Extension of vicarious liability relating to failure to account, pay or deliver and dishonesty to incorporated legal practices
134 Extension of vicarious liability relating to failure to account, pay or deliver and dishonesty to incorporated legal practices
This section applies to any of the following proceedings (being proceedings based on the vicarious liability of an incorporated legal practice):
civil proceedings relating to a failure to account for, pay or deliver money or property received by, or entrusted to, the practice (or to any officer or employee of the practice) in the course of the provision of legal services by the practice, being money or property under the direct or indirect control of the practice;
civil proceedings for any other debt owed, or damages payable, to a client as a result of a dishonest act or omission by an Australian legal practitioner who is an employee of the practice in connection with the provision of legal services to the client.
If the incorporated legal practice would not (but for this section) be vicariously liable for any acts or omissions of its officers and employees in those proceedings, but would be liable for those acts or omissions if the practice and those officers and employees were carrying on business in partnership, the practice is taken to be vicariously liable for those acts or omissions.
This Act’s bill:Explanatory statementSecond reading speech
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