Interest Earned on Lawyers Trust Accounts

Lawyers in Australian Society – Assignment 1.

The following essay will discuss the ethical use of trust accounts and the interest that these accounts earn. It will examine who this interest belongs to. Two ethical theories will be employed to analyse this moral and ethical dilemma, the theories being the teleological and deontological approaches to moral decision making as discussed by moral philosopher Thomas Aquinas.

Any money solicitor’s receive on a client’s behalf is held separately from the solicitors’ general office account and will be deposited in a general trust account and held under trust . A scheme was set up within Australia to ensure that the interest earned on the trust accounts’ went to worthwhile causes. Australian Interest on Lawyers Trust Fund Accounts (IOLTA) schemes is now fundamental in the funding base for legal aid and the legal profession infrastructure.

The IOLTA fund a range of programs, which are related to the practice or administration of law.

St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274), the eponym of T...

Thomas Aquinas depicted in stained glass

Asian Brown Tortoise / Burmese Star Tortoise

The programs include: community legal centres; university and community legal education; practical legal training programs; continuing legal education for practitioners; law reform; legal research; promotion of access to justice; legal profession regulation; law society objections in admission proceedings; investigations into practitioners’ conduct and disciplinary proceedings; maintenance of law libraries; and publication of legal works.

In addition to these programs the Solicitor’s Fidelity Fund was established by The Legal Practitioners Act 1898 (Cth). Fidelity Funds are funds set up to reimburse those who have lost money as a result of a solicitor’s misappropriation of funds . Fidelity fund contributions are compulsory as outlined in the Model Bill and the Legal Professions Act 2004 (NSW). Fidelity Funds remain the major recipients of IOLTA; however IOLTA also goes towards, legal aid and legal programmes.

Many legal professionals are under the belief...