Malaysia legislation
Section 78
Section 78
(a)
providing for the opening and keeping by advocates and solicitors of accounts at banks for clients’ moneys;
(b)
providing for the keeping by advocates and solicitors of accounts containing particulars and information as to moneys received, held or paid by them for or on account of their clients; and
86 Laws of Malaysia ACT 166
(c)
empowering the Bar Council to take such action as may be necessary to enable it to ascertain whether or not the rules are being complied with.
(2)
The Bar Council shall also make rules—
(a)
providing for the opening and keeping by every advocate and solicitor who is a sole trustee, or who is co-trustee with one or more of his partners, clerks or servants, of an account at a bank for moneys of any trust of which he is such a sole trustee or co-trustee;
(b)
providing for the keeping by every such advocate and solicitor of accounts containing particulars and information as to moneys received, held or paid by him for or on account of any such trust; and
(c)
empowering the Bar Council to take such action as may be necessary to enable it to ascertain whether or not the rules are being complied with.
(3)
Rules made under this section shall make provision for requiring an advocate and solicitor, in such cases as may be prescribed by the rules, either—
(i)
to keep on deposit in a separate account at a bank for the benefit of the client moneys received for or on account of a client if the client should so request; or
(ii)
to make good to the client out of his own moneys a sum equivalent to the interest which would have accrued if the moneys so received had been so kept on deposit.
(b)
Except as provided by any rules made pursuant to this section, an advocate and solicitor shall not be liable by virtue of the relation between advocate and solicitor and client to account to any client for interest received by him on moneys deposited at a bank being moneys received or held for or on account of his clients generally.
Legal Profession 87
(c)
Nothing in this subsection, or in any rules made pursuant to this section, shall—
(i)
affect any arrangement in writing, whenever made, between an advocate and solicitor and his client as to the application of the client’s moneys or interest thereon;
(ii)
apply to moneys received by an advocate and solicitor being moneys subject to a trust of which he is a trustee.
(4)
Any rules made pursuant to this section shall not come into operation until they have been published in the Gazette.
(5)
Disciplinary proceedings may be taken against any advocate and solicitor who fails to comply with any rules made under this section.
(6)
In this section, the words “trust” and “trustee” extend to implied and constructive trusts and to cases where the trustee has a beneficial interest in the trust property and to the duties incident to the office of a personal representative, and “trustee”, where the context admits, includes a personal representative.
Power to make rules on professional indemnity