Stay at Home Order in NSW

 Dear all 

The following message is from the NSW Government. Please keep in mind and stay safe: 

The COVID-19 lockdown has been extended. COVID-19 is spreading fast. Stay safe, stay at home.
COVID-19 is very serious. It can cause severe illness and death in people of all ages. People with COVID-19 are now in hospital in NSW.
Stay at home unless leaving for an essential reason, then

• One member of the household ONLY should leave home to shop for food once each day

• You may leave home to seek medical care, exercise, or for essential work and education

• You can leave home to get a COVID test or get vaccinated

Do not have visitors to your house. Do not have family visitors if they do not live at your house.

Everyone in your family should get tested if anyone has COVID-19 symptoms or has come into contact with someone with COVID-19. 

Wear masks indoors. Protect yourself and others.

Existing restrictions remain in place for regional and rural NSW until midnight Friday 16 July. 

Fei Wang

12 July 2021

Update re Prudentia Legal IP Phone System

All of our staff have been returned to work at office.

One of the advance working at office is we can now use our IP-Phone.

We also some new staff including Mia, Frank, Arthur joining us.

For everyone to better understand the function of our IP-Phone, I have found the Phone Handset Manual for your easy reference:

Prudentia Legal - Digital World (google.com)

You may need to sign in using our law firm email account to our internal website and to check the link in the relevant pages and find the PDF of the Manual.

Everyone must ensure yourself familiar with the operation of the handset, including but not limited to the transfer, forward, conference etc. for our handset.

Everyone must also ensure yourself familiar with your mobile phone handset 3-way conference function.

We believe above ability is foundation and basic skill for your office work.

Phone Use Policy:

For most of us, you should have a company mobile phone. Therefore，

When call Aus Mobile, please use your mobile phone as our mobile plan includes unlimited Aus mobile alls.

When call Aus landline, you can use mobile phone or the IP phone.

When call overseas, as most of our mobile plan does not have international call credit, please use your IP phone.

Update

Initially we set up our IP phone system inside our company, physically. So that we have our own physical server in our Melbourne office for the IP phone system. It cause the problem of maintenance, the potential movement issue and physical allocation of the phone handset issue (meaning we cannot use the phone at home or elsewhere except the handset must be in our offices -- Melbourne or Sydney -- as we have to use special VPN to connect the phone handset to our Melbourne office).

Now we are arranging our IT support to upload the server to cloud for our IP Phone System.

We expecting the upgrading will be finished by the end of Jan 2021. Your extension number may be reassigned and every handset may have its own external number such as 02 87053708 which would be your direct number. Whether we should include our direct number on our business card and email signature will be discussed at a later stage.

After this, IF we have to work from home, one staff may bring the handset home and plug into a router connecting to internet, then the staff can use it at home and all internal extension number can be used easily.

Thanks for your attention.

Fei Wang

Australian Slang

 Australians can be difficult to understand, because we’re fond of shortening or changing words – especially adding an “io”, “o” or “ah” sound to the end of a word.

Interestingly, Australia became the only country in the world to have popular fast food chain McDonalds rebrand their signs to say “Maccas” in some locations, because it’s what most Australians call it.

As it can be pretty confusing, here’s a definitive guide to Australian slang.

General

• Arvo or S'arvo: means afternoon or this afternoon. “Meet you there this arvo!”
• Bloody oath: means of course. “Bloody oath I want to come to your party.”
• Crikey: is an expression of surprise. “Crikey, that car was driving fast!”
• Dodgy: this refers to something or someone that is poor quality, unreliable or suspicious. For example, a dodgy sandwich may be spoiled, while a dodgy area means an area that is unsafe. “Let’s not eat here. That food looks dodgy.”
• Full on: means intense. “That exam was full on.”
• G'day: means hello. “G’day, how are you?”
• How ya going/How’s it going: this refers to someone wanting to know how you are feeling. “Hi, how’s it going?”
• No dramas/no worries/she’ll be right: these phrases mean that there is no concern. “If you can’t make it to the movies, no dramas.”
• Stop mucking around: means to stop wasting time. “We're going to be late, stop mucking around!”
• Thongs: means flip flops. “The sand might be hot so wear your thongs.”

Emotion 

• Aggro: means angry, aggressive or something that may cause aggravation. “I hope my housemate cleaned up their dirty dishes because I don’t want to get aggro.”
• Devo: means devastated. “I’m so devo our holiday is over.”

Food & Social 

• Avo: is referring to avocado. “Would you like avo on your sandwich?”
• Barbie: means barbeque. “Let’s buy some sausages for the barbie.”
• Brekky: means breakfast. “Would you like to grab some brekky tomorrow?”
• Crack a cold one/Crack a tinny: these both mean having a beer. “It’s Friday night. Let’s crack a cold one!”
• Cuppa: means a cup of tea or coffee. “Would you like a cuppa?”
• I’m stuffed: if this is following a meal, it means they are full, while if it is said after a long day, it may mean they are tired! “I can’t eat another bite, I’m stuffed!”
• It’s my shout/I’ll get this round: the person who says this intends to pay for the drinks or meal. “Don’t get your wallet out, it’s my shout.”

Just remember, Australians are easy going and aware their language – especially their slang, is hard to understand, so if you’re ever confused, just ask what they mean.

Current NSW and VIC Court Arrangement

The pandemic affects almost everything and the legal industry is one of them.

Attending court is certainly a people-gathering activity so it has been banned during the pandemic period.

Different courts have their different approaches to deal with the situation.

Below is the useful information:

NSW: 

The NSW law society has a list for all  updates of the court and tribunals in NSW and Federal level which also have a list of the webpages of the relevant courts and tribunals.

A law firm, named as Fourtree Lawyers located Central Coast of NSW, has its opinion here.

VIC: 

The Judicial College of Victoria has created one page to list the coronavirus and the courts which is quite comprehensive and also has link to the courts and tribunals. The page includes almost all jurisdiction in Australia.

General: 

LexisNexis has discussed this issue here.
Justice Connect has its suggestions here.


Fei Wang
2/5/2020

Witness and VOID electronically - Pandemic Measure

The COVID-19 Legislation Amendment (Emergency Measures) Act 2020 (NSW) was passed on 25 March 2020 and Part 4 of this Act enables the regulation maker to make altered arrangements for witness signatures, including requirements for certification of certain matters by witness and verification of identity, provided for by an Act or another law.

More information, see here.

Following above NSW legislation, VIC may pass similar legislation soon. See here.

As the relevant law/Acts have not been altered yet, but the trend is clear: for the limited time period, due to the difficulties of the face to face meeting, the special arrangement may be made to witness affidavits, declaration and other documents which need to be witnessed through electronic method.

Generally speaking, online or web VOID is permitted if the solicitor is satisfied while online or web witness documents would be absolutely prohibited. But during the pandemic time, the ongoing concerns for the health and safety of clients and lawyers have been given to the law maker so that alternative options including electronic systems for witnessing documents and verifying identity have been introduced or temporally accepted.

Prudentia Legal will keep a close eye on this alternative arrangement and every solicitor should make him/herself familiar with the changes.

Fei Wang
Prudentia Legal
20 April 2020

Our Letter Head

Dear all

Please note that whenever you are writing one letter to any party outside our firm, you should use the updated Letter Head.

We are trying best to keep our Letter Head updated.

Please find out our current updated Letter Head here.

Any issues, please contact the management.

Fei Wang
Prudentia Legal
20 April 2020

Coronavirus Information

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - CORONAVIRUS --

1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold
2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose.
3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees. It hates the Sun.
4. If someone sneezes with it, it takes about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne.
5. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours - so if you come into contact with any metal surface - wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap.
6. On fabric, it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it.
7. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice.
8. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes, but - a lot can happen during that time - you can rub your eyes, pick your nose unwittingly and so on.
9. You should also gargle as prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice.
10. Can't emphasis enough - drink plenty of water!

THE SYMPTOMS

1. It will first infect the throat, so you'll have a sore throat lasting 3/4 days
2. The virus then blends into a nasal fluid that enters the trachea and then the lungs, causing pneumonia. This takes about 5/6 days further.
3. With pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty in breathing.
4. The nasal congestion is not like the normal kind. You feel like you're drowning. It's imperative you then seek immediate attention.

