Top 10 stories of 2005

The 250 or so stories of 2005 reflect a dynamic, vibrant conveyancing profession. Choosing the ten top stories has been relatively easy, since they were the ones which generally elicited a big response or were read by the most people.

The biggest story for the year was undoubtedly our survey on the conveyancing profession, which we conducted in May and to which over 260 law firms replied.

The Sean Bosse series of practice management articles also proved to be very popular, covering topics such as Law firm marketing is not a department, Financial planning, accountability and analysis by lawyers: You are the most important bean counter, Position, Position and Strategic marketing.

New electronic transfer duty forms were introduced from 1 May; this introduction was covered by New transfer duty forms, TD form presentation, and the SARS e-filing update stories.

Turning to sectional title stories, the two most popular were the series of articles on the Subdivision of common property, and the Sectional Titles Amendment Bill which was covered by the Sectional Titles Amendment and the Some comments articles.

Continuing in the vein of amended legislation, Deeds Registries Act amendments, covered, well, amendments to the Deeds Registries Act No 47 of 1937.

A straw poll revealed what Threats and opportunities attorneys feel exist in the conveyancing profession, while the relatively dry article Extending clauses also proved popular.

Turning to articles on IT and the law, Virtual caution provoked the most interest. As 2005 draws to a close and we look back, it is worth reading one of our first 2005 stories in which we canvassed Attorneys views for 2005.