The Taskforce has "been charged with developing uniform legislation to regulate the legal profession across Australia". It is due to report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in April 2010. Its activity broadly reflects the recent Access To Justice Strategy announced by the national government.
The Papers
The Taskforce's first paper sets out a proposal for a new National Legal Services Ombudsman.
The 18 page paper outlines functions for the proposed Ombudsman including -
* receiving and investigating complaints;The Taskforce's second paper articulates "proposals to constrain overcharging and the exploitation of vulnerable legal services consumers".
* making determinations in relation to complaints and unsatisfactory professional conduct;
* conducting internal reviews of certain decisions; and
* educating the public and the legal profession on ethical issues and the complaints process.
Those proposals include -
* providing for law practices to make disclosures to clients regarding legal costs;The Attorney-General commented that -
* regulating the making of costs agreements in respect of legal services;
* regulating the billing of costs for legal services; and
* providing a mechanism for the "assessment of legal costs and the setting aside of certain costs agreements".
In these papers the Taskforce has tackled complaints and legal costs, two critical areas in need of regulatory reform. We need to ensure that consumers of legal services across Australia are afforded consistent protection and remedies, and they can obtain all necessary information to make informed decisions about the conduct of a matter, and that legal costs are fair and reasonable.The Ombudsman
The expectation is that the Ombudsman would provide consumers of legal services with a "single, easily accessible avenue for making complaints about legal practitioners".
If substantiated, those complaints could result in findings of unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct against a legal practitioner. The Ombudsman "would have powers to deal with complaints of a more 'consumer' nature, being complaints about the provision of legal services", being able to make a determination if reasonably satisfied that conduct by the service provider was not fair and reasonable in all the circumstances.
The Ombudsman's functions regarding complaints against legal practitioners and law practices would include
• receiving complaints;An office of the National Legal Services Ombudsman (NLSO) would be established to oversee the national scheme. In practice, the NLSO would handle relatively few complaints itself at first instance (for example, only where a complaint is particularly sensitive or may lead to a legal precedent). In most cases, the NLSO would delegate its complaint handling functions to state/territory bodies, which would investigate and resolve complaints, and prosecute disciplinary matters on its behalf.
• investigating complaints;
• making determinations in relation to complaints of a consumer nature, and certain cases of unsatisfactory professional conduct, and making appropriate orders;
• prosecuting matters involving unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct in the appropriate disciplinary tribunal;
• conducting internal reviews of certain decisions;
• being involved in reviews by the disciplinary tribunal, and appeals to the Supreme Court in relation to disciplinary matters; and
• providing education to the public and legal profession about ethical issues, producing educational information about the complaints process and advising members of the public about the complaints process.
Those bodies would continue to be separate state/territory entities but would operate "under the name and auspices" of the NLSO (eg as NLSO state/territory offices).
The discussion paper envisages that legal services consumers could automatically access the NLSO via a single telephone number, which could divert them to the relevant State or Territory body.