Serious advice by Japanese doctors treating COVID-19 cases: Everyone should ensure your mouth & throat are moist, never dry. Take a few sips of water every 15 minutes at least. Why? Even if the virus gets into your mouth, drinking water or other liquids will wash them down through your throat and into the stomach. Once there, your stomach acid will kill all the virus. If you don't drink enough water regularly, the virus can enter your windpipe and into the lungs. That's very dangerous. Please send and share this with family and friends. Take care of everyone.

The new Coronavirus may not show sign of infection for many days. How can one know if he/she is infected? By the time they have a fever and/or cough and go to the hospital, the lung is usually 50% Fibrosis and it's too late (Fibrosis is not reversible). Taiwan experts provide a simple self-check that we can do every morning. Take a deep breath and hold your breath for more than 10 seconds. If you complete it successfully without coughing, without discomfort, stiffness or tightness, etc., it proves there is no Fibrosis in the lungs, basically indicates no infection. In critical times, please self-check every morning in an environment with clean air.

Information shared

How to fight against perfectonism

Perfectionism can be a curse and a blessing. On one hand, it can motivate you to perform at a high level and deliver top-quality work. But it can also cause you unnecessary anxiety and slow you down.

How can you harness the positives of perfectionism while mitigating the negatives? Here are some ways.

1. View the big picture

Attention to detail can be incredibly time-consuming. So it pays to keep the big picture in view and see the cost-benefit of the time and energy you apply to a project.

For example, you might spend an extra three hours making a presentation perfect, but does that improve the impact for the client or your organisation? There is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to sweating the small stuff.

So if you’re tempted to tinker on an assignment that most others would consider complete, try to accept that just getting it done is a decent goal.

Ask a colleague for their opinion. They may be able to reassure you that your efforts are good enough or help you to make the improvements that count.

2. Create a checklist

Rather than labouring in search of the elusive goal of perfection, creating a checklist for each task. The checklist outlines a clear process with discrete and measurable goals.

If you are preparing a written report, for example, you may fret over the font choice and sweat every semi-colon. But a checklist can remind you to cover important tasks such as confirming you’ve spelled things correctly and eliminated basic editing errors.

Once you’ve ticked off the items on your list, you’re done.

3. Break the worry cycle

Many perfectionists keep mulling over a problem without ever coming to a resolution. To break free from this destructive cycle, use the following strategies.

• Identify your triggers. First figure out what sets you worrying. Note the setting: location, the time of day, and who’s around. Once you find a consistent pattern, think about ways you might steer clear of or control those factors.
• Control your emotions. Try hard to get perspective and give yourself time and distance before taking action. You might be blowing the problem out of proportion.
• Seek a diversion. When your mind is twisting and turning, seek out distractions to break the cycle. Often spending just 10 minutes on a mundane but practical task like can break give your mind a break and keep you from “spinning your wheels.”
• Think positive. True, you might not get everything perfect, but your work is still valuable. Discipline your mind to focus on the potential good that can come from your conscientious efforts. And ask someone—a trusted colleague, friend, or mentor—for perspective and support.

You may not be able to completely break free from perfectionist traits, but you may be able to ease your burden—and live happier as a result.

Conclusion

Perfectionists can be helped to kerb their affliction by keeping the big picture in view, using simple checklists, and using several strategies to help break the worry cycle.

article by Karstens blog 

FIRB Notice -- Residential Property Related

Dear all

As you are aware, the Treasury of Australia just announced new FIRB policy last Sunday.

Regarding the FIRB new policy, Edmund and I are working on it.

FIRB new policy will have a big impact on foreign investment.

For Residential Property purchase-related, the policy has not been changed but the time frame has been changed from 30 days to 6 months.

If we have a recent exchange contract (especially our shanghai office), please review the relevant FIRB clause and ensure our purchaser client will comply with the clause and if necessary we have to seek to make a variation with the vendor solicitor regarding Subject to FIRB clause.

Fei Wang
Prudentia Legal
31 March 2020

Working From Home Notice

Dear Sydney and Melbourne colleagues

The novel coronavirus outbreak in Australia becomes more and more serious.

In order to protect our staff, we have decided to make arrangements for working-from-home, details as follows:

It is not compulsory to do so for everyone but we encourage you to do so.

We will try to make an arrangement for one person in each office during office hours.

