AustLII Tasmanian Consolidated Acts

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LEGAL PROFESSION ACT 2007 - SECT 258

Unclaimed money

(1)  If a law practice holding money in a trust account cannot find the person on whose behalf the money is held or a person authorised to receive it, the practice may, after a period of 2 years after the date on which the entitlement to the money accrued –
(a) pay the money into a trust deposit account established by the Trust under section 636 (Trust deposit accounts); and
(b) provide the Trust with such information as the Trust requires, in relation to the money and the person on whose behalf the money was held by the practice, within 7 days of that payment.
(2)  If a law practice pays money into a trust deposit account under subsection (1) , the practice is relieved from any further liability in relation to the money.
(3)  The Trust may pay any interest or income arising from any unclaimed money invested by it under section 637 (Application of funds in trust deposit accounts) into the Guarantee Fund.
(4)  The Trust, with the approval in writing of the Minister, may use any unclaimed money to find any person entitled to that money.
(5)  The Trust, if of the view that the cost of finding a person is likely to exhaust the whole or a substantial part of the unclaimed money, may pay the money into the Guarantee Fund.
(6)  Payment of unclaimed money (or balance thereof) to a person who has satisfied the Trust as to their entitlement to the money –
(a) discharges the Trust from any liability in relation to the money; and
(b) does not discharge the person from any liability to another person who establishes a right to the money.
(7)  The Trust may require any person to provide information that the person has, or can obtain, about the entitlement of a person to unclaimed money paid to the Trust under this section and attempts made to locate the person.
(8)  A person of whom a requirement is made under subsection (7)  –
(a) must comply with the requirement; and
(b) must not, in purported compliance with the requirement, give information that he or she knows is false or misleading in a material particular.
Penalty:  Fine not exceeding 20 penalty units.



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