Conflict of interest
If you are accessing the LGBTI Legal Service we must do a Conflict of Interest Check before we can assist you.
You will need to provide your full name and the name of any other person involved in your matter, so that we can search our records for any potential or existing conflict of interest.
What is a conflict of interest and how are you affected?
The LGBTI Legal Service provides free legal advice to all Australian residents. As such, the LGBTI Legal Service operates according to national standards and professional requirements in service delivery. Our Conflict of Interest policy is one of these important industry standards, that states that our service delivery clients must not be affected by:
- Any interest of the service provider;
- Any interest of any other person; or
- The service provider’s perception of the public interest.
A Conflict of Interest for example means:
“The legal issue on which you seek assistance does not fall within our service guidelines”
OR
“That we may linked in some way with the other person or the issue you are seeking assistance with”, e.g. linked by, working with that person or already knowing about the problem or having a personal interest in the problem.
We cannot assist both sides involved in the same legal problem.
All Legal Services and private solicitors follow a Conflict of Interest Policy. If we tell you “that there is a Conflict of Interest”, it doesn’t mean that we don’t want to help you. It means that “we can’t help you” for professional reasons.
You are entitled to obtain independent legal advice and you may only be able to achieve this by finding another legal representative, one who does not have a conflict of interest.
