legal advice

Every year, many people from all over the world are doing Immigration Australia. Most of them successfully get the visa and immigrate to Australia while few of them failed. However, the majority of them apply General Skilled Migration (GSM) visa.
September 2007 Immigration Australia law Change
DIAC (Department of Immigration and Citizenship) announced the General Skilled Migration Reforms On Sep 2007. This Legislation Change has big impact on General Skilled Migration (GSM) visa applicant.
Overview
The key changes include:
* increasing the English language threshold requirement for all GSM visas;
* Setting recent work experience as a requirement uniform across all offshore GSM visas;
* adjusting the points test.
* limiting Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) points to applicants with work experience;
* allowing overseas students with 50 point occupations to apply for GSM in Australia;
* clarifying the 2 year study requirement;
* creating a temporary visa for former Overseas Students.
Important Changes
English requirement
DIAC changed the basic requirement from vocational English (Listening:5 Speak:5 Read:5 Write:5) to competent English (Listening:6 Speak:6 Read:6 Write:6). And they adjust the point test to benefit those applicants with strong English skills. Professional English require you got 7 on every part. (Please note it is not an average 7.)
Moreover, all applicants need to provide English language test result before they submit the visa application after Sep 1st, 2007.
Accounting MODL
Accounting can only get 15 from MODL if you have 1 year working experience after you graduate after Sep 1st, 2007.
2 Year Full time Study
You can study a 1.5 year course for 2 years before Sep 1st, 2007. E.g. you are studying Information Technology Master Degree which has 12 subjects. You can leave 1 subject to the fourth semester and still belong to 2 years study experience before. However, you can not do it after Sep 1st, 2007. You need to study 4 semester full time.

Offshore company formation has plenty of benefits, for the company as well as the country in which the company is being formed. It gives companies a wonderful opportunity to expand their horizons, if they capture a new market and get involved in activities which would earn them goodwill. Goodwill, it must be said, is like oxygen for any business enterprise. It would not be an overstatement to say that a unit can function without money but certainly cannot function without approval from people in whose land it has to come up. Quite a few business houses, and big ones for that matter, have faced closure because of lack of public approval.
What are the advantages that entice an entrepreneur for offshore company formation? Well, the advantages are plenty and, therefore, the enticement is immense. For starters, there are some places with huge manpower and where labour is cheap. Companies involved in automobile sector, shipping industry etc. get a shot in the arm with the availability of such huge human resource. Workers employed at lowest levels do not even require any specific education, which makes it even simpler for companies to get employees.
There are countries where the availability of people with technical background is immense and it becomes a happy hunting ground for companies in the IT sector. Similarly, people with management background are taken up by management firms. It is impossible to assemble all these people in one country; but if entrepreneurs decide to take their enterprises to places where labour is plenty and cheap then it would prove to be beneficial for both parties; one would get employment and the other employees. Together they can combine to take the business to new highs. No wonder then that present times have seen the mushrooming of outsourcing culture, where the job is outsourced to companies in far flung areas. Indeed, offshore company formation is the slogan of modern times, and this phenomenon is only going to rise more and more in times to come.

Why are we trying to learn to get admissions and/or confessions from suspects, anyway?
We desire such evidence to present at trial, or to build such an overwhelming case that the case doesn't even go to trial in the first place.
If that is indeed the goal, let's take a quick look at what we may encounter in a typical criminal trial.
In my years as a law enforcement officer, I've had the occasion to watch many attorneys conduct themselves in civil and criminal courts.
In fact, the average police officer spends much more time in front of a judge and/or jury than most attorneys.
Many attorneys have told me that trials represent a failure on their part to successfully plea-bargain a case, so they don't actually get to trial often.
In my conversations with many top-notch criminal defense attorneys, certain things are always emphasized in the representation of any criminal client.
In the pre-trial "game plan", the attorneys sketch out a plan of attack, basically as follows:
Attack the reason for the contact - if attorneys can establish that there were no grounds or authority for the initial contact, this will result in the exclusion of evidence.
How do they commonly establish the lack of grounds or authority?
One way is to dispute the officer's testimony concerning his/her initial observations which led to the contact, usually by implying that the officer is lying or embellishing.
An absolute counter to this is to obtain an admission from the suspect of the observed behavior which prompted the contact.
Attack the Officer's Conduct - coercion, force, fear, intimidation (either actual or implied) will always be ready avenues for defense exploration.
It's important to note that criminal defense attorneys may attack not only the officer's conduct during a particular contact, but they may use the officer's past history in an attempt to establish a pattern of past misconduct.
We have to think back no further than the well-publicized O.J. Simpson trial in which Mr. Simpson's attorneys discredited a police investigator by bringing up racially disparaging comments made by the investigator years prior to the Simpson prosecution.
Attack the decision to initiate action - if not successful in attacking the officer's reasons for the initial contact or the officer's conduct, most defense attorneys will move to attack the officer's decision to take action against the defendant.
Lack of reasonable suspicion and/or probable cause will be bandied about at this stage of the defense.
Evidence issues - if unsuccessful in the above arenas, most attorneys will move to the evidence itself and the chain-of-custody issues surrounding that evidence.
If the evidence gets excluded, most trials cannot be prosecuted.

