Executive Officer: Roger Wescombe

• Administers functions associated with the education of law students and the admission of legal practitioners in NSW.
• Approves the appointment of Public Notaries and maintains the Roll of Public Notaries.

Secretary: Maurice Polkinghorne

• Reviews the structure and regulation of the legal profession.
• Ensures quality legal services are accessible, affordable and accountable to the community.

Commissioner: Steve Mark

• Receives all complaints against legal practitioners and licensed conveyancers in NSW.
• Oversees the investigation of complaints by professional bodies about the conduct of practitioners.
• Resolves disputes between consumers and legal practitioners or licensed conveyancers.

Secretary: Bernie Marden

• Approves and monitors schemes to improve professional standards, protect consumers, and limit civil liability of professional groups.
• Encourages and supports self-regulation of members of professional organisations to improve professional standards.

The Legal Profession Advisory Council submitted a report to the Attorney General on the co-regulation of advertising by solicitors and barristers. It investigated the availability of information to consumers of legal services and developed a proposal for a comprehensive, accessible database of this information available to the general public.

The Office of the Legal Services Commissioner (OLSC) inquiry line took 7,402 calls from consumers during the reporting year, a nine per cent increase from 1997/98. Client Liaison Officers on the inquiry line helped members of the public to solve their own disputes, referred them to other services or encouraged them to lodge written complaints.

The OLSC helped consumers by explaining and clarifying their rights and in some cases informally mediating between consumers and legal practitioners.

In 1998/99, the OLSC reported a six per cent increase in complaints opened, from 2,709 in 1997/98 to 2,873 in 1998/99. In 1998/99, 72 per cent of complaints were kept by OLSC for resolution as consumer disputes. 28 per cent of complaints were referred to professional bodies for investigation.
Of the complaints lodged to OLSC, 25 per cent related to the quality of service, 22 per cent to ethical matters, 20 per cent involved bills and 15 per cent to communication.


Monitoring professional conduct

The Legal Profession Advisory Council prepared two reports on solicitors’ costs. One looked at whether changes should be made to assessment of costs at the Compensation Court and the second examined fixed costs scales in the civil jurisdictions. These reports help to identify the cost boundaries in which solicitors must conduct their practice.

The Office of the Legal Services Commissioner (OLSC) continued to play an important role in monitoring the complaint handling processes of the NSW Law Society, NSW Bar Association and NSW Department of Fair Trading (complaints about licensed conveyancers) through the review of decisions by the professional councils. 141 reviews were received in 1998/99 and 298 were finalised in this period.

The appointment of an in-house investigator meant that a greater number of investigations were undertaken within OLSC. This has resulted in seven reprimands being given to practitioners.

The OLSC currently has 14 matters either in preparation or before the Legal Services Division of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. This increased litigation is, in part, the result of tackling the issue of failure by practitioners to respond to the inquiries of the OLSC, and the increase in the number of matters the Office has investigated.


Regulating entry into the legal profession

The Legal Practitioners Admission Board (LPAB) adopted new rules and procedures for considering applications of overseas-qualified persons wishing to enter the legal profession. These rules clarified the path to admission for all applicants and lessened the burden on many who are fully qualified in other jurisdictions. The new procedures enhance security by requiring all overseas-admitted practitioners to provide certificates of good standing from the authorities which have previously admitted them.

The LPAB managed the first appointments of Public Notaries under the Public Notaries Act 1997 and 1998 Public Notaries Appointment Rules. It undertook a further quality survey of the roll of legal practitioners over the period 1950-1998 using LPAB’s computerised copy of the roll.

The LPAB initiated and convened the inaugural meeting of Administrators of Australasian Law Admitting Authorities in Sydney. The scope of this meeting was to make legal admission in Australia more secure and economical through improved inter-jurisdictional communication.


Improving professional standards

The Legal Profession Advisory Council (LPAC) reviewed the licensing of legal practitioners and the reservation of legal work, concluding that for the benefit and protection of the public, general legal work should be reserved for licensed lawyers. However, if governments wish to accredit non-lawyer specialists in particular areas of law then it is a matter for government to determine those areas. Licensed lawyers should not be excluded from such areas.

The LPAC reviewed whether specific anti-discrimination rules should be included in the solicitors’ rules and whether any changes should be made to the current specialist accreditation scheme. The Council concluded that there should be no changes as neither area imposes anti-competitive or restrictive practices.

The Office of the Legal Services Commissioner (OLSC) continued to contribute to the improvement of professional standards through its education programs and the Commissioner’s continued involvement in reform of the Legal Profession Act 1987. In September 1998 the OLSC made a submission to the National Competition Policy Review of the Legal Profession Act 1987 .

The OLSC continued to publish Without Prejudice, a bimonthly educational newsletter for practitioners and the general public, offering positive strategies to reduce the risk of a complaint being lodged. The Commissioner regularly speaks to members of the profession at regional Law Society meetings and other functions.

The OLSC increased its practice of presenting seminars in universities to law students. Topics included the role of the OLSC, improving client service and offering strategies to avoid future complaints. Links with continuing legal education providers and professional development educators were established and enhanced to facilitate a greater awareness of problems that commonly lead to complaints.

During 1998/99 the Professional Standards Council (PSC) consulted with occupational associations about their strategies to reduce the impact of the Y2K ‘millennium bug’ on consumers. The associations developed and implemented strategies that included:

• Reviewing their internal systems;
• Increasing awareness amongst members about the Y2K problem through journals, newsletters and seminars; and
• Participating in government and industry initiatives.

The Legal Practitioners Admission Board (LPAB) will:

• Conduct a major review of the LPAB’s policies and practices in:
  - Applications for exemption from practical training;
  - Admission to practice in NSW of overseas trained lawyers;
  - The accreditation of academic and practical training courses;
  - The determination of applications for readmission to legal practice;
  - The governance and management of the LPAB’s academic course;
  - The selection of Probationary Students at Law; and
  - Successfully conclude the projects identified as priorities during the inaugural meeting of Administrators of Australasian Admitting Authorities.

• Respond to referrals by the Attorney General;
• Respond to submissions by members of the legal profession and the public;
• Review the professional rules of the NSW Law Society and Bar Association of NSW; and
• Review certain elements of the structure of the professions.

• Implement a new office structure to reflect the differing roles of complaint handling, policy development and litigation;
• Manage the installation, training and refinement of the new Complaints Tracking System to ensure that disruption to staff, complainants and practitioners is minimised;
• Continue to foster improved client service by legal practitioners by maintaining and expanding a program of lectures, seminars and talks to educational and other institutions;
• Provide a more supportive environment for staff dealing with increased workloads through improved training, better peer support, closer supervision and continued improvement in complaint assessment; and
• Continue to improve the monitoring of complaints handled by other professional bodies by joint training exercises with staff of those organisations, more frequent analysis of professional conduct committee decisions and more detailed directions in re-investigations.

• Review and finetune schemes approved by the Professional Standards Council to ensure they continue to work well;
• Assist the improvement of occupational standards among the professions and ensure schemes continue to protect the consumers of professional services;
• Continue improving the growth of schemes amongst professionals and other occupational groups;
• Provide consumers with a greater opportunity to choose a service provider by increasing professional participation in a scheme; and
• Promote good practice to occupational groups so that their risk management, occupational standards, and consumer protection will be progressively improved.