Legal Profession Regulation 2007

Trust money may be transferred by journal entry from 1 trust ledger account in a law practice’s trust ledger to another trust ledger account in the trust ledger, but only if—

the law practice is entitled to withdraw the money and pay it to the other trust ledger account; and

subsection (2) is complied with.

The transfer must be authorised in writing—

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; or

by an external intervener for the practice.

A law practice must keep a trust account transfer journal if it transfers trust money by journal entry.

The following particulars must be recorded in the trust account transfer journal in relation to each transfer of trust money by journal entry:

the date of the transfer;

the trust ledger account from which the money is transferred (including its identifying reference);

the trust ledger account to which the money is transferred (including its identifying reference);

the amount transferred;

particulars sufficient to identify the purpose for which the transfer is made, the matter reference and a short description of the matter.

Journal pages or entries must be consecutively numbered.

A law practice must keep particulars of the authorisation for each transfer of trust money by journal entry, whether in the trust account transfer journal or in some other way.

In this section: