Division 10171M Jurisdiction of Supreme Court not affected
(1) The inherent power or jurisdiction of the Supreme Court with respect to the discipline of legal practitioners is not affected by anything in this Part or Part 2.(2) That inherent power or jurisdiction extends to interstate legal practitioners and locally registered foreign lawyers.
171MA Information about complaints procedure
Each Council and the Commissioner must produce information about the procedure for dealing with complaints under this Act and ensure that such information is made available to members of the public on request.
171MB Performance criteria relating to handling of complaints by Councils and Commissioner
(1) Each Council and the Commissioner must develop performance criteria relating to the handling of complaints under this Part.(2) The criteria may be developed jointly or independently by each of the Councils and the Commissioner.(3) Each Council is to include the relevant criteria in its annual report under section 57, together with an assessment of its performance against the criteria in the period to which the report relates.(4) The Commissioner is to include the relevant criteria in the Commissioner’s annual report under section 59G, together with an assessment of the Commissioner’s performance against the criteria in the period to which the report relates.
171O Reports required by Attorney General
(1) Each Council and the Commissioner must submit to the Attorney General, at such times and in respect of such periods as the Attorney General directs, reports on the handling of complaints.(2) A report is to deal with such matters as the Attorney General directs and with such other matters as the Council or Commissioner considers appropriate to include in the report.(3) The obligations under this section are in addition to any obligation to provide an annual report under this or any other Act.
171P Offence: improper disclosure of information
(1) A person who discloses information obtained in the administration of this Part, or in relation to any notification required by the regulations, or statement given or investigation carried out under Division 1AA of Part 3, is guilty of an offence unless the disclosure is made:(a) with the consent of the person to whom the information relates, or(b) in connection with the administration of this Part, or(c) for the purpose of legal proceedings arising out of this Act or of any report of any such proceedings, or(d) with other lawful excuse.Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to the disclosure of information by the Commissioner, or a member of the Law Society Council, to the Chief Commissioner of State Revenue.
171Q Protection from liability
(1) A matter or thing done or omitted to be done by:(a) a Council, or(b) any member of a Council, or(c) any committee or subcommittee of a Council, or any member of a committee or subcommittee of a Council, or(d) the Tribunal, or(e) any member of the Tribunal, or(f) the Registrar of the Tribunal, or(g) the Commissioner, or(h) the Bar Association, or(i) the Law Society, or(j) a consultant engaged by the Commissioner pursuant to section 59H (4), or(k) a mediator to whom a dispute is referred under Division 4, or(l) any member of the staff of any of the above,does not, if the matter or thing was done or omitted to be done in good faith for the purpose of the administration of this Part, subject any such member, the Commissioner, the Registrar, the consultant, the mediator or the member of staff personally to any action, liability, claim or demand.(2) In this section:(a) a reference to a Council includes a reference to a committee of the Council, and(b) a reference to a member of a Council includes a reference to a member of any such committee.
171R Certain persons not compellable witnesses
(1) A person referred to in section 171Q is not compellable in any legal proceedings (including proceedings before the Tribunal) to give evidence or produce documents in respect of any matter in which the person was involved in the course of the administration of this Part.(2) This section does not apply to proceedings under Part 3 of the Royal Commissions Act 1923 or before the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
171S Duty of confidentiality of client communications
(1) A legal practitioner must comply with a requirement under this Part to answer a question or to produce information or a document despite any duty of confidentiality in respect of a communication between the practitioner and a client (but only if the client is the complainant or consents to its disclosure).(2) A legal practitioner may disclose a matter to the Commissioner, a Council or the Tribunal in breach of any such duty of confidentiality if the Commissioner, Council or Tribunal is satisfied that it is necessary for the practitioner to do so in order to rebut an allegation in the complaint.
171T Costs of administering Part
Any amount payable from the Public Purpose Fund for the purpose of meeting the costs of the Commissioner or the Tribunal is to be paid, in accordance with section 69G, to the Treasurer for credit of the Consolidated Fund.