VPRS 18368 Legal Profession Act Files

Full description

The records in this series comprise of files relating to breaches of the Legal Profession Practice Act 1958, which was introduced to regulate the practice of the legal profession. Uniform laws were developed pertaining to all aspect of legal practice. The act provided that it was in the jurisdiction the Supreme Court of Victoria to hear applications made under the Act.

From 1958 until 1989 the cases were heard by justices of the Supreme Court in their own Legal Profession Act list.

In 1990 the Court abolished many of the smaller lists such as the Legal Profession Act list and consolidated all cases into either a criminal or civil list.

The records in this series consist of notices of motion, affidavits, report of the Statutory Committee and orders and/or judgments handed down by the presiding judge. The proceedings are mainly between the Law Institute of Victoria and individuals or occasionally a firm, or vice versa.

The majority of cases initiated by the Law Institute of Victoria sought:
- an order for a practitioner to be struck off the roll for misconduct (usually defalcation)
- An order for seizure of trust account books and the appointment of a receiver to the trust account
- An order of contempt of court for practicing as a solicitor without the proper authority to do so

The proceedings brought by individuals against the law institute were
;- applications seeking dispensation with rules to admission given experience,
- appeals against the Law Institute of Victoria's cancellation of or refusal to renew a practicing certificate
- applications to be excused from taking the Oath of Allegiance at admission as it would imperil citizenship of another country outside the commonwealth such as the USA.

The Court dealt with these matters until 1996 when a tribunal was formed to hear these matters. Later, following the passage of the Legal Profession Act 2004, the responsibility for hearing these matters moved to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Researchers should be aware that some files only contain a file cover. These files are identified as [Empty File]. The location of the remaining parts of the file are unknown to the agency and PROV at the time of transfer in September 2018.