Welcome to the April edition of our Newsletter.
Easter is now behind us, and we are travelling through the year with speed as always. I trust everyone had the opportunity to have a restful break over Easter and hopefully some nice time with family and friends.
The recent intense heat has made the countryside tinder dry, somewhat later than usual given the earlier summer rains we had. The land is screaming out for a drink, so I hope we have some decent rain soon, a drizzle over the last twenty-four hours won’t touch the surface so hoping for some more soaking rains for our many country farming clients soon.
I mentioned recently about a client who experienced quite a sophisticated scam resulting in a considerable loss. Just recently another client has had to engage our services to assist with another fraud. Concerningly, it seems that the prevalence of fraud is simply overwhelming and difficult for people to avoid. In the latest case, the client operates a personal services business in the health and wellness space and in the course of their business sells an awful lot of gift vouchers. Unbeknown to them, people have recently been purchasing gift vouchers with fraudulent credit cards and then selling the vouchers online for less than their face value. The client’s Bank has unilaterally started taking funds for the fraudulent transactions back out of their account with little consultation.
In one instance of an unusually large gift voucher transaction the client actually contacted the Bank to qualify the legitimacy of the potential transaction and was given the all clear, only to months later have the funds reversed out of their account.
It’s another warning to be extremely vigilant as to how we transact in the world of electronic online finance.
In other matters legal, March saw the South Australian Voice to Parliament elections be run and won, with a surprisingly low voter turnout of approximately 10% of eligible voters actually voting. It will be interesting to watch the progress and impact of the SA Voice to Parliament as the body commences its work.
Also, in March the Government released the latest iteration of the Advance Care Directive (ACD) form. Like all things bureaucratic it has expanded, from a six-page form to a twelve-page form! The departmental figures attached to this document are keen to make it broadly accessible, and to make it a document that does not require the assistance of a lawyer to prepare. Now that’s an outcome I’d be happy to assist with, however in my experience if we don’t prepare an ACD when we take instructions for a will or power of attorney, there would be many more people out there without one at all.
Trying to convince the authors of the ACD about the practicalities of their document appears a pointless exercise. However, in the spirit of keeping lawyers out of it, feel free to go the advance care directive website operated by SA Health and review their sixty-page guide booklet which includes an ACD for completion!
There is a fair amount happening with new legislation moving through both State and Federal Parliaments which will invariably impact us all. Keeping an eye on their progress and potential impact should be something everyone should try and do, even just a little.
I trust you all have a healthy, happy and successful April and as always if you have any questions or concerns in areas where we may be able to assist, feel free to give us a call, as we say… we’re here to help!
Please telephone our main office number on (08) 8231 6100 or email reception@ezralegal.com.au.
For information on the range of legal advice and services that we provide, head to:
Michael Fabbro
Practice Principal
Ezra Legal
