We're at the forefront of legal advice to private clients and businesses

At Teece Hodgson & Ward we are committed to maintaining our reputation as one of the most experienced, trustworthy and professional legal teams in Sydney

Covid-19 restrictions affect us all and we are conscious of the need to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our clients and staff. We have taken steps to ensure we can continue to provide prompt, effective legal advice to our clients, while complying with these restrictions.

Advice is available for our clients by telephone, email and video conferencing. Our office also remains open for physical appointments, particularly for Estate Planning needs and urgent matters.

If your matter is urgent and a face-to-face meeting is necessary, please contact us:

• by telephone:  (02) 8224 3200
• by email:  mail@teece.com.au

We are very conscious of the need to ensure that our staff and clients remain safe and to follow Government advice and restrictions. We have procedures in place to meet the ‘social distancing’ requirements.

Signing and Witnessing in the time of Covid-19 – temporary changes to the law.

Video conferencing technology like Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime and Zoom can now be used in the witnessing of important legal documents like wills, powers of attorney, enduring guardian appointments and statutory declarations under a Regulation made by the NSW Government.

Under the Regulation, a witness must see a person signing the document in real time to confirm the signature is legitimate, but now they can do so using video conferencing technology.

The witness will still need to sign the document, or a copy of the document, to confirm they witnessed the signature. This could be done on a hard copy that has been signed by the signatory and scanned and sent to the witness, or on an identical copy of the document the signatory has signed. Traditional methods of signing and witnessing these documents remain valid while the Regulation is in force.

These changes will make it easier for people to stay home and reduce physical interactions, while still completing important transactions.  Contact us for more information or to arrange remote signing.

This message will be periodically updated as the situation changes.

Richard Neal, Managing Partner