If you think someone is:
- giving legal advice
- doing legal work
- or calling themselves a lawyer, solicitor, counsel or barrister (for example, on social media) without being qualified, you can report it to us.
We investigate concerns of unqualified legal practice by individuals and/or businesses and take appropriate enforcement action.
What is unqualified legal practice?
An individual is ‘qualified’ if they are an Australian legal practitioner. This means they hold a current practising certificate issued in any Australian state or territory.
So, an individual is ‘unqualified’ if they don’t have a current Australian practising certificate — even if they have formal legal training/a law degree.
Only qualified individuals and registered legal practices can engage in legal practice and/or represent to others that they are qualified to practice law. In Victoria it is an offence to engage in legal practice or falsely claim you can when unqualified.
A business is ‘unqualified’ if it is not a registered law practice in any Australian State or Territory.
It is also an offence to falsely claim that a business that you have a close relationship with (for example, as director or employee) is a business that can engage in legal practice when it is not registered.
Some Australian laws allow individuals who may not be legal practitioners to provide limited legal services. These individuals include, but are not limited to, registered conveyancers, accountants, migration agents, and trademarks or patent attorneys.
Even though those individuals may be able to provide limited legal services, they cannot advertise themselves as legal practitioners if they do not hold a current Australian practising certificate. They also cannot advertise or represent that their business is a law practice (if the business is also not registered as a law practice).
For example, a registered migration agent cannot advertise that their migration agency business is a law firm if the business is not registered as a law firm.
For more information about who can engage in legal practice, see the Who can practise page of our website.
Why is unqualified legal practice such a concern?
Unqualified legal practice can cause significant harm to the public.
In the most serious cases, people acting on unqualified advice may break the law without realising it. They may even lose access to genuine legal solutions for loss and/or damage they have suffered. People who use an unqualified person or business to perform legal services for them are also not protected by professional indemnity insurance or our compensation scheme if things go wrong.
How do I check?
To check if a person is an Australian legal practitioner (meaning they hold a current Australian practising certificate), and/or a business is a registered law practice, you can search our Register of Lawyers.
The Register has information about their location of practice, their practising certificate (licence) type, their type of legal expertise and any languages they may speak.
Most Australian legal practitioners practice in the same state or territory as the organisation that gives them their practising certificate. Sometimes though, they may be temporarily practising in a different state or territory — meaning they could appear on the Register of a different state or territory instead.
If you search for an individual’s name or law practice on our Register and it doesn’t appear, we recommend searching the registers of the other states and territories before submitting an enquiry to us. Those registers can be accessed by clicking on the links below:
- Australian Capital Territory
- New South Wales
- Northern Territory
- Queensland
- South Australia
- Western Australia
- Tasmania
We also recommend making sure the name you are searching is correct. Sometimes the name people use in their day-to-day life may not be the name on their practising certificate (For example, a Michael who goes by ‘Mick’).
What does engaging in unqualified legal practice look like?
Below is a list of some common examples of activities that could be considered to be unqualified legal practice if done by an individual without a current practising certificate:
- Giving legal advice (verbally or in writing) about another person’s legal affairs.
- Writing legal documents for use in a court or tribunal, including applications, forms and submissions.
- Writing and/or giving verbal advice on ‘transactional’ documents that may not involve going to court (for example, drafting, or advising on the terms of, a contract, will, settlement agreement, etc.).
- Writing legal documents that indicate or imply they are legally representing someone.
- ‘Ghost drafting’ legal documents or correspondence. Ghost drafting means drafting a document on someone else’s behalf but in the other person’s name.
- Appearing in a court or tribunal as a person’s legal representative.
A person may still be engaging in unqualified legal practice even if:
- they provide the above services for free
- they only provide the above services once
- the advice they give is accurate or the document they prepare is well drafted
- they tell you they are unqualified.
What is advertising or representing an entitlement to practice law?
A person may also commit an offence if they advertise, represent, state or imply to others that they can provide legal services when they are not qualified to do so.
There are specific job titles that are protected by law so people don’t get confused about who can do legal work for them. A non-lawyer can’t use any of the following titles to describe themselves or their job/business, either verbally, in print or online.
- Lawyer
- Solicitor
- Legal practitioner
- Barrister
- Attorney
- Counsel
These protected titles can only be used by people qualified to practice law.
Unlawfully using a protected title is not the only way a person may commit this offence. As outlined in the examples above, any actions or words that advertise, represent or imply that a person is qualified to provide legal services can still mean they commit an offence even if the person does not use a protected title.
The law also makes it an offence to advertise or represent that a business can engage in legal practice when the business itself is not a law practice (a law firm). For example, if a director of company advertises that their company can provide legal services, the director may be committing an offence.
What are the consequences?
The penalties for unqualified legal practice can be significant.
Engaging in unqualified legal practice has a maximum penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and/or a fine.
Representing an entitlement to engage in legal practice while you are unqualified has a maximum penalty of a fine.
Advertising or representing that a business that you have a close relationship with can provide legal services when it is not registered also has a maximum penalty of a fine.
We can file criminal charges and prosecute the matter in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria. The court will decide the penalty. A finding of guilt could result in a criminal conviction being recorded.
We can also ask the Supreme Court of Victoria for an order to stop the person or business breaking the law. This is a civil proceeding and is called an injunction. Receiving an order from the Supreme Court is a serious matter and failure to comply with the order may amount to contempt of Court. Punishment for contempt includes a fine, or in the most serious cases, imprisonment.
We can also commence disqualification proceedings in the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal if we think the person is not fit and proper to be employed by a law practice.
Lawyers, law practices and their principals can also face disciplinary action if they have engaged unqualified persons, or misrepresented the role of the unqualified person, outside of the permitted limits.
Where a law practice has allowed an employee to engage in unqualified legal practice, the law practice cannot charge any legal fees for the work. They should also repay all fees received for the employee’s work while they were engaging in unqualified legal practice. This means when a person has operated unqualified for months or longer, the fees paid for the legal services must be all must be returned to clients.
Who is responsible?
Individuals are responsible for only engaging in activities they are qualified to perform.
Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for engaging in or representing an entitlement to engage in legal practice when not qualified.
Australian legal practitioners have a responsibility to renew their practising certificates each year. Inexperience, unfamiliarity with conventions, or oversight are not acceptable reasons for failing to renew their practising certificate each year.
How to report unqualified legal practice
If you think an individual or business may be engaging in unqualified legal practice, we encourage you first to search our Register of Lawyers or you can tell us by submitting an enquiry form.
We strongly recommend you read about how we handle reports about unqualified legal practice.