Legal Services Board
Maintaining a practising certificate
The information on this page is intended for current local legal practitioners – i.e. persons already holding Victorian practising certificates. Read information about applying for a practising certificate.
The Board’s practising certificate functions are currently delegated to the Victorian Bar (for barristers) and the Law Institute of Victoria (for other legal practitioners). If you have any questions or concerns in relation to practising certificates, please contact these bodies in the first instance.
Adhering to conditions
You must practise within the conditions upon your practising certificate. This includes any condition relating to:
- the practice you are authorised to engage in (i.e. principal of a law practice, employee of a law practice, corporate legal practitioner, or volunteer at a community legal centre);
- authorisation to receive trust money; and
- supervised legal practice, if you are subject to the requirement.
This also applies to any other condition imposed by the Board. Failure to practise within the conditions on your practising certificate will be grounds for the Board to amend, suspend or cancel the practising certificate.
See Applying for a practising certificate for further information about what conditions may be imposed on practising certificates.
See New and intending practitioners for further information about supervised legal practice.
Matters you must disclose to the Board
Change of information on the Register
You must notify the Board if any of your details recorded on the Register change. You must notify the Board within 14 days after the change. Failure to do so may result in a penalty. The details on the Register for a local legal practitioner include:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Date of Admission
- Address for service
- Any conditions imposed on the practitioner’s practising certificate
- For an employee of a law practice, the name of the law practice
- For a sole practitioner, any business name under which the practitioner carries on business
- An indication of whether a practitioner is a barrister.
Notify the Board of changes using the approved form.
Show cause events
If you have had a “show cause event” occur in the past, you are required to disclose that to the Board in your application for grant of a practising certificate, along with a statement explaining why you consider yourself to be a fit and proper person to hold a cractising certificate.
If a show cause event occurs while you hold a local practising certificate, you are required to disclose it to the Board within seven days of its occurrence. If one of these events applies to you, the Board will consider whether (notwithstanding the event) you are still a fit and proper person to hold a practising certificate.
A show cause event means:
- becoming bankrupt or being served with notice of a creditor's petition presented to the Court under section 43 of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth); or
- presentation (as a debtor) of a declaration to the Official Receiver under section 54A of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth) of his or her intention to present a debtor's petition or presentation (as a debtor) of such a petition under section 55 of that Act; or
- applying to take the benefit of any law for the relief of bankrupt or insolvent debtors, compounding with creditors or making an assignment of remuneration for the benefit of creditors; or
- being found guilty of a tax offence, i.e. an offence under the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth), whether committed in or outside this jurisdiction; or
- being found guilty of a serious offence, being:
- an indictable offence against a law of the Commonwealth or any jurisdiction of Australia (whether or not dealt with summarily); or
- an offence against the law of another Australian jurisdiction that would be an indictable offence against a law of this jurisdiction, if it were committed in this jurisdiction (whether or not it could be dealt with summarily if committed in this jurisdiction); or
- an offence against the law of a foreign jurisdiction that would be an indictable offence against the law of the Commonwealth or this jurisdiction if committed in this jurisdiction (whether or not it could be dealt with in this jurisdiction).
Note that being found guilty of a tax or serious offence is a show cause event irrespective of whether:
- the offence was committed in or outside this jurisdiction; or
- the offence was committed while the person was engaging in legal practice as an Australian legal practitioner or was practising foreign law as an Australian-registered foreign lawyer; or
- other persons are prohibited from disclosing the identity of the offender.
What to do about a show cause event
If a show cause event occurs while you hold a practising certificate, you must provide notice to the Board, within seven days of the event occurring. This must be done by completing the approved form:
Download the Notice of show cause event form (92KB PDF)
You may provide this form to the Board’s delegates – the Victorian Bar (if you are a barrister) or the Law Institute of Victoria (for other practitioners).
You are also required, within 28 days after the event occurring, to provide a written statement explaining why, despite the show cause event, you still consider yourself to be a fit and proper person to hold a local practising certificate.
The Board or its delegate may refuse to grant or renew, or may amend, suspend or cancel, a local practising certificate where an applicant has failed to provide a show cause notice.
After a person supplies the notice, the Board or its delegate considers whether, notwithstanding the show cause event, the person is a fit and proper person to hold a practising certificate.
