Payment by cheque
41 Payment by cheque
This section applies to the withdrawal of trust money from a general trust account of a law practice by cheque.
A cheque—
must be made payable to or to the order of a stated person or people and not to bearer or cash; and
must be crossed “not negotiable”; and
must include—
the name of the law practice or the business name under which the law practice engages in legal practice; and
the expression “law practice trust account” or “law practice trust a/c”.
A cheque must be signed—
by an authorised principal of the law practice; or
if a principal mentioned in paragraph (a) is not available—
by an authorised legal practitioner associate; or
by an authorised Australian legal practitioner who holds an unrestricted practising certificate authorising the receipt of trust money; or
by 2 or more authorised associates jointly.
A written record of the required particulars (which may be in the form of a cheque butt) must be kept of each payment made by cheque, whether by way of making a carbon copy or otherwise, unless at the time the cheque is issued those particulars are recorded by computer program in the trust account payments cash book.
If at the time the cheque is issued the required particulars are recorded by computer program in the trust account payments cash book, a written record must be kept that is sufficient to enable the accuracy of the particulars recorded by the computer program to be verified.
For subsections (4) and (5), the required particulars are as follows:
the date and number of the cheque;
the amount ordered to be paid by the cheque;
the name of the person to whom the payment is to be made or, in the case of a cheque made payable to an ADI, the name of the ADI and the name of the person receiving the benefit of the payment;
details clearly identifying the name of the person on whose behalf the payment was made and the matter reference;
details clearly identifying the ledger account to be debited;
particulars sufficient to identify the purpose for which the payment was made.
Written records relating to payments by cheque (including cheque requisitions) must be kept in the order in which the cheques were issued.
Subsection (2) (c) does not apply to an account established in the ACT before the commencement of this section.
Subsection (2) (c) (ii) does not require the repetition of the words “law practice” if those words form part of the name or business name of the law practice.
In this section:
associate means an associate of the law practice.
authorised means authorised by the law practice to sign cheques drawn on the general trust account.
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