Law firm hourly rates have been going up since 2006 and the time to raise fees is now, according to data in a new survey of in-house lawyers. The survey reveals that it is safe for law firms to increase their rates by 5.3% up to 6% on hourly rates for their corporate clients.
The survey is full of good news for law firms. It was conducted by the Association of Corporate Counsel and Serengeti Law, the #1 ranked system for matter management and e-billing, based in Bellevue, WA. Named the "2007 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey Report," it was the biggest survey of its kind with responses from 263 corporate law departments.
In-house corporate counsel are expecting a rate increase of 5.3% on average:
"For 2006, the average change in outside counsel hourly rates was an increase of 6.0%, higher than last year's increase of 5.2% (compared with increases of 5.7% in 2004, 5.0% in 2003, 5.4% in 2002 and 6.3% in 2001). The percentage increases in hourly rates have headed back up to levels higher than the past five years. As in past years, in-house counsel were unrealistically optimistic about their ability to keep a lid on increases in hourly rates, with the actual increase (6.0%) exceeding last year's prediction (4.8%). The average hourly rate increase predicted for 2007 (5.3%) is higher than last year's prediction (4.8%), but lower than this past year's actual increase (6.0%)."
The balance of fee-setting power favors law firms:
In the past, in-house counsel were having some success in keeping the hourly rate increases in check. "However, during the past three years this trend has reversed, with higher rates of increase in hourly rates. In addition, in-house counsel project an even greater increase in hourly rates during the coming year than they projected last year. Since in-house counsel have consistently underestimated such increases, it is likely that the rate of increase will be even higher next year."
"This new development may be indicative of a shift in the balance of bargaining power between in-house counsel who need high quality legal work and their outside counsel who provide it." Most (83%) in-house law departments are tiny, with 10 or fewer lawyers, and they generally use home grown paper and manual systems to collect information on legal spending. Many also admit that their systems lack basic safeguards, such as verification of data entered and spreadsheet formulas, and maintenance of an audit trail.
Additional findings were good news for law firms:
Predominance of hourly rates. An increasing percentage of in-house counsel - 95% -- are sticking with standard hourly rates for a majority of their outside legal work. Nearly half of the in-house lawyers said they do not use alternative fee arrangements,
Little client oversight. 75% of in-house counsel do not actively or systematically mange outside counsel, beyond requiring budgets for litigation or requiring that associates have at least 5 years of experience.
Convergence is going away. 75% of law firms do not use "convergence," which is reducing the number of law firms with which a company works on a regular basis. "Convergence does not appear to be gaining momentum," the survey found, because the tactic doesn't meet expectations. The tactic is used primarily with large corporations.
Cutting fees is not the top client priority. The most pressing issue facing in-house counsel is keeping track of company activities that might have legal implications. They are preoccupied with Sarbanes-Oxley and high profile trials of corporate executives and in-house counsel. These issues are making "in-house counsel more likely to bring in outside help, and less sensitive to higher hourly rates."
Few corporate RFPs. 76% did not issue a Request for Proposals during the past year. "One reason that this practice has not gained momentum may be the historical low rate of law firm responses to RFPs. In past years the response rate was about two responses for each RFP."
Spending on law firms is up. "The overall median percentage of outside legal spending compared to company revenues was higher than last year. This year, on average companies devoted .38% of their worldwide revenues to outside legal spending."
Marketing advice
There is a great deal of turnover among law firms working for corporate clients. About half of in-house counsel now state that they have terminated relationships with some of their outside counsel during the prior year, creating openings for new law firms to get their work. Specific reasons for termination include failing to perform according to client expectations, costs that were too high, poor work product or results, poor communication and personality issues.
This means that law firms with corporate clients should redouble efforts to keep them. "An important message for law firms is that they should consider redirecting at least part of the time and money that they are spending on new client marketing, to assess and address existing client concerns."
About the survey
Seven years ago, Serengeti Law began surveying members of ACC every year. A record number of 263 law departments responded this year, representing companies in manufacturing, health care, banking/securities/financial services, consumer products retail, and software/internet. Respondents who are general counsel constitute 62%of the respondents, and "assistant general counsel/staff attorney" constitute 11%.
For purposes of the survey, company size is defined as follows based upon annual worldwide revenues for 2006:
"Small" companies with $100 million or less.
"Medium" companies with more than $100 million through $1 billion.
"Large" companies with greater than $1 billion.
Using these definitions, the breakdown of respondents by company size is: "small" companies-28.4%; "medium" companies-38.4%; and "large" companies-33.2%.
Small companies have a median of 4 law firms, medium companies have 8 firms, and large companies have 15 firms. Median outside counsel spending varied significantly, with small companies at $300,000, medium companies at $1.18 million, and large companies at $3 million.

