Extension to incorporated legal practice of vicarious liability relating to failure to account and dishonesty
127 Extension to incorporated legal practice of vicarious liability relating to failure to account and dishonesty
This section applies to any of the following, being a proceeding based on the vicarious liability of an incorporated legal practice—
a civil proceeding relating to a failure to account for, pay or deliver money or other 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 other property under the direct or indirect control of the practice;
a civil proceeding for any other debt owed, or damages payable, to a client because 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, apart from this section, be vicariously liable for any acts or omissions of its officers and employees in the proceeding, 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 memorandum
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