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bruneilawsby aturio
In force2022 Revised Edition
Contents

Act

Legal Profession Act

The legal profession and setting up the law society

In plain English

Not legal advice

The Legal Profession Act replaces the earlier law relating to the legal profession with a new law. It also allows a law society to be set up in Brunei Darussalam.

Summary · Drafted with AI, checked against the official text on 30 Sep 2026.

Part

Preliminary

Official textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged

s 1Citation

This Act may be cited as the Legal Profession Act.

s 2Interpretation

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“advocate and solicitor” means an advocate and solicitor of the

Supreme Court;

“Chief Registrar” means the Chief Registrar of the Supreme

Court, a Registrar and a Deputy Registrar;

“client” includes —

(a)

in relation to contentious business, any person who as principal or on behalf of another person retains or employs, or is about to retain or employ, an advocate and solicitor, and any person who is or may be liable to pay an advocate and solicitor’s costs;

* Please refer to N 1

** Please refer to N 2

*** Please refer to N 3

Legal Profession

CAP. 132 10

(b)

in relation to non-contentious business, any person who, as a principal or on behalf of another, or as a trustee, executor or administrator, or in any other capacity, has power, express or implied, to retain or employ, and retains and employs or is about to retain or employ, an advocate and solicitor, and any person for the time being liable to pay any costs to an advocate and solicitor for his services;

“contentious business” means business done as an advocate and solicitor in or for the purposes of proceedings begun before a court of justice or before an arbitrator;

“contentious business agreement” means an agreement made in pursuance of section 44;

“costs” includes fees, charges, disbursements, expenses and remuneration;

“Council” means the Council of the Society referred to in paragraph 10 of Schedule 1;

“Judge” means a Judge of the Supreme Court;

“legal officer” means a qualified person in the judicial or legal service of Brunei Darussalam or any qualified person who has been retained by or who appears in any case (as defined in section 7(6))

on the instructions of the Government;

“non-contentious business” means any business done as an advocate and solicitor which is not contentious business as defined by this section;

“practising certificate” means a certificate issued by the

Chief Registrar under section 13;

“register of practitioners” means the annual register kept by the

Chief Registrar under section 15;

“roll” means the roll of advocates and solicitors kept under section 10;

“Society” means the Law Society of Brunei Darussalam established by His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan in Council by an order made under section 62(1)(a).

Legal Profession

CAP. 132 11

Part 2

Read on from Part 2

Part

Practising Certificates

Read on from Part

Part

Privileges of Advocates and Solicitors

Read on from Part

Part 5

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Part 6

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Part 7

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Part 8

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Schedules