RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: OUTRAGEOUS: Convicted OZschwitz solicitors still allowed to practice  Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:19 am | |
| SEVENTY-SIX solicitors were convicted of criminal offences in one year - including 12 who were were guilty of serious charges including child pornography, indecent assault and fraud.
But most continue to practise.
Another 12 solicitors and two barristers became bankrupt and two solicitors faced tax offences, according to annual reports for the last financial year. Those 64 solicitors convicted of lesser offences faced mainly driving charges, including drink-driving.
For the past decade, lawyers have been required to disclose charges, bankruptcies and other ''show-cause events'' to their professional associations. The number of those convicted of serious offences has fallen from a high of 23 two years ago.
Last financial year, only four of the solicitors on serious charges and one who committed a tax offence had their practising certificate suspended and the Law Society took no further action in the other 85 cases, deciding ''the offence did not impact upon the solicitor's fitness to practise''.
But, says the Legal Services Commissioner, Steve Mark, for legal reasons it is very difficult for the professional bodies to stop lawyers from practising. In 2004, a High Court case ruled a solicitor convicted of aggravated child sexual assault be allowed to practice, finding that his conviction did not amount to professional misconduct.
Mr Mark said it will be easier to impose a professional standard matching public expectations when new national rules for the legal profession begin and the legal services commissioner gets a role in deciding whether a lawyer is a ''fit and proper person''. Already, his office is using information about criminal offences and bankruptcies to build up profiles of lawyers who pose the biggest risk and should be targeted for audits.
Also included in the database are details of previous complaints and demographics but also staff turnover and a failure to respond to correspondence.
Mr Mark said risk profiling is not designed simply to ''catch the baddies''. ''It is basically making sure that we're spending our money most wisely [and] … to remove the regulatory burden from those that don't need it and put it on those that do.''
Last financial year, the number of complaints received by the commissioner fell by 100 to 2561. Most complaints were settled through dispute resolution and only 485 were further investigated by the commissioner or the professional bodies.
Mr Mark said the decrease in complaints reflected the aim of reducing complaints against lawyers ''within a framework of consumer protection and protection of the rule of law and increasing professionalism''.
The majority of complaints come from former clients and relate to family law, civil and commercial law and estate issues. Male, middle-aged solicitors, working in a sole practice in suburban Sydney, were over-represented in the complaint statistics, and such information is highlighted in the risk profile.
The chief executive of the Law Society, Michael Tidball, said the vast majority of consumers experienced a legal system that generally worked well.
''Where there are matters of alleged misconduct or findings of misconduct, the co-regulatory system is an accountable system which through initiatives such as risk-profiling is becoming more vigilant in developing early-alert methodology,'' he said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/convicted-solicitors-still-allowed-to-practise-20120106-1pofd.html#ixzz1ikbMHAcK
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