At the recent Bencher Meeting, changes were made to improve the Trust Safety program and increase compliance with annual filing requirements. These changes will enable the Law Society to better flag potential problem accounts or accounting practices, while streamlining the program for all Responsible Lawyers. Changes have been made to the
Rules of the Law Society of Alberta, Rules 119, 119.3, and 119.30, with consequential amendments to Rules 115, 165.1 and 167.
The Trust Safety program is moving to a defined Designated Filing Date of December 31 for all Trust Accounts. This will result in an annual filing Due Date of March 31 for the Law Firm Self-Report and either the Electronic Data Upload or Accountant’s Report.
This standardization of filing dates has been used in other Law Societies in Canada and has led to improved Trust Safety practices both for lawyers and the Law Societies.
Along with these changes, late filing fees have been introduced. These will work on a sliding scale with late fees increasing each month that the annual reports are not received. The first late fee comes in on April 1 for those who miss the initial deadline. Each month that the Law Society does not received the required reports, an additional fee is incurred, until July 1. An administrative suspension has been introduced for those Responsible Lawyers who do not ensure that all of the filings for the year are received by the Law Society, along with any late filing fees, prior to July 1.
In order to avoid late filing fees or an administrative suspension, ensure that your annual reports are received prior to the March 31 deadline for each calendar year.
More information will be sent to Responsible Lawyers regarding the transition period, change in dates and late filing fees. For those lawyers impacted by the change in Designated Filing Date, we encourage you to work on implementing any changes to your Trust Accounting practices early.
