Law Society threatens legal action on conveyancing

Rebel non-lawyer conveyancer Lester Dempster says the New Zealand Law Society's threat to take him to the Privy Council is "bully boy stuff."

The Law Society may seek to overturn last month's Court of Appeal decision which effectively stripped lawyers of their conveyancing monopoly.

That's even though Justice Minister Phil Goff is planning to introduce legislation later this year which will strip lawyers of their conveyancing monopoly in any case. It will also strip real estate agents of their monopoly on selling property.

Law Society president Christine Grice says no decision has been made and the society has sought leave to appeal to the Privy Council in order to preserve its position until it can debate the issue. She agreed a Privy Council appeal would be pricey.

In that debate, which will happen at the society's next board meeting on 15 May, "the timing and the costs will all be taken into account,'' Grice says.

Privy Council appellants normally budget about $100,000 in legal costs.

The Law Society's concern about the development of a largely unregulated system of conveyancing remains, she says.

Dempster, a former assistant land registrar for the government, has been fighting for 13 years for the right to practice conveyancing in New Zealand.

He finally got his landbroker's licence in December 1999 after gaining landbroker registration in Australia and then using the occupational equivalency provisions of the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act.

Grice calls this a "back door method'' and denies accusations that the Law Society is simply trying to preserve its monopoly.

It isn't opposing Goff's legislation. "The legislation is to provide for a new occupation of licensed conveyors. They will be regulated and subject to a training regime. They will have to be appropriately qualified,'' she says.

"Land brokers are quite a different occupation," she says, adding that Goff plans to repeal the landbroking provisions of the Land Transfer Act at the same time as the new legislation is introduced.

Dempster now heads Auckland-based L.J. Hooker Conveyancing which is backed by Perth-based LJ Hooker Settlements. In Western Australia about 90% of property transactions are handled by non-lawyer conveyancers.

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