Legal Profession Act 2007

If a complaint has been made about an Australian legal practitioner – the Board is to ensure that the complainant and the practitioner are notified in writing of receipt of the complaint by the Board or the making of the complaint by the Board; and the Board is to ensure that the complainant and the practitioner receive a statement of reasons from the Board in respect of any determination made in relation to the complaint.

Notwithstanding subsection (1)(a), the Board is not required to notify the Australian legal practitioner of the receipt of a complaint about the practitioner if the Board has referred the subject matter of the complaint to the Commissioner of Police, the Commissioner of Taxation, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission or the Australian Federal Police Commissioner pursuant to section 512, as the case may require.

Subsection (1) does not apply if the complaint has been summarily dismissed by the Board in any of the circumstances prescribed under section 430(1A).

Without limiting subsection (1), the complainant and the practitioner are entitled to receive written notice of – a decision to dismiss the complaint other than a summary dismissal to which subsection (1B) applies; or a decision to omit, from the allegations particularised in a complaint before the Board or Tribunal, a matter that was originally part of the complaint.

In the case of a decision by the Board to dismiss a complaint, the right of the complainant to apply to the Tribunal or Supreme Court under section 458 (Application against determinations) for the matter to be heard must be included in the notice to the complainant.