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Migration work to be thrown open to 60,000 lawyers.
RMAs are set to face-off directly with lawyers in the migration advisory business with the Coalition government planning to remove the present requirement of OMARA registration for lawyers who hold a law practising certificate.
Dual-registration for lawyers was implemented in 1992 as it was held that the various state and territories legal profession authorities did not deal with complaints against lawyers “with adequate timeliness or vigour”. Submissions by the Law Council of Australia however argued that with the formation of the Legal Services Commissioner, that concern has been irrelevant for a long time and lawyers should no longer be subject to dual-registration and dual-monitoring by two authorities.
As at 30 June 2014 there were 1673 migration agents with legal practicing certificates in Australia. This equates to approximately 32 per cent of all practicing migration agents. When the review’s recommendation is implemented, the estimated 60,000 lawyers registered with the state and territories legal practitioner’s authorities will be able to provide migration advice under those licenses with no obligation to, or scrutiny by the OMARA.
The recommendation goes against 2007-2008 Hodges Review on the issue which recommended that lawyers remain subject to OMARA registration in order to provide consumers clarity and consistency of service standards.
The report has rejected calls to set up an independent commissioner comparable to that in the legal profession. It said that given the relatively small size of the migration advice profession, the creation of an independent statutory body to perform the role of the OMARA would be unsustainable. It added that in addition, the size of the sector will be reduced significantly with the removal of lawyers from the scheme.
The report instead recommended that OMARA’s position within the Department of immigration be fully consolidated so that it is entirely and unequivocally part of the Department with "some form of independent reference group’ to play an active role as an advisory body to the OMARA.
Entry into the business by new migration agents could become more difficult with the Inquiry recommending that in order to be allowed to practice independently, new agents first complete the Graduate Diploma in Migration Law and Practice (prescribed course); secondly, undertake a period of one year mandatory supervision with an already registered migration agent following completion of the Prescribed Course; and thirdly, complete a “Capstone Exam” after the 12 month supervision period.
Senator Michaelia Cash said that the government intends to adopt the majority of the recommendations of the independent review into the Migration Agent’s Registration Authority later this year, after further review with stakeholders.
Here are some of the other recommendations by the Inquiry:
- Current registration and re-registration fees be reviewed to determine if they can be set at a rate comparable to other professional bodies and a further fee reduction be investigated to cater for the specific financial needs of community migration advisors.
- Streamlined and quicker re-registration process for agents with unblemished record for 5 years and they be allowed a 3-year registration rather than an annual registration.
- Fix the annual registration date for all agents to make it the same calendar date for all.
- Consider bringing in line the Australian and New Zealand schemes so that the respective schemes in both countries are applied as closely as is possible so that they reinforce each other’s integrity objectives.
- Create of a more open and competitive market-based framework for the provision of CPD.
- Review the disciplinary and sanctions regime. While matters of misconduct will continue to be managed by the OMARA, the DIBP will work with the Attorney General’s Department to establish a process whereby allegations of serious misconduct are adjudicated by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Comments
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Wednesday, 19 July 2017Yes, Watch out lawyers will decimate the migration agents monopoly on money making for far too long. Absolutely.
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Monday, 11 May 2015
So OMARA is no longer "independent" if it ever was...
and... lawyers will not be answerable to OMARA, only the OLSC? -
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
HOORAY! This is the BEST news I've heard all decade! Finally I will get treated with respect instead of being a criminal the way MARA makes me feel! The Law Society is so much more respectful of their lawyer members. I can't wait! When is this going to be implemented?
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Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Death of the occupation
The reforms mean it will be significantly harder for non-lawyer agents to register. The cost of the Diploma, the year of study it requires, the need to do a practical apprenticeship for a further 12 months at the end of the course, and the fear of a capstone exam, impose significant disincentives on people contemplating joining the professional compared to current rules.
Over time this, and the IELTS requirement, will surely curtail the number of non-lawyer agents entering the industry. In fact, I would go further and predict these new rules will be the effective death-knell of the occupation as we know it.
Non-lawyer agents in the industry will continue with their work but their numbers will not be replenished, particularly the production line of newly minted independent sole practitioners which is how many agents work. There may be a cohort of new entrants who, as Michael suggests above, work as employees in solicitor’s offices but the profession as we know it is doomed. As the industry changes lawyers will enter the void, and before long, non-lawyer migration agents will be gone.
Deregulation will kill off the industry.
None of this is a bad thing, necessarily, speaking as a lawyer agent, but I cannot necessarily see how having two regulatory schemes for people doing essentially the same work makes things simpler for consumers. In a sense it is plain ridiculous to have a person who has a practising certificate regulated under a completely different system from another person doing the same work who is a OMARA registered agent.
Is this madness de-regulation or does it constitute a doubling of the regulation in our industry? Is less more or is more less?
The marketing wars are also going to be confusing for everyone involved in them and the consumer. As a lawyer will I be exempt from the requirement to treat my professional colleagues with respect by warning people away from using the services of a non-lawyer agent?
I am also concerned that my professional indemnity insurance costs may skyrocket and I may no longer be able to avoid having a trust account.
Failure to deal with non-registered practice
Apart from the above, the Review misses the real point, and that is the non-regulation of education agents and non-registered practice. For agents and lawyers alike, and the integrity of our industry, this needs to change. The Report makes no mention of this and for this reason should be condemned by agent and lawyer alike. -
Wednesday, 19 July 2017
Think conevancing, its the almost same turn of foot.
Immigration blog
Non-lawyer agents have little to fear.
It is foreseeable that many migration agents will move into solicitors' offices.
Most solicitors avoid migration work because it pays badly and takes an attention to ever evolving regulatory detail that many solicitors find exhausting. In particular, solicitors are unwilling to spend the amounts of time dealing with clients that have complicated questions, especially when many of those questions are largely irrelevant to the application at hand and for which the solicitor cannot bill. Worse, if the solicitor bills the client, the client may then complain to the department or the law society. In complaints to either, the solicitor may show that he has taken every step necessary under the law, but the department or the society may still agree partially with the client because it is politically correct to be overly fair to clients--who are for the most part at a disadvantage with dealing with professionals in a "foreign" country.
Solicitors accept work where it is linked intrinsically to other legal work, and they accept it if they have a migration agent working in their office or an agent with a longstanding relationship with the firm.
Just as conveyancing agents have done well working along with and in competition with solicitors, migration agents will do well in an altered but still extremely viable industry.