RE: Applying for Death Certificate
As someone who has been applying for certificates for 40 years, am I the only one that thinks the current department application policy is an insult to the profession?
When a lawyer applies for a death certificate for a client, one must produce to the department:
The application form.
A copy of the lawyer’s current practising certificate.
A letter stating the reason for the application for the certificate. The application form has a section that asks the reason and if that is completed with “estate administration,” and signed by the lawyer, then a letter should not be needed to give the reason again.
Two forms of proof of identity such as driver’s licence, passport etc certified by a JP or another lawyer. The application has already given the practising certificate. A simple search by department staff of the Queensland Law Society website will tell the department staff member that the lawyer making the application exists, practices and can be identified.
Proof of address such as a copy of the electoral roll. Again the practising certificate and Law Society website and the law firm website will confirm the lawyer is a Queensland resident.
I agree there is a need to avoid identity theft etc. However this process is unnecessarily repetitious and wastes time.
The same precautions can be applied with much less effort and red tape. Professional fees could be less if the department exercised some common sense rather than hiding behind inappropriate, time-consuming policies.
Government departments are supposed to be in a partnership with the legal profession to keep down the costs of access to justice. That partnership has been eroded and dissolved by most departments.
John Byrne, Byrne – Business Lawyers, Townsville
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