3.  Relevant Legislation

The Legal Profession Act [the Act], the Law Society Rules [the Rules] and the Code of Professional Conduct [the Code] all contain definitions and rules about a lawyer’s financial obligations and accountability for accurate and timely trust accounting.

The Act, the Rules and the Code are intended to ensure that:

•  all clients’ money and valuable property in the possession of a law firm is properly safeguarded;
• the law firm always keeps all client money in trust separated from the general money used to operate the law firm;
• the law firm has a proper record keeping system in place which provides contemporaneous details of all trust and general transactions;
• at all times, the law firm has a complete and current permanent record for all financial transactions on each client matter;
• the law firm creates a permanent audit trail with supporting documents, which can be seen by the Law Society at any time.