In recent weeks, the Law Society has fielded a substantial number of enquiries from legal practitioners expressing concern about the difficulties the COVID-19 restrictions have created for the witnessing of important legal documents such as wills, powers of attorney, and statutory declarations.

As soon as this issue was brought to our attention, the Law Society raised these concerns with the NSW Government on behalf of the profession. Since then, we have been working with the Government to develop a workable solution to the problem.

On 22 April 2020, a temporary regulation-making power was added to the COVID-19 Legislation Amendment (Emergency Measures) Act 2020 which allows for the witnessing of legal documents to be conducted via video conferencing technology such as Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams and Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I would like to thank the Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman QC, for moving so quickly to enact these provisions. I am pleased that solicitors now have a practical alternative for the witnessing of documents in the coming weeks and months.  The Attorney also indicated that more work is needed to provide legally robust provisions to allow for the electronic signing of legal documents.

We appreciate that the new arrangements may not be practical in all circumstances and we would ask solicitors to carefully consider their application. Our next step will be to provide guidance to the profession for the application of the new arrangements. We are working on this as a matter of priority.

In the meantime, the Law Society will continue to work with the profession to identify and find solutions for those situations that the COVID-19 restrictions have made very challenging.

Richard Harvey, President, Law Society of NSW

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