New South Wales Consolidated Acts
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WORKPLACE INJURY MANAGEMENT AND WORKERS COMPENSATION ACT 1998 - SECT 135
Consequences of prohibited conduct for lawyers
(cf former s 148F)
(1) A lawyer who acts for a person on a claim must not
include in any bill given to the person, and must not otherwise seek to
recover from the person, any amount by way of disbursements for fees paid to
an agent in connection with referral of the person to the lawyer by the agent
if the lawyer knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that the agent engaged
in prohibited conduct that involved encouraging the person to make the claim,
regardless of whether the agent has been proceeded against or convicted for an
offence in respect of that prohibited conduct. : Maximum penalty--50 penalty
units.
(2) A lawyer who acts for a person on a claim is not entitled to
recover from any person any amount by way of disbursements for fees paid to an
agent in connection with the claim if the claim was made as a result of
prohibited conduct engaged in by the agent, regardless of whether the agent
has been proceeded against or convicted for an offence in respect of that
prohibited conduct.
(3) If prohibited conduct engaged in by an agent involved
encouraging a person to make a claim and the person makes a claim after the
conduct is engaged in, it is to be presumed for the purposes of subsection (2)
that the claim was made as a result of that prohibited conduct unless the
lawyer establishes otherwise.
(4) If a hearing loss claim was made as a
result of prohibited conduct engaged in by an agent, it is to be presumed for
the purposes of subsection (2) that any subsequent hearing loss claim in
respect of further loss of hearing made by the same worker (whether or not
made against the same employer) in connection with which that agent performed
any service was made as a result of prohibited conduct engaged in by that
agent, unless the lawyer concerned establishes otherwise.
(5) A person who
has paid any amount in respect of disbursements to a lawyer that the lawyer
would not have been entitled to recover because of subsection (2) is entitled
to recover the amount from the lawyer as a debt in a court of competent
jurisdiction.
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