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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2523 ..

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practising certificate to be issued. This not in line with the national move to free up the regulation of the legal profession - a choice of insurance cover is expected to provide competition between insurance providers and, ultimately, reduce costs to the profession and to the community - and is a matter which will be addressed at a later time.

A further matter dealt with in this Bill is the requirement of professional indemnity insurance for the holding of an unrestricted practising certificate by a solicitor who does not deal directly with the public, does not handle clients' money, or who is employed, as a solicitor, by a non-solicitor employer.

An example is a solicitor whose `practice' is only as the employee of a bank or some other corporation. Such a solicitor has no dealings directly with the public and holds no money on trust. The employer of the solicitor would not need recourse to insurance to redress defects in the conduct of the solicitor and the employer should be liable for the acts of an employee solicitor.

In these circumstances the need for professional indemnity insurance is a matter of form rather than any real need for protection of a client or the public.

The Bill will allow the Law Society to issue an unrestricted practising certificate to solicitors in these circumstances

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