Independence and referrals

The undertakings

These apply to every matter this firm accepts, in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. They are not a statement of intent; each one restates an obligation that already binds the solicitor acting for you, and the section below names which.

The rules these sit on

A promise on a website is worth what the person making it decides it is worth. The reason these five are worth more than that is that a solicitor is regulated individually, and can be disciplined individually. Each undertaking above corresponds to a rule that already applies:

• Independence generally. Rule 4.1.4 of the Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules requires a solicitor to avoid any compromise to their integrity and professional independence. That is the rule undertaking (a) restates.
• Conflicts. Rule 12.1 says a solicitor must not act where there is a conflict between the duty to serve the best interests of a client and the interests of the solicitor or an associate. That is undertaking (d), and it is why declining is not optional.
• A benefit received on a referral. Under rule 12.4.3, a firm may only accept a commission or benefit for referring a client on if it has told the client the benefit is or may be payable and what it is, told the client they may refuse the referral, and obtained the client’s informed consent.
• A benefit paid on a referral. Under rule 12.4.4, a firm that pays for a referral may only act for that client if it has disclosed the payment first. The Law Council’s commentary urges that the disclosure be made in writing. Undertaking (b) commits this firm to writing in both directions.
• Another business run alongside the practice. Rule 8 of the Legal Profession Uniform Legal Practice (Solicitors) Rules 2015 requires that the other business not be of a kind likely to impair or conflict with duties to clients, that separate files, records and accounts be kept, and that the solicitor’s interest in it be disclosed to any client who deals with it.

Those rules are public. You do not have to take our description of them on trust, and you should not have to take our word for how we apply them either — which is what undertaking (b) is for.

On accreditation

One more thing this firm does not claim. The Law Society of NSW runs an accreditation scheme for individual solicitors in defined areas of law. Where a solicitor holds that credential, the entitlement to refer to it attaches to them by name, rather than to the practice they work in — which is why a firm cannot properly describe itself by reference to one. Nothing on this site claims an accreditation. If a solicitor here holds one it will be published against their name, and never against the firm.

The same rule governs what is absent elsewhere on this site: no testimonials, no star ratings, no matter counts, no years-in-practice figures and no outcome claims. Under the Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules 2015, a solicitor’s advertising must not be false, misleading or deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive. A claim nobody here could stand behind would be exactly that, and a claim reciting a past result carries a second problem: it invites you to expect the same on facts that are not yours.

If an agent or a broker referred you

The disclosure runs both ways, and the other side of it is not ours to make. In New South Wales, an agent who refers you to a service provider must disclose the nature of any personal or commercial relationship they have with that provider, and whether they receive or expect to receive any benefit for the referral. That obligation sits in section 47 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 (NSW), it is made on a prescribed form, and there are penalties for not making it. Victoria and Queensland impose their own obligations on agents.

So if a real estate agent sent you to us, you should receive a disclosure from them as well as one from us. If you did not, that is worth asking about — of them, and of us.

If you think we have got this wrong

Tell us first. Ask for the person running your matter, and if that does not resolve it, ask for the partner responsible for the file. Most complaints about a law practice are about cost or about not hearing anything, and both are usually fixable in a phone call.

If it is not resolved, you can complain to the regulator, and you do not need our permission to do it. Complaints about a New South Wales practice go to the Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner. Victoria and Queensland each have their own commissioner. That avenue exists whether or not we agree with you, and nothing in these undertakings limits it.