Singapore legislation

Clause 38

of Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill

Clause 38

New section 132A

The principal Act is hereby amended by inserting immediately after section 132 thereof the following new section: —“Interest on client money132A.—

(1)

Rules made under section 76 of this Act shall make provision for requiring a solicitor, in such cases as may be prescribed by the said rules, either —

(a)

to keep on deposit in a separate account at a bank for the benefit of the client money received for or on account of a client; or

(b)

to make good to the client out of the solicitor’s own money a sum equivalent to the interest which would have accrued if the money so received had been so kept on deposit.(2) The cases in which a solicitor may be required to act in accordance with any rules made pursuant to this section may be defined, among other things, by reference to the amount of any sum received or the period for which it is or is likely to be retained or both; and such rules may include provision for enabling a client (without prejudice to any other remedy) to require that any question arising under the said rules in relation to the client’s money be referred to and determined by the Society.(3) Except as provided by any rules made pursuant to this section, a solicitor shall not be liable by virtue of the relation between solicitor and client to account to any client for interest received by the solicitor on moneys deposited at a bank being moneys received or held for or on account of his clients generally.(4) Nothing in this section, or in any rules made pursuant to this section, shall —

(a)

affect any arrangement in writing, whenever made, between a solicitor and his client as to the application of the client money or interest thereon; or

(b)

apply to money received by a solicitor being money subject to a trust of which the solicitor is a trustee.”.