She is no ordinary lawyer. Roberts is the Chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, a prominent national position that gives her frequent exposure on the wide range of issues facing women lawyers. And she does it while being a mother of four, wife of another partner in her firm and full-time business litigator at a 400-lawyer firm.
Only 17% of women lawyers are equity partners, and most firms have just a lone woman rainmaker - statistics that Roberts finds distressing. "Becoming a rainmaker always been somewhat challenging. It's so much more challenging for a woman," she said.
But she herself is active in four local charities, which brought her referrals. She is a regular public speaker before audiences of clients, and she attends trade association meetings in the industries of her clients.
How does she do it all? "I gave up on sleep," she joked. "Seriously, my husband and I made the decision that by having two people working full time, we have to pay for nannies and support help." Help is essential, especially when one of your kids is on two traveling soccer teams.
Getting Business from the Bar (or other Organizations)
And so is focus. Roberts pursues activities and passions where she can build relationships. For her it's been the American Bar Association, where she began more than a decade ago by working her way up the Litigation Section. Her husband gave her an early demonstration of networking.
"I was attending an ABA Litigation section meeting. My husband, who is also a lawyer and avid golfer, was with me and he went out for a round of golf. He came back to lunch with another couple: one, a potential client whom he had been golfing with, and his spouse, who was a litigator attending the ABA meeting. She and I had never spoken though it's only a group of 200 people! Meanwhile, these two guys played one round of golf and had already exchanged business cards and followed up with notes to each other," she said.
Roberts devoted herself to the ABA and today is a member of the ABA House of Delegates, the ruling legislative body. She served on the Board of Governors - the ABA's board of directors - from 2002-2005, and is a former member of the commission on what is today named the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. She was Chair of the Young Lawyers Division and served on the ABA's Nominating Committee and Special Committee on Governance.
She was following a key rule of business development: to join an organization and become visible in it. "My continuing motive always has been the underlying work," she said. "I've always been a believer in the public service aspect of the ABA." At the same time she started seeing immediate business benefits, because South Carolina is a small state and lawyers around the country would refer local legal matters to her. "I'm not aggressive about business development in the ABA," she said. "But certainly, yes, the ABA is a good arena to get referrals. Just like golf or trade association activity, once you've worked together with other lawyers you can build relationships."
To achieve her success, she advises other lawyers: "You must treat bar association membership as you would treat a client: honor deadlines and respect other people's time and input. It is not only rewarding, but you'll succeed and will be around a long time and get the opportunities."
Roberts uses several specific techniques to generate new business:
Speaking engagements. "A speech is absolutely a business development opportunity," she said. "Sometimes it doesn't even matter what you're speaking on." She said it impresses clients if they merely see their lawyer on a panel discussion at an industry event. "The ideal setting is when a client is in the audience and you're speaking on something important that directly affects the client."
Niche building. The bane of litigators is one-time engagements. Lawyers typically will work with a client on litigation for years, but when the case concludes, so does the relationship. To overcome this problem, Roberts built a niche practice to offer the same service to multiple clients. "I did a lot of securities fraud class action defense work. A lot of them were one-time cases. What I did was parlay my expertise so it worked for other clients. I can say to one client that I did this particular work for two others. That's how you build a type of expertise into a niche practice," she said.
Referrals from civic boards of directors. Roberts is on the board of the Trinity Housing Corporation, Claflin College, the local YMCA and the local children's museum. "All four of them are outside the legal profession. They clearly introduced me to civic leaders and opportunities to talk about what our firm did. Those opportunities also led me to meet decision-makers of current clients. Board membership is a great way to solidify both the firm's relationship and build my own expertise," she said.
Rainmaking is the key to breaking the glass ceiling that stops women from moving up in law firms. See the other feature articles this month on the same theme. Lawyers who want to smash through the barrier should emulate Roberts' example, starting with her

