Fifteen strike-offs, the highest number in any reporting year, were recorded in the Legal Services Commission Annual Report 2025-26 tabled recently.
LSC Commissioner Megan Mahon said in her message that it was a year of “both challenge and opportunity”, with 34 disciplinary decisions delivered in the reporting year for proceedings commenced over a number of years.
“While the conduct and sanctions varied greatly, there were 15 individuals removed from the roll (or struck off), including 11 from the Queensland roll, one from both the Queensland and interstate rolls, and three from interstate rolls,” Commissioner Mahon said.
“That number of strike-offs is significant and while there was an increase in the number of decisions overall, 15 strike-offs is the highest number of strike-offs in any reporting year of the Commission.
“Concerningly, that number correspondingly reflects an increase in the more serious conduct that the Commission is dealing with – being serious enough that it renders a person no longer fit to be honoured with being on the roll of persons admitted to the legal profession.
“The corollary is that the regulation of the legal profession in Queensland is effective and remains a significant protection for ensuring the public can have confidence in the persons who engage in legal practice in Queensland.”
Commissioner Mahon said she anticipated and remained hopeful that it would be “some time before there is another year quite as challenging as 2025-26”.
“To say that it has been another demanding year for the Commission is a major understatement,” she said.
“Nevertheless, those demands are met with the invaluable contribution of our co-regulators, the Queensland Law Society and Bar Association of Queensland. I thank the professional member bodies, as well as their dedicated Councillors and hard-working staff, for their ongoing partnership and shared commitment to effective regulation.
“I also acknowledge the important contribution of the many judicial officers, practitioner members and lay members involved in Queensland’s disciplinary processes, whose work supports public confidence in both the legal profession and the administration of justice.”
The Commission continued to experience a steady growth in demand across its services, receiving 4457 enquiries during the reporting period, which represented 8.1 per cent growth on the previous reporting year.
“Complaint volumes also increased by 14.4 per cent, climbing back up to almost 1000 new complaints received during the year, and there was an increase in referrals and other information provided to the Commission leading to a 28 per cent increase in new investigation matters,” Commissioner Mahon stated in the report.
“The Commission is increasingly receiving submissions, generated wholly or substantially through AI tools. While these technologies may assist individuals to prepare and organise information, their use can also significantly increase the volume of materials being provided, much of which is simply not relevant nor helpful.
“In some instances, enquiries are being submitted with hundreds of pages of material requiring review. AI-generated documents frequently contain inaccurate or incomplete statements of fact, misstatements of legal principles, or summaries that do not accurately reflect the underlying source material upon which a person is seeking to rely upon in making a complaint.
“As is expected of the models underlying those technological tools, we have observed that AI-generated documents are often framed around the prompts provided by the user and may therefore present matters in a manner that reinforces a person’s grievances or preferred narrative, rather than objectively identifying relevant facts related to possible conduct.
“This can make it more difficult to identify the true conduct issues and to sift through the material in order to undertake an assessment or investigation. In many cases it also makes it unclear whether the matter may even fall within the Commission’s jurisdiction.”
As a consequence, Commissioner Mahon said the use of AI in enquiries and complaints was, in many cases, “increasing the time and resources required to assess and investigate matters, and ultimately delaying outcomes for complainants”.
Related to the rise in new matters was the increasing number of reports of people engaging in legal practice without proper or any qualifications. Unlawful operator reports now represent almost one-third of all referrals for an investigation matter.
“In the reporting year there were 68 complaints or referrals for an investigation matter related to unlawful operators, representing a 55 per cent increase over the previous reporting year,” the report stated.
“The growth in these numbers has been observed over the last few years and has coincided with the increasing complexity of investigations, driven in part by the increasing sophistication of these individuals and their capacity to avoid detection.
“A particular concern for the Commission is the emergence of unlawful operator matters involving pseudo-law ideologies and arguments. These matters are often more resource intensive to investigate and prosecute, with individuals frequently disputing the legitimacy of regulatory and court processes, refusing to engage, or relying on large volumes of irrelevant material and unsustainable arguments.
“In some instances, the Commission has observed a correlation between unlawful operators with pseudo-law ideologies and AI tools being used by these individuals to respond to the Commission, including during court proceedings.
“While AI use in the pseudo-law space is observable, broader AI use by unlawful operators to generate advice or legal documents remains an identifiable risk, which will be monitored going forward.”
In the area of law form, the Legal Practitioner (Strengthening Disciplinary Matters) Amendment
Bill 2026 was introduced to the Queensland Parliament during the reporting year.
The Bill gives effect to the recommendations of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) Statutory Review 2025-26: Legal practitioner jurisdiction Report and deals with the transfer of the legal practitioner disciplinary jurisdiction (LPDJ) back to the Supreme Court along with related procedural arrangements.
“Return of the LPDJ to the Supreme Court is a matter that I have long supported and advocated for, not only because as lawyers we are all officers of the Court, but because it will undoubtedly help expedite the resolution of disciplinary matters,” Commissioner Mahon said.
“As mentioned in last year’s report, QCAT has been under immense pressure across its vast
jurisdiction and experiencing backlogs and delays in finalising matters, including in the LPDJ. The timely resolution of these proceedings will benefit all persons involved in the disciplinary processes, including practitioners and other respondents, complainants, and the Commission.”
The Ethics and Practice Centre provides legal ethics and practice support guidance and education to Queensland Law Society members.
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