The Board or its delegate may refuse to grant or renew, or may amend, suspend or cancel, a local practising certificate, where it considers the person is not a fit and proper person to hold the practising certificate.
Amendment/variation, suspension or cancellation
The Board has power to amend, suspend or cancel practising certificates.
Requesting amendment or cancellation – varying or surrendering your practising certificate
You may request that the Board amend or cancel your practising certificate. If your request is refused, the Board will send you an information notice explaining why.
To apply to vary your practising certificate, to carry a different condition relating to practice (e.g. employee, corporate or principal) or to have authorisation to receive trust money, complete the application/variation form. Please note that, if you wish to be authorised to receive trust money, you must also complete the approved trust account course, offered by the Law Institute of Victoria.
To surrender your practising certificate, please send the original certificate to the relevant Board delegate, the Victorian Bar (for barristers) and the Law Institute of Victoria (for all other practitioners) with a letter providing the date from which you wish the practising certificate to be cancelled.
Board amendment, suspension or cancellation
Each of the following is a ground for amending, suspending or cancelling your practising certificate:
- you are no longer a fit and proper person to hold the certificate
- you are not, or no longer, covered by professional indemnity insurance that complies with the Legal Profession Act 2004 (Vic) (“the Act”)
- you are engaging in legal practice that you are not entitled to engage in under the certificate (i.e. practising outside the conditions of the holder’s practising certificate).
In circumstances where the Board considers there are grounds to amend, suspend or cancel your practising certificate, it will issue a notice stating the proposed action, the grounds for the proposed action and the facts and circumstances that form the basis for the Board’s belief.
You will have a specified time to make written representations to the Board as to why the proposed action should not be taken and the Board will consider these representations before making its decision. However, where it is necessary in the public interest to immediately suspend your practising certificate, the Board may take this action with immediate effect. Persons subject to immediate suspension are entitled to provide written representations to the Board about the suspension. An immediate suspension will be in force until the earlier of the following:
- the Board makes a formal determination in accordance with the usual amendment, suspension or cancellation procedure referred to above, or
- the expiration of 56 days.
If your local practising certificate is suspended, you will be unable to practice during that period.
The Act provides a right to apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for review of a Board decision to amend, suspend or cancel a practising certificate.
Renewing your practising certificate
Practising certificates are in force from 1 July or the date of grant through to 30 June the following year. If you are an Australian legal practitioner (i.e. hold an Australian practising certificate) at the time of making the application, you are eligible to apply for renewal of a Victorian practising certificate if:
- You engage in legal practice solely or principally in Victoria; or
- You hold a current Victorian practising certificate and engage in legal practice in another Australian jurisdiction under a temporary arrangement; or
- During the currency of the certificate, you reasonably expect to be engaged in legal practice solely or principally in Victoria; or
- If none of these apply, or it is not reasonably practicable to determine which applies, your place of residence in Australia is Victoria, or you do not have a place of residence in Australia.
If you wish to renew your practising certificate for the following year commencing 1 July, you must apply by 30 April of that year to avoid paying a late lodgement surcharge. See fees for practising certificates.
If you have a practising certificate on 30 April, an application for renewal that is made between 1 May and 31 May will incur a surcharge of 25% of the prescribed fee. If the application is made during June, the surcharge will be 50% of the prescribed fee.
If you have a practising certificate on 30 April, and you apply for a new practising certificate between 1 July and 30 September, you must pay a surcharge of 200% of the prescribed fee, unless your application is accompanied by a statutory declaration stating:
- that you have not engaged in legal practice since the end of the previous financial year;
- that as at the end of the previous financial year you did not intend to engage in legal practice for at least the first 3 months of the current financial year; and
- the reasons why your intention has changed.
For the convenience of practitioners, the Board sends renewal forms to local legal practitioners in late March or early April each year. However, it is each practitioner’s responsibility to ensure that a renewal application is completed and lodged. If you do not receive a renewal application, please contact the Victorian Bar (for barristers) or the Law Institute of Victoria (for all other practitioners).
Moving overseas
You will still be eligible for a local practising certificate if you do not have a place of residence in Australia and want to maintain a Victorian practising certificate while living or working overseas.
For more information, download the Information sheet – Overseas based practitioners on how to maintain your practising certificate while living or working overseas. (40KB PDF)