Background to the consultation

On 5 February 2009, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed that, despite recent valuable reform, further work needed to be done to create simpler, more efficient and effective regulation for the legal profession across Australia. Although improvements have been made in recent years, regulation of the legal profession remains overly complex and inconsistent, with each State and Territory applying different sets of rules.

The new Legal Profession National Law (National Law) aims to improve the uniformity, simplicity and effectiveness of legal regulation. The legislation is also designed to ensure that regulation processes are transparent to consumers and that consumer protection is enhanced. The legislation was drafted by the National Legal Profession Reform Taskforce, who are keen to gain consumer's views on the proposed legislation. A copy of the legislation can be found here. The Taskforce Consultation Report can be accessed here.

The purpose of this survey
The purpose of this survey is to provide consumers with an opportunity to contribute their views on the proposed National Law. For the purposes of this survey a consumer is an individual who has used the services of a lawyer.

The survey
This survey is being managed by independent consultants. Along with consumer feedback from other consultation processes currently underway, the information gathered in this survey will be fed into a consumer consultation report to be considered by the Taskforce. Survey responses will be kept confidential.

Saving your work
At the bottom of each page, there will be an option to save your work. By clicking on this option, you can leave the survey, and return to it at any time. If you choose this option, you will be given a username and password to return to the survey. It is important that you keep this information safe for when you need it.

Anonymity
Your answers are completely confidential. You do not need to provide your name or any other personal information when completing this survey.

Survey closing date
This survey will close on 13 August 2010. You will not be able to access or complete the survey after this date.