New South Wales Repealed Acts

This legislation has been repealed.

LEGAL PROFESSION ACT 1987 - SECT 167AA

167AA Time for instituting proceedings

(1) An information may be laid under this Part at any time within 6 months after the Council or Commissioner decides that proceedings be instituted in the Tribunal with respect to the complaint concerned.

(2) Despite subsection (1), the Tribunal may, on application in writing by the Council or Commissioner, as the case may require, extend the time for laying an information referred to in subsection (1).

(3) In exercising the power to extend the time for laying an information, the Tribunal is to have regard to all the circumstances of the case, and (without affecting the generality of the foregoing) the Tribunal is to have regard to the following:

(a) the public interest,

(b) the extent to which, having regard to the delay, there is or may be prejudice to the legal practitioner concerned by reason that evidence that would have been available if the information had been laid within the 6-month period is no longer available,

(c) the reasonableness of the applicant’s explanation for the delay in laying the information.

(4) The time for laying an information may be extended under subsection (2) although that time has expired.

(5) This section has effect despite anything in section 44 of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 or the rules or regulations under that Act.

(6) For the purposes of subsection (1), a decision that proceedings be instituted is made when:

(a) the Council or Commissioner decides that there is a reasonable likelihood that the legal practitioner concerned will be found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct, as referred to in section 155 (2), or

(b) the Commissioner decides to institute proceedings in the Tribunal against the legal practitioner concerned, or to direct the appropriate Council to do so, under section 160 (1) (d).

(7) An official record or notification of a decision referred to in subsection (6) (a) or (b) and stating the date the decision was made is evidence that the decision was made and of the date the decision was made.