Month: December 2011

From the latest newsletter of Queensland’s Legal Services Commissioner, we learn that he is tentatively of the view that incorporated legal practices are required to give itemised bills within 7 days of a ‘consumer’ client’s request.  Certain others may be in other situations as well, by virtue of the extended operation of the Australian Consumer Law as a law of the Commonwealth provided for by s. 6 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (good luck working out what that provision means in a hurry). I raised this possibility back here, and have been meaning to get around to working out exactly how s. 161A of the Fair Trading Act 1999 (Vic) operates ever since.  Section 161A is the Victorian analogue of the Queensland provision s. 55 referred to below.  Kudos to the Commissioner for putting out for comment a discussion draft of a future regulatory guide ‘The Application of the Australian Consumer Law to Lawyers’.  See also the ACCC’s publication ‘The Professions and the Australian Consumer Law’.  The Commissioner’s tentative analysis is reproduced below.  What I want to know next is what the consequences are if s. 101 of the Australian Consumer Law is breached. Continue reading “Incorporated legal practitioners required to give consumers itemised bills within 7 days”