Law Council Guidance Note 4 (Link to Law Council website).
With thanks to Rob Davis for drawing attention to the Law Council Guidance Note #4, entitled National Legal Profession Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Guidance—Legal profession designated services (June 2026).
Page 47 deals with personal injury advice and litigation services (cf designated services and item 3 holding monies provisions). The Law Council states:
The net result of these exemptions is that a personal injury practice, which does no other designated services, will be outside the Regime even where the practice uses a law firm trust account for the payment of litigation related disbursements, holding funds on account of fees, to receive or pay settlement monies, or receive court judgement awards.
However, personal injury practices should be alive to ensuring they do not unwittingly drift into providing designated services at the conclusion of a personal injury matter and should avoid follow on work such as establishing trusts to hold and manage settlement funds or facilitate conveyancing work to invest settlement funds.
The “however” paragraph may be problematic for a number of law firms.
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