NCJ Number
92395
Date Published
1983
Length
78 pages
Annotation
Papers and commentaries from an Australian seminar on crime in the legal profession consider the extent and nature of fraud and misappropriation in the legal profession along with attorney behavioral control exerted by law societies and bar associations.
Abstract
The papers place the Legal Practitioners Act 1898, which specifies accounting requirements for attorneys, in a modern context and specify its requirements. Attention is given to attorney default in the management of trust accounts, including brief descriptions of actual default cases. The bulk of default losses are said to be lost through investments in companies controlled by solicitors, with very little lost through the larceny of managing attorneys. Remedial steps being considered and those in the course of implementation are discussed. The effectiveness of steps taken to prevent trust account default is measured, and new steps are recommended. It is advised in one paper that the imposition of restrictions or mandatory procedures must be weighed against the effect they will have on an attorney's capacity to conduct business according to the principles of profitability and without undue state interference. One paper illustrates from experience and case study that the predominant pattern of default is criminality and not inefficiency, and the point is made that probably no other profession has as much opportunity and readily available means to perpetrate large-scale frauds. Finally, the discussion considers ways and means of reducing attorneys' temptation to fraud, and the role played by existing disciplinary tribunals is considered, while the benefit likely to be derived from model rules of professional conduct is assessed.