Queensland Consolidated Acts

LEGAL PROFESSION ACT 2007 - SECT 24

24 Prohibition on engaging in legal practice when not entitled

(1) A person must not engage in legal practice in this jurisdiction unless the person is an Australian legal practitioner.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—300 penalty units or 2 years imprisonment.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to engaging in legal practice of the following kinds—

(a) legal practice engaged in under the authority of a law of this jurisdiction or the Commonwealth;

(b) legal practice engaged in by an incorporated legal practice under part 2.7 ;

(c) the practice of foreign law by an Australian-registered foreign lawyer under part 2.8 ;

(d) work performed by a trustee company, or a person employed by a trustee company, in the course of—

(i) preparing a will; or

(ii) carrying out any other activities involving the administration of trusts, the estate of a living or deceased person or the affairs of a living person;

(e) legal practice prescribed under a regulation.

(3) Also, subsection (1) does not apply to an Australian lawyer if the lawyer—

(a) has applied under section 49 to the law society for a local practising certificate and has not been given a notice that the law society has refused to grant the application, or refused to consider the application, as mentioned in section 51 ; and

(b) is employed in or by a law practice and the lawyer has informed the law practice that he or she has applied for, but not yet been granted, a local practising certificate by the law society.

(3A) It is declared that neither a POA licensee nor a POA employee is engaging in legal practice only because the licensee or employee provides, prepares or completes a property contract or other document as part of performing either of the following (each of which is a
"POA licensee’s work" )—

(a) the work of a POA licensee;

(b) other work ancillary or incidental to the work of a POA licensee and part of the ordinary course of business undertaken generally by a POA licensee.

(3B) However, a POA licensee’s work does not include—

(a) giving legal advice in relation to a property contract or other document; or

(b) providing, preparing or completing a document prescribed under a regulation.

(3C) For subsection (3A) , it is immaterial that a fee is charged by the POA licensee for a transaction in relation to which the POA licensee or POA employee provides, prepares or completes a property contract or other document.

(3D) However, it is material as to whether or not a person who is a POA licensee or POA employee is engaging in legal practice in this jurisdiction if the person commits an offence against the Property Occupations Act 2014 , section 219 .

(3E) A POA licensee or POA employee
"prepares or completes" a property contract or other document—

(a) by inserting information in a blank space, or crossing or leaving out an alternative included, in the property contract or other document; or

(b) by inserting a term into, or altering a term of, the property contract or other document if—

(i) the insertion or alteration—

(A) is authorised by a party to the proposed property contract or other document as an insertion or alteration; or

(B) is given in writing to the licensee or employee by a party to the proposed property contract or other document as an insertion or alteration; or

(C) was previously prepared by an Australian legal practitioner, whether or not in connection with the property contract or other document; and

Note for subsubparagraph (C)—

The provision allows the use of a precedent.

(ii) the licensee or employee does not change the insertion or alteration except in relation to—

(A) changing a detail about the transaction that is the subject of the property contract or other document; or

(B) crossing or leaving out an alternative, or changing the grammatical form of words, of the insertion or alteration.

Example of preparing or completing a property contract—

A POA licensee gives a property contract to a seller to sign. The licensee has prepared or completed the property contract by printing the relevant form from the REIQ website and by filling in required details, including the names and addresses of the seller and buyer and the address and description of the property. The licensee also crossed out words when there were alternatives set out in the property contract.
Also the POA licensee inserted 2 special conditions into the property contract. The first special condition is one the seller gave to the licensee because the property is located within a gated community and the condition related to the standard covenants for the community. The second special condition is about financing and the licensee used a special condition known by the POA licensee to have been prepared by an Australian legal practitioner for another transaction but changed details to ensure the property contract read properly.

(4) A person is not entitled to recover any amount in relation to anything the person did in contravention of subsection (1) .

(5) A person may recover from someone else (the
"other person" ), as a debt due to the person, any amount the person paid to the other person for anything the other person did in contravention of subsection (1) .

(6) A regulation may make provision about the application, with or without stated changes, of provisions of this Act to persons engaged in legal practice of a kind mentioned in subsection (2) other than paragraphs (a) and (b) .

(7) In this section—

"other document" means—

(a) an approved form, under an Act, relevant to a POA licensee’s work; or

(b) a document provided, prepared or completed as part of a POA licensee’s work in connection with transactions relevant to a property contract;

but does not include a property contract or a document of a kind prescribed under a regulation as mentioned in subsection (3B) (b) .

"POA employee" means a real estate salesperson under the Property Occupations Act 2014 , whether or not the real estate salesperson is also a property agent under that Act.

"POA licensee" means an auctioneer, real estate agent or resident letting agent under the Property Occupations Act 2014 .

"property contract" means—

(a) a form of contract or agreement generally recognised and accepted for use by POA licensees when carrying out activities authorised by the Property Occupations Act 2014 in dealing with real property or an interest in real property; or

(b) a form of contract or agreement, or a proposed contract or agreement, relating to real property or an interest in real property that was previously prepared by an Australian legal practitioner.

"trustee company" see the Trustee Companies Act 1968 , section 4 .