I don’t know about you, but if I ever needed open heart surgery, I’d want to make sure the person operating on me was a highly-qualified surgeon. The same principle should exist for the law, but I am increasingly concerned and frustrated with the number of professional advisors, from accountants through to marketers and branding consultants, playing lawyer and offering their clients and unsuspecting members of the public quasi legal advice.
Equally concerning is the number of non-lawyers who are on-selling legal documents, from contracts through to Memorandums of Understanding.
Not only is the above situation risky for all parties, it is also illegal.
In fact, s10(1) of the Legal Profession Uniform Law prohibits a person, company or other form of business from providing legal advice without being a qualified legal practitioner or law firm.
An entity that breaches section 10(1) commits an offence and is liable to a maximum penalty of 250 penalty units, or two years’ imprisonment, or both.
Penalty units relate to fines and a penalty unit currently equates to $155.46. This means the fine for 250 units would be $38,865, plus it’s a criminal offence!
By the way, “providing legal advice” also relates to on-selling legal documents.
For those who believe this is a case of protectionist lawyers, I would say that this law is primarily designed to protect legal services consumers from poor advice. The damage relating to poor advice may not be immediately realised, but can be devastating to consumers and the community. In some cases, poor advice can cause irreparable damage.
These laws also remind us to stick to what we know. Just as an accountant is not a lawyer, a lawyer is not a heart surgeon. Respecting our own professional boundaries is not only in the best interests of clients, it also protects us from placing ourselves at great risk.
Kate Ritchie, Principal Lawyer and Trade Marks Attorney, Ethikate
