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The staff of the Legal Services Commission are ready to deal with any complaints or inquiries that you may have regarding the conduct of legal practitioners, law practice employees or unlawful operators who are regulated by the Legal Profession Act 2007. This form has been designed so that you can make an online complaint or inquiry. Once you have completed the form it will be assessed by one of our officers and we will be in contact with you as soon as possible. We will do whatever we can to resolve your concerns - formally, if we assess your concerns as a complaint or informally if we assess them as an inquiry.
Before you lodge an online complaint or inquiry form it is very important that you:
- understand that you cannot save this form and return to finish it later. If you think that you cannot provide details of your complaint or inquiry in one go, do not start completing this form now. Instead, type and save the details of your complaint or inquiry in a separate document, then copy the text and restart this online form. When you reach Step 3 you can paste your details directly into the form.
- understand that some parts of this form are relevant only to people wishing to make a formal complaint. If you are lodging an inquiry, you simply do not need to consider this information.
- consider less formal ways to resolve the problem. You may be able to resolve an issue about the way in which your matter is being managed by a legal practitioner by talking directly to the person concerned or a more senior person at the same firm. If you require more information about dealing with your lawyer, please see our factsheet Communicating with your lawyer.
- read the Commission’s before completing the online form if your complaint is about costs.
- understand that you cannot attach any documents to this form. If you believe that you need to provide us with documentary material, please complete and post us a "word" version of your complaint together with your documents. Otherwise if you have electronic documents that will help our assessment of your inquiry or complaint you can send them to lsc@lsc.qld.gov.au once you have completed this form.
- be aware that the Legal Profession Act 2007 requires us, if we decide to investigate a complaint, to tell the legal practitioner what the complaint is about and who made it. In that case, we might need to send the information you have provided on this form to the legal practitioner you are complaining about to enable him or her to respond. This is to ensure both sides receive a fair hearing.
If you are complaining or inquiring about more than one person, you will need to submit separate forms for each person. However, after completing the first form, you will only need to complete steps 2 and 3 for each additional respondent.
Our staff at the Legal Services Commission can provide advice on how to complete this form. Consumer concerns about issues such as communication with your lawyer, delays in dealing with instructions, or legal costs, may sometimes be resolved by negotiation. You can call us on 3406 7737 or, if you are calling from outside Brisbane, on 1300 655 754.
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Privacy Statement
Please be aware that personal information you provide on this form is used by the Commission for the purposes of administering the Legal Profession Act 2007. Those purposes include assessing, mediating, investigating and prosecuting complaints about members of the legal profession.
For the purposes of assessing, mediating or investigating a complaint the Commission will usually disclose your personal information to the person you are complaining about, their legal representative and the legal profession’s regulatory body, either the Queensland Law Society or the Bar Association of Queensland.
If a complaint proceeds to a disciplinary hearing then your personal information will usually be disclosed to one of the disciplinary bodies. Disciplinary hearings are open to the public.
Part of the Commission’s role is to also conduct research projects aimed at protecting consumers of legal services and the public generally.
If the Commission conducts a research project you will not be identified. De-identified personal information may be disclosed to a research organisation to conduct the research project.
The Commission will not use or disclose your personal information for any other purpose not connected with the administration of the Legal Profession Act 2007 without your consent unless such use or disclosure is required or authorised by law. For further information please see the Commission’s privacy policy. | |
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