Commencement: 18 March 2020


Working from home Time: AUS EAST Time from 9 AM to 6 PM with a one-hour lunch break and your standard morning and afternoon tea breaks.

Hardware requirements at home:

1. Computer - Windows or Mac -- with a mic and camera.
2. Mobile Phone (by the company or your own ONLY IF you are not given a company phone) -- WeChat and Leap shall have been installed on your work phone.
   Please get used to the conference call/call waiting/call forwarding function on your mobile phone.
3. Internet connection

Software: Teamview/Skype/Zoom/WeChat/LEAP/Google Drive

You should ensure that your working station and your home computer should have Teamview installed. Teamviewer 

As a backup, please also download the Anydesk at your work station and home computer. Any Desk

Then you can remotely access your working station by Teamview or Anydesk at home when you can use Outlook and Leap on your working station.

If you do not know how to do it, please contact Ada or one of the partners.

You should have Skype installed on your home computer, and please log in with your assigned office username and password for Skype. Install Skype click here

You shall have Zoom installed on your home computer and registered Zoom with your work email address. Zoom Website. 

You should have wechat installed on your computer if you have a work WeChat account.

We may use Google Drive and LEAP to share documents.

Procedure:

1. In the morning, at 9 am, please log on Skype and notify your attendance in your office group. During lunchtime, you may notify your office skype group when you are away from the desk and should notify your office skype group when you are back. When you finish your work, please notify in the group.
2. You should remain online throughout the business hours and communicate via Skype, or mobile phone. Everyone should provide the contactable mobile number including working phone and personal phone numbers (for urgent / emergency contact). You are required to reply instant message and telephone phone calls no less than 2 hours during working days.
3. Check your emails as if you are working normally. It is required that you should reply emails within 24 hours during business days.
4. If there is a meeting and/or court attendance, you will need to attend. Please make your personal arrangement. Working from home would not stop meeting if it is necessary. We DO NOT encourage meeting clients during this period and suggest that using alternative meeting methods such as a teleconference or video conference.
5. We may have online meeting/training; which you will be required to log into Zoom to join the meeting. We may require a video conference so please ensure you have a mic and a camera with your computer.

Work Report:

You may be required to provide a daily work report using google sheet sharing with the management.

Your work may be monitored through the LEAP report system. So please record all your work time on LEAP and also save all documents/correspondence to the LEAP.

We are not able to determine the time when we will resume normal work back to the office. But we will keep you updated and once it is safe, we will require your guys back to the office.

This platform will be the main platform to give notice to our staff, so please check it regularly.

Yours sincerely,


Prudentia Legal Partners
17 March 2020

Migration Service Price

Dear colleagues

We have updated our migration service price list and also updated our business migration introduction documents.

You may find the relevant documents here.


FW
16 March 202

Alipay Notice

Dear colleagues

Alipay is one of payment method popular in China and our firm is using this as one of our payment methods.

Due to the Chinese foreign exchange restriction, Alipay has strict rules.

All payments through Alipay must be for legal fees payment purpose, with the support of evidence of costs agreement, payment instruction etc. Otherwise, payments may be denied or the service may be suspended.

Recently we have been audited twice for our Alipay system so that many customers and colleagues recently reported that the Alipay system cannot be used.

Ada is currently talking to the Alipay representative in Australia.

They are speeding up the review process now, however, they cannot guarantee that our payment services will not be affected at this stage.

In addition to Alipay, please offer our client multiple payment methods in case any delays.

You will be notified for the progress of the Alipay arrangement.

Thanks.

Prudentia Legal Management
13/03/2020

Knowledge Sharing PPTs

12 March 2020

Today Krystina Guo delivered a presentation on the topic of Legal Professional Privilege. 

More details click here. 

FW

Recent Migration Case Good News

Everyone is aware that we are providing migration services.

Working related visas are quite popular in Australia and are part of migration services. 

Working visa, mostly subclass 482 visa, will require three steps: 

1. Employer Sponsorship
2. Employer Nomination & 
3. Employee Visa Application

For the last several years, the second stage becomes harder and harder as the Department of Home Affairs is trying to restrict overseas workers coming to Australia. 

But for the last couple of weeks, we have two successful nomination cases being granted. 

