Hot on the heels of last month’s post about the gumtree lawyer, I came across the story of (former) Gold Coast “law firm”, Stenton and Moore. Up until around the middle of March 2019, their website (www.mygclawyer.com.au) proclaimed:
“Stenton and Moore Solicitors are your local Gold Coast Solicitors….we want to become your trusted Gold Coast Lawyers…..We have experience in a diverse range of areas practising exclusively in the areas of conveyancing, family law, wills and estate planning, commercial conveyancing and leasing, civil litigation, debt recovery and traffic related matters. Stenton Moore should be your first stop…” etc etc.
Unfortunately, around that time, the QLD Law Society discovered that Stenton and Moore’s executive director, Nerise Moore: “…is not, and has never been, licensed to practice law, ….and thus represented a ‘great risk to the reputation of Queensland solicitors and to the clients that had engaged this firm’.”
The QLS obtained an injunction to stop “the firm” from trading. If you try to access their website now you will get a “404 not found” message. However, when I viewed the site in the time shortly after the injunction, it was displaying (complete with the firm logo):
At least they had a sense of humour on the way out.
What has actually happened to the director who wasn’t licenced? I had a couple clients go to her for legal advice and must admit i am not impressed and not sure how she managed to get away with it for as long as it appears she did. Certainly a risk to the public and some of those clients may now be up for further cost to redo wills etc
Sorry – I can’t help you with that. I don’t know anything beyond what I read in Lawyers Weekly and the QLD Law Society website.
Perhaps you should ask QLS?