In today's world, the word seems to be "sue," even when the fault is clearly with the person and not the business where the accident occurred. Unfortunately, in many cases, it is easy to claim injuries from a fall without having to provide any proof. Why is that? Because many businesses, especially retailers, are so haphazard in their methods of safety that they cannot even prove to anyone whether a claim is valid or not.
If stores and other businesses wish to avoid claims of slip and fall accidents, they need to begin by assuring that the aisles are clear and free of any kind of liquid on the floor. The most common occurrences of falls involve spills on the floors that have not been cleaned up. Although it's easy enough to say that people need to be cognizant of where they are walking, the real truth is that business owners and managers need to be aware of spills on the floor, debris in the aisles, and any other obstructions that may cause someone to fall. If you are in the habit of not clearing away obstructions, it is an open invitation for people to claim falls and injuries in order to collect on insurance claims.
One of the most common ways people find to claim slip and fall injuries is that of ice in the parking lot of a business. If the ice is there, it is next to impossible for anyone to say the accident didn't happen because of the ice. It may very well be that the person who made the claim didn't even fall, but when the evidence supports the possibility, there is little anyone can do. Making it easy for people to slip and fall is something that is far too common with businesses, and even sometimes with individual homeowners and apartment managers. It seems to be so much easier with snow and ice to let it go, thinking that the sun will warm up and melt the ice. By doing that, sets someone up for a lawsuit.
Leaving debris in the hallways and entranceways is another way businesses set themselves up for lawsuits. It doesn't matter that someone is capable of walking around the obstruction. If it's there and someone CLAIMS they fell and suffered injuries, there is nothing anyone can do but pay. Unless you have cameras in the area where the accident occurred and were able to videotape it, there is no way to prove it didn't happen. When you set yourself up for a potential accident by failing to exercise proper safety precautions, you cannot blame someone for taking advantage.
Lack of safety precautions is the major cause of slip and fall cases that involve injuries, both real and imagined. Avoid setting yourself up for a potential lawsuit by making certain that all aisles, parking lots, and entrance ways are clear of debris, liquids, ice, and anything else that has the potential for causing injury to others who may enter or leave the property.

A substantial part of the adoption waiting moment is tied upward with lawful matters. Adoption lawyers are significant in any adoption procedure. If couples select to adopt children, they must be prepared to get through a lawful process. Without the adoption lawyer's participation, it would be inconceivable to get an adoption finalized giving the adoptive parents complete maternal rights to the adoptive kid.
During an adoption, the adoptive parents are required to lodge a request with the court. In this request the adoptive parents have to offer all sorts of data including the kid's birth certification or birth appointment and place of birth, an assertion of the lawful cause why the birth parents' rights are being terminated, and respective new needed details. Adoptive parents may be capable to finish this request themselves for compliance to the court. However, they would unquestionably be advantageous throughout a process such as this.
During the finalization process of the adoption, it might help to have one present. To finalize an adoption, the adoptive parents must attend a hearing. This hearing usually takes place within a year after a child is placed in the home. An adoption agency will help the adoptive parents through this process but perhaps they would be a good asset in the legality issues involved. During this time the adoptive parents are granted permanent custody of their adoptive child. An adoption lawyer would be helpful to make sure the documents were legal and in tact.
When people choose to adopt internationally, adoption lawyers must be there. There are many legal issues to sort through when adopting a child from a foreign country. Every country has its own laws and regulations. Because of the language barriers, it would be almost impossible for the adoptive parents to read and understand any legal documents drawn up in a foreign country. Adoption lawyers, who are able to translate the documents, are a necessity in foreign adoption. Without the help of them, adoptive parents may find themselves facing gigantic challenges.
They handle the nitty-gritty's of an adoption. There are many details to sort through with adoption, especially foreign adoption. Details such as citizenship and necessary registrations should be taken care of by an adoption lawyer. Important matters which affect adoptive parent's and the adoptive child's legal rights, ought to be seen to by adoption lawyers. They are knowledgeable about the adoption process. They are familiar with the legal issues related to the process and they are likely knowledgeable about loopholes and possible mistakes made in an adoption. Adoption agencies and non-profit adoption organizations will likely have their own adoption lawyers who handle all of the legal matters relative to an adoption. This would definitely be an asset when going through an agency to adopt. This would eliminate the worry of finding a good one for adoptive parents. Their fees will no doubt make up a big portion of the adoption fees. However, unless the legal matters are addressed and taken care of properly, adoptive parents may face problems with their adoption. They provide peace of mind for adoptive parents.