Assistance Fund (LAF) is a
non-profit charitable trust for which the
Law Society acts as trustee. Since 1992
it has provided funding assistance to
approximately 1,500 civil claimants.
LAF receives applications for funding
assistance from solicitors on behalf of
civil claimants seeking compensation/
damages who are unable to meet the
fees and/or disbursements of prosecuting
their claim. The applications are
subjected to a means test and a merits
test. Two different forms of funding exist –
Disbursements Only Funding (DOF) and
Full Funding.
LAF funds itself by receiving a relatively
small portion of the monetary proceeds
(usually damages) achieved by the
claimants whom it assists. Claimants who
received DOF funding repay the amount
received, plus an uplift of 100% on that
amount. Claimants who received Full
Funding repay the amount received, plus
15% of their damages. This ensures LAF’s
ability to continue to provide assistance
to claimants.
LAF recommends considering whether
applying to LAF is the best course in the
circumstances of the claim. There may be
better methods of obtaining funding/
representation. For example, all Funding
Agreements with LAF give LAF certain
rights including that funding can be
withdrawn and/or varied.
For further information, please visit
the Law Society’s website or contact
Annie MacRae on 8229 0263.
Improve your Bottom Line!
Stop suffering
outdated technology
Practice Management
1800 199 682
thewiseowl@wiseowllegal.com.au
www.wiseowllegal.com.au
Family Law - Melbourne
Marita Bajinskis
formerly of
Howe Martin & Associates
is a Principal at
Blackwood Family Lawyers
in Melbourne
Marita is an Accredited Family
Law Specialist and can assist with
all family law matters including:
• matrimonial and de facto
• property settlements
• superannuation
• children’s issues
3/224 Queen Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
T: 03 8672 5222
Marita.Bajinskis@
blackwoodfamilylawyers.com.au
www.blackwoodfamilylawyers.com.au
CONSULTING
ACTUARIES
FOR PROFESSIONAL
ACTUARIAL ADVICE ON
- Personal Injury -
- Workers Compensation -
- Value Of Superannuation -
Contact
Deborah Jones, Geoff Keen
or Victor Tien
08 8232 1333
contact@brettandwatson.com.au
www.brettandwatson.com.au
Ground Floor
157 Grenfell Street
Adelaide SA 5000
July 2022 THE BULLETIN 39

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