Decisions of disciplinary bodies
The disciplinary bodies hear and decide discipline applications brought by the Legal Services Commissioner. Discipline applications allege that legal practitioners have conducted themselves in ways that amount to unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct and seek orders that impose the appropriate disciplinary consequence.The disciplinary bodies might decide after hearing the evidence that the Commissioner proved some or all the allegations (disciplinary charges) made in a discipline application. If so, they will make a finding or findings of unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct and order disciplinary action.
Equally of course the disciplinary bodies might decide that the evidence was insufficient to prove the allegation or allegations in a discipline application and in that case they will dismiss the application in its entirety.
Whatever their decision, the disciplinary bodies publish their judgements or reasons for decision. We have collated here every judgement of the disciplinary bodies which has ordered disciplinary action since the Legal Profession Act 2004 came into effect on 1 July 2004, and also the like judgements of their predecessor bodies going back to late 1996.
We have also included every judgement since 1 July 2004 which dismissed a discipline application and which we believe made new or important statements of law or principle about the professional standards expected of legal practitioners.
You can search the judgements we have collated here in a number of different ways. You can search them simply by typing in key words (e.g. 'gross overcharging' or 'undertakings' or 'dishonesty') in the same way you can search judgements of the Queensland courts:
Alternatively, you can search just the decisions to order disciplinary action, or just the decisions to dismiss a discipline application, as follows:a) discipline register
The discipline register includes the name of every practitioner who has been disciplined by order of a disciplinary body since 1996. Every entry on the register includes a link to the relevant judgement. You can search the discipline register, and hence search for judgements, either:- chronologically, or by
- the names of the practitioners who were disciplined
- the names of the law firms in which they practised at the time
- the type of practitioner (solicitor/barrister)
- the disciplinary body that heard and decided the discipline application (e.g. Legal Practice Tribunal/Legal Practice Committee/Court of Appeal), and
- the type of disciplinary order (struck off/fined/reprimanded/etc).
To go to the discipline register, click here.
b) decisions to dismiss a discipline application
We have grouped these judgements under headings which characterise the statements of law or principle that we believe are new or otherwise important. We will add further judgements and headings whenever a disciplinary body in Queensland make a decision to dismiss a discipline application and in so doing makes statements of law or principle we believe should be brought to the profession's attention.
We have listed the headings alphabetically, as follows:
- application of Rule 47 of The Legal Profession (Barristers) Rule 2004 (in relation to barristers conferring with more than one witness at a time about an issue that may be contentious at a hearing or could affect the evidence to be given by one of the witnesses)
LSC v Hansen [2008] LPT 007
(38kB pdf)
- costs orders against the Legal Services Commission-the application of section 286(4) of the Legal Profession Act 2004 [now see s.462 of the Legal Profession Act 2007]
LSC v Sing (no. 2) [2007] LPT 005 (16kB pdf)
- orders prohibiting the publication of information about a discipline application and/or the hearing of a discipline application-the application of section 480 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 [now see s.650 of the Legal Profession Act 2007]
LSC v Sing (no. 2) [2007] LPT 005 (16kB pdf)
- threatening letters
LSC v Sing [2007] LPT 004 (35kB pdf)
Last updated 1/07/2008 1:11:32 PM