(1) This section applies if a person engages a multi-disciplinary partnership
to provide services that the person might reasonably assume to be legal
services.
(2) Each legal practitioner partner of the multi-disciplinary
partnership, and any employee of the partnership who is an Australian legal
practitioner and who provides the services on behalf of the partnership, must
ensure that a disclosure that complies with the requirements of this section
and a regulation made for this section is made to the person about the
services.
Penalty—
Maximum penalty—100 penalty units.
(3) The
disclosure must be made by giving the person a written notice—
(a) setting
out the services to be provided; and
(b) stating whether or not all the legal
services will be provided by an Australian legal practitioner; and
(c) if
some or all of the legal services to be provided will not be provided by an
Australian legal practitioner—identifying those services and indicating the
status or qualifications of the person or persons who will provide the legal
services; and
(d) stating that this Act applies to the provision of legal
services but not to the provision of the non-legal services.
(4) A regulation
may provide for the following matters—
(a) the way in which a disclosure is
to be made;
(b) additional matters required to be disclosed in connection
with the provision of legal services or non-legal services by a
multi-disciplinary partnership.
(5) Without limiting subsection (4) , the
additional matters may include the kind of services provided by the
multi-disciplinary partnership and whether those services are or are not
covered by the provisions of this Act, including, for example, provisions
about insurance.
(6) A disclosure under this section to a person about the
provision of legal services may relate to the provision of legal services on 1
occasion, on more than 1 occasion or on an on-going basis.
