Decision record
Mark Christopher Sander
Allegation / charges
1. On 1 May 2014, the Practitioner opened a trust account. The Legal Practitioners Act 1981 (Act) imposes obligations on Practitioners who open trust accounts including an obligation to provide written notice of the opening of a trust account. 2. The Practitioner did not give written notice to the Law Society of South Australia (Society) of the opening of the trust account within one month as required. 3. Between 1 May 2014 and 15 June 2021, the Practitioner: a. did not inform the Society of the existence of the trust account; b. did not submit external examiners’ reports for any of the financial years; c. did not record in any form the 705 transactions (both credits and debits) of the trust account; d. did not create or maintain any ledgers with respect to the clients for whom he held and paid trust money; e. did not provide his clients with receipts, trust account statements and closing ledgers/balances. 4. Section 53 of the Act required the Practitioner to make payments to the Legal Practitioners’ Combined Trust Account (CTA). 5. From 1 May 2014 to 31 May 2021, the Practitioner failed to make payments to the CTA. 6. For a period in excess of seven years, the Practitioner failed to comply with the requirements of clause 25 of Schedule 2 of the Act for the operation of the trust account. 7. On 26 August 2019, the Practitioner drew a cheque for services provided to the Practitioner personally. 8. The withdrawal of trust money for personal expenses was a breach of clause 13 of Schedule 2 of the Act and caused a deficiency in the trust account. 9. Pursuant to clause 24 of Schedule 2 of the Act, the Practitioner was required, but failed, to notify the Society of the deficiency. 10. I consider that the Practitioner has substantially and consistently fallen short of the standard of competence and diligence that a member of the public is entitled to expect of a reasonably competent legal practitioner. — Professional Misconduct
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Practitioner opened a trust account on 1 May 2014 and for over seven years failed to comply with statutory trust account obligations: he did not notify the Law Society of the account, submitted no external examiner reports, kept no records of 705 transactions, maintained no client ledgers, gave clients no receipts or statements, and failed to make required payments to the Combined Trust Account. In August 2019 he drew a trust cheque for personal expenses, breaching clause 13 of Schedule 2 and causing a deficiency he failed to notify. The tribunal found professional misconduct, holding he substantially and consistently fell short of the required standard of competence and diligence. No express finding of dishonesty was made, and the extract does not state the sanction imposed.
Duties found breached:
- Uphold public trust in the profession
- No conflict between current clients
- Handle inadvertently received material
- No improper use of client money
- Prompt accounting and return of money
- Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
- Report serious misconduct of others
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
Aggravating factors:
- Misconduct persisted for a period in excess of seven years
- Numerous and systemic breaches of trust account obligations
- Withdrawal of trust money for personal use caused a deficiency in the trust account
⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]
Duties engaged
- Uphold public trust in the profession
- No conflict between current clients
- Handle inadvertently received material
- No improper use of client money
- Prompt accounting and return of money
- Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
- Report serious misconduct of others
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
Other decisions involving this respondent
Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.
Documents
No documents recorded.
Source: https://lpcc.sa.gov.au/consumers/disciplinary-register