New Zealand Legislation: Acts

7 Application of Act to law offices and legal advice bureaux

• (1) For the purposes of subsections (1)(b) and (2) of section 66 of this Act (which relate to a person under suspension or struck off the roll acting in a solicitor's business) the operation by any person or body of persons of any office or bureau to which section 6 of this Act applies shall be taken to be the carrying on of the business of a solicitor; and those provisions shall, with all necessary modifications, apply accordingly.

  (2) For the purposes of section 67(2) of this Act (which relates to the employment of a person under suspension or struck off the roll) the operation by a solicitor of any such office or bureau shall be taken to be the carrying on of his business as a solicitor; and that provision shall, with all necessary modifications, apply accordingly.

  (3) Every person, not being a practitioner but being an operator or one of the operators of any such office or bureau, commits an offence against this Act who, without the sanction of the Court or of the New Zealand Disciplinary Tribunal, employs or permits to act as a clerk or otherwise in or about the business of the office or bureau any other person whom he knows to be under suspension from practice as a barrister or solicitor or to have had his name struck off the roll otherwise than at his own request.

  (4) Part 6 of this Act (which relates to solicitors' trust accounts), sections 91I to 91N of this Act (which relate to solicitors' nominated trust accounts), and any rules made under section 17(2)(e) of this Act shall, with all necessary modifications, apply with respect to the operation of any such office or bureau.

  (5) A District Council, a complaints committee, and the New Zealand Disciplinary Tribunal shall have jurisdiction under Part 7 of this Act to deal with any complaint or matter relating to the conduct of any person employed in any such office or bureau as if he were an employee of a practitioner; and the provisions of that Part shall, so far as they are applicable and with all necessary modifications, apply accordingly.

  (6) For the purposes of subsection (5) of this section, an order may be made or revoked under subsection (2) or subsection (6) of section 114 of this Act in respect of the employment of a person in any such office or bureau, whether or not the order or revocation relates also to his employment by a practitioner; and every operator of any such office or bureau (not being a practitioner) who knowingly acts in contravention of any order made under the said subsection (2) commits an offence against this Act.

  (7) Part 9 of this Act (which relates to the Solicitors' Fidelity Guarantee Fund) shall, with all necessary modifications, apply to any such office or bureau as if the operation of the office or bureau were the carrying on by a solicitor of the practice of his profession on his own account without partners; and for the purposes of that Part, as applied by this subsection, all fees and levies shall be payable in the same manner and at the same times as they are payable by solicitors.

  Subsection (4) was amended, as from 1 October 1991, by section 2 Law Practitioners Amendment Act 1991 (1991 No 72) by inserting the words “, sections 91I to 91N of this Act (which relate to solicitors' nominated trust accounts),”.