One is for an IT related company. The Nomination was approved within several weeks after we lodged the nomination application while the employee was blocked in China due to the virus outbreak. 

We were confident with the case as the Employer is a quite big company and the employee has been working for this position for a period. The only issue for this case is the salary issue -- because the employee's promised salary might be a little lower than the market salary. But the issue was not challenged by the Department of Home Affairs. 

The second is a very difficult case with a long history. 

The client had been in Australia several years and his last application for working visa (482) was refused based on the refusal of the nomination. The last visa and nomination visa application was prepared by a lousy migration agent who did not prepare sufficient information and evidence. 

After we have been retained by the client, we did extensive research and careful planning, and also prepare and/or collect all relevant documents. The nomination was lodged on this Monday, 9 March 2020. It was granted today, 4 days later. It is record-breaking. The client is very happy while we are preparing his visa application. 

We provide professional legal service to our client whose satisfaction is our goal. 

FW 

12/03/2020

Notice on 12 March 2020

Dear Prudentia Legal colleagues

As you may be aware, the outbreak of coronavirus has impacted worldwide.

From epicentre Wuhan to South Korea, then Iran, Italy and then the whole world including Australia.

Our Shanghai office was closed for an additional two weeks after the Chinese New Year and now they are back to work normally, but access to the office would be limited due to the Chinese government implemented policy, so that we do not encourage clients to attend our Shanghai office unless it is extremely urgent and absolutely necessary.

This Monday, Anita Jie, has suffered appendicitis (阑尾炎) and could not attend work since. She may be back to work in due course but at the current stage arrangement for work-from-home has been arranged for Anita..

Currently, there are over 100 confirmed cases in Australia while VIC has 18 cases. The Australian government has announced several billions of funds to fight against the virus.

Safety of our staff is our priority.

Ailin was isolated for two weeks after she visited China during the Chinese New Year.

Helen JI of our Melbourne is suffering from a cold with a fever this week and she has visited a doctor (GP) who had advised it is flu and the coronavirus test was not necessary for Helen. Helen is currently staying at home and an alternative working arrangement has been made.

Even though Helen is feeling better, for safety reasons, she has been asked to stay home for isolation purposes. But due to the high demand for settlement preparation, Helen will work at home for this period. We are not sure when Helen will be able to be back to the office.

This is a special arrangement for Helen and Anita at this stage. We wish them full and speedy recovery.

If you feel unwell, especially suffering fever, cough, breathing difficulties etc, please do not hesitate to contact the local health advisor, and also report to the management of our firm.

Partners of Prudentia Legal

Date: 12 March 2020

New landholder duty webinars VIC SRO

VIC SRO is running a new three part webinar series on landholder duty in March, covering: Landholder provisions, including changes that came into effect in June 2019 Valuations Acquisitions of interest in a landholder When a liability arises How to lodge and pay Calculating duty Concessions and exemptions Registration of unit trusts Common administrative issues All our webinars are free. Book your spot today. Revised revenue rulings VIC SRO is seeking feedback on two updated landholder revenue rulings: Obligations on making a relevant acquisition and duty calculation (DA-055v2) Acquisitions of interests in a landholder (DA-056v2) Please send feedback, including suggestions to improve clarity, to consultation@sro.vic.gov.au by 5pm on Thursday 26 March 2020.

NSW eDuties

Please note that recently NSW Revenue Office has tried to change paper-based stamp duty application including stamp duty refund application to the online system.

We have created our organization account with the NSW eDuties platform.

Some of the solicitors and key persons have been invited to join the platform and if you have received the invitation letter, please follow the instruction and set up your account.

If you have not received an invitation but you may need to do stamp duty online for NSW properties, please notify one of the administrators and you will be granted one access.

Currently, Andrew, Zeno and I would be administrators for our eDuties Account.

Please also note that there is a limitation of users under one organization account, totally less than 7. In case someone else needs to use the platform, you may be notified by one of the administrators to inactive your account in order to let another colleague access the platform. The status of "active" and "inactive" can be switched by the administrators to meet the number limit. Please advise your needs and our firm will try best to accommodate your needs.

Fei Wang

26 Feb 2020

Announcement Platform

We are going to use this blog to make announcements.

You may need to check our internal site regularly for announcements.

Thanks for your attention.

Fei Wang