Amendments to Prescribed Deposit Account

**extracted from the QLS Website**

On 11 November 2016, Royal Assent was given to the Limitation of Actions (Child Sexual Abuse) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2016. This Act made amendments to the Legal Profession Act 2007 (LPA) pertaining to the Legal Practitioner Interest on Trust Accounts Fund, which will be replaced by new funding arrangements through the Consolidated Fund.

The amendments to the LPA also include the abolition of the requirement for law practice to maintain a Department of Justice and Attorney-General Prescribed Deposit Account.

The amendment will take effect from 1 January 2017.

Therefore, law practices that currently hold funds in the Prescribed Deposit Account are requested to draw back all funds to the trust bank account and make arrangements to close the Prescribed Deposit Account with the trust banker.

It is recommended that law practice commence withdrawing funds during the period 2 December 2016 and 31 December 2016 pursuant to section 74(1) of the Legal Profession Regulation 2007 (LPR).

Law practices will not be required to make any further deposits to the Department of Justice and Attorney-General Prescribed Deposit Account pursuant to section 74(3) of the LPR after 2 December 2016.

Note: Trust Account Calendar – If you have previously downloaded the calendar widget please download the latest version available on our Trust Accounting Resources page. There will be prompts to replace the existing version if downloading the calendar again.

Please contact the Trust Account Investigation Team on 3842 5908 or via email managertai@qls.com.au if you have any questions in relation to the above.