The Legal Services Commission (LSC) lodged five times as many discipline applications in 2023-24 than the year before, the regulator’s annual report shows.
The report, tabled in Parliament by Attorney-General Deb Frecklington on Wednesday, shows 55 discipline applications were filed with the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in the past year, up from 11 in 2022-23 and 21 in 2021-22.
QCAT handed down 16 decisions, 14 of which found the legal practitioner had engaged in professional misconduct or unsatisfactory professional conduct.
“Unfortunately, QCAT was unable to hear or accommodate more matters this reporting year,” Commissioner Megan Mahon said in the report.
“This is a disappointing result for the commission given the large volume of work that has gone into numerous matters and has resulted in further growth in the significant backlog of matters that will need to be heard in the coming reporting years.
“The growing concern is that while conduct is not able to be addressed by QCAT and consequently there is less deterrence achieved, both personal and general, then the result that appears to be ensuing is increased conduct challenges and higher risks to members of the public and consumers of legal services.”
Sanctions imposed included reprimands, fines and disqualification for a specified periods. Six practitioners were removed from the roll; three as a result of convictions for serious criminal offences, and three for a variety of conduct including failing to respond to notices issued by the LSC, making serious unsubstantiated allegations and acting without instructions.
In addition, there was also a 40 per cent increase in new litigation matters, including offences against unlawful operators and injunctions for an array of concerning conduct in connection with the delivery of legal services.
Commissioner Mahon said the commission’s effectiveness as a regulator was being impacted by ongoing and increasing demand, and legislative changes were needed.
“It has been 17 years since the last major review of the (Legal Profession) Act and over the past few years the commission has done significant work to identify important amendments that will provide better outcomes for regulation of the legal profession and the delivery of legal services and are improvements that will benefit consumers of legal services and the profession itself,” she said.
Read the report here.
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