Page 2590 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 25 September 2007
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lawyers can take on a case for minimal fees on the understanding that if their client is successful the lawyer will receive a percentage of any damages award.
It is good that the admission requirements for legal practitioners have been clarified and standardised. The discrepancies between jurisdictions often resulted in law graduates moving from one state to another to find a place in either a clerkship or legal workshop or a college of law that suited their needs. That also meant increased costs and a partial restraint of trade, as practitioners were required to obtain practising certificates in every state in which they appeared, even if that was only for a one-off appearance.
The provisions in this bill to do with trust accounts and controlled moneys are a reminder that lawyers often have control over large sums of their clients’ funds, and the temptation to dip into those funds for their own purposes has sometimes proven too great for some in the past. So I am very happy to accept the comments of the Law Society and the Bar Association on this bill, that it is a big step forward. I commend everyone that has been involved in what was clearly a very long, a very thorough and, no doubt, a very arduous process.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Planning) (11.17), in reply: Mr Speaker, this bill brings to its conclusion the long and complex task of aligning the governance of legal practitioners in all Australian jurisdictions under a cohesive model that covers qualifications, licensing, management, costing and complaints and discipline. The bill also implements comprehensive model provisions relating to foreign lawyers, incorporated legal practices and multidisciplinary partnerships practising in the ACT. In this small jurisdiction, the government would not expect a rapid uptake of registration of any of these clients of legal practice. But it is important that we play our role in establishing a jurisdiction in which lawyers can operate in the context of a truly national legal profession.
I think it is well understood that certain aspects of the model law, and consequently the legal profession acts of the states and territories, will require some revision in light of practical experience. In particular, there has been some concern about the provisions for costs disclosure and trust accounting management. In this regard, I think it is timely to repeat the government’s appreciation of the extent to which the local legal profession, represented in the main by the Law Society of the ACT and the ACT Bar Association, has been prepared and able to assist in the development of this bill.
Not only has the profession added greatly to the quality of the final bill, it has also been prepared to compromise in a number of matters to allow implementation to happen, and for this the government is grateful. I understand that members have been briefed on this bill by officials from my department and the profession, and I welcome the broad agreement that has come about with the profession on the matters covered by this bill.
It is also important to remind members that I have provided to them copies of the draft legal professions regulation 2007, which gives effect to a number of important aspects of this legislation. Again, the provisions are based on the national model regulation,
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