AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

LEGAL PRACTITIONERS ORDINANCE 1969

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

No. 2 of 1969

	This Ordinance provides for the admission to professional practice in the Territory of legally qualified persons and for the control of those persons in their professional practice in a way similar to that governing the legal profession in the States.

	In particular the Ordinance provides for –

(a)	Admission to practice in the various categories existing in the States, that is, barrister, barrister and solicitor, and solicitor;

(b)	The discipline of members of the profession who hold solicitors practising certificates;

(c)	The keeping by solicitors of records and trust accounts, and for the annual auditing of trust accounts as a condition precedent to the issue of a practising certificate;

(d)	A portion of the funds in a solicitors trust account to be deposited with the Law Society, which is to invest the money on bank interest bearing deposits and use the interest –

•	to supplement the Solicitors Fidelity Fund;
•	for legal aid;
•	for post-graduate education and legal research.

(e)	A Solicitors Fidelity Fund for the purpose of compensating people who suffer pecuniary loss as a result of defalcations by solicitors;

(f)	The incorporation of the Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory.