AustLII Tasmanian Consolidated Acts

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LEGAL PROFESSION ACT 2007 - SECT 218

Community legal centres

(1)  An organisation, whether incorporated or not, is a complying community legal centre for the purposes of this Act if –
(a) it is held out or holds itself out as being a community legal centre (or a centre or establishment of a similar description); and
(b) it provides legal services –
(i) that are directed generally to persons or organisations that lack the financial means to obtain privately funded legal services or whose cases are expected to raise issues of public interest or are of general concern to disadvantaged groups in the community; and
(ii) that are made available to persons or organisations that have a special need arising from their location or the nature of the legal matter to be addressed or have a significant physical or social disability; and
(iii) that are not intended, or likely, to be provided at a profit to the community legal centre and the income (if any) from which cannot or will not be distributed to any member or employee of the centre otherwise than by way of reasonable remuneration under a contract of service or for services; and
(iv) that are funded or expected to be funded to a significant level by donations or by grants from government, charitable or other organisations; and
(c) at least one of the persons who is employed or otherwise used by it to provide those legal services is an Australian legal practitioner and is generally responsible for the provision of those legal services (whether or not the person has an unrestricted practising certificate).
(2)  An organisation, whether incorporated or not, may be prescribed as a complying community legal centre for the purposes of this Act.
(3)  A complying community legal centre does not contravene this Act merely because –
(a) it employs, or otherwise uses the services of, Australian legal practitioners to provide legal services to members of the public; or
(b) it has a contractual relationship with a member of the public to whom those legal services are provided or receives any fee, gain or reward for providing those legal services; or
(c) it shares with an Australian legal practitioner employed or otherwise used by it to provide those legal services, receipts, revenue or other income arising from the business of the centre, being business of a kind usually conducted by an Australian legal practitioner; or
(d) it adopts or uses the word "legal" or a name, description or title referred to in section 15 (Presumptions about taking or using name, title or description specified in regulations) (or some related term) in its name or any registered business name under which it provides legal services to members of the public.
(4)  This section has effect despite anything to the contrary in this Act.
(5)  The regulations may make provision for or with respect to –
(a) the application (with or without specified modifications) of provisions of this Act to complying community legal centres; and
(b) the legal services provided by complying community legal centres or officers or employees of, or persons whose services are used by, complying community legal centres.
(6)  A regulation may provide that a breach of the regulations is capable of constituting unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct by, in the case of a complying community legal centre, an Australian legal practitioner responsible for the breach.



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