The trust account statements due after 30 June

The 30 June trust account statements are the one annual obligation that is easy to under-do and easy to over-do at the same time. Firms either send nothing, because nobody could face 300 of them, or they send 300 when the rule asked for 80.

Rule 52 of the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015 answers all of it. Who gets one, what goes on it, when it has to go, and which ledgers it exempts.

Who gets a statement

A law practice must give a trust account statement to each person for whom or on whose behalf trust money (other than transit money and written direction money) is held or controlled by the law practice or an associate of the practice.

Each person, not each matter and not each client file. Two people on one matter are two statements.

Where relevant, the law practice must give the person a separate statement for: (a) each trust ledger account, and (b) each record of controlled money movements, and (c) each record of dealings with the money that is the subject of a power to which the law practice or an associate of the law practice is a party.

Paragraph (c) is the one firms forget. Money you deal with under a power of attorney gets its own statement, separately from any general trust ledger for the same person. A practice holding powers starts at the register of powers and estates. The statement comes from the dealings sitting against the power.

What is on it

A trust account statement is to contain particulars of: (a) all the information required to be kept under the Uniform Law or these Rules in relation to the trust money included in the relevant ledger account or record, and (b) the remaining balance (if any) of the money.

That points back to rule 47, which sets out the particulars every transaction carries. The date, the reference and type, the reason, the amount, and the extras each kind of payment adds. A statement is the ledger, so thin entries produce a thin statement. The year end is a bad moment to discover that. What has to be on every trust ledger entry goes through rule 47 in full.

When it has to go

A trust account statement is to be given: (a) as soon as practicable after completion of the matter to which the ledger account or record relates, and (b) as soon as practicable after the person for whom or on whose behalf the money is held or controlled makes a reasonable request for the statement during the course of the matter, and (c) except as provided by subrule (5) or (6), as soon as practicable after 30 June in each year.

Three separate triggers, and only one of them is annual. The other two run all year: when a matter completes, and whenever the client reasonably asks.

The practical consequence is that a firm doing (a) properly has much less to do in July. A completed matter has already had its statement, and its balance has usually gone to nil. That is what puts it inside the exemption below.

The exemption, read carefully

The law practice is not required to give a trust account statement under subrule (4)(c) in respect of a ledger account or record if at 30 June the balance of the ledger account or record is zero and: (a) no transaction affecting the ledger account or record has taken place within the previous 12 months, or (b) a trust account statement has been furnished within the previous 12 months and no transaction affecting the ledger account or record has taken place since the last statement was furnished.

The first condition is worth reading twice: the balance has to be zero and one of (a) or (b). A zero balance on its own exempts nothing.

So a matter that ran all year and paid out in May is not exempt under (a). A transaction took place within the previous 12 months. It is exempt under (b) only if a statement went out after that last transaction. That is the statement rule 52(4)(a) already required when the matter completed, which is why the two paragraphs fit together.

In other words, the annual job is small only if the on-completion job was done. If it was not, every ledger that moved during the year needs a statement in July, including the ones sitting at nil.

Rule 52(6) carries a further exemption for ledgers in a jurisdiction's first year of the Uniform Law. It expired a year after each commencement day, so it is history now.

And keep a copy

The law practice must keep a copy of a trust account statement given under this rule.

One line, and an external examination turns on it. The obligation is not to have sent the statements, it is to be able to show the statements you sent. A run of PDFs generated in July and never saved satisfies rule 52(4) and fails rule 52(7).

Doing it without a fortnight of work

In Diract, on the trust account's Reports tab, Statements as at 30 June prepares the year's statements in one run. Each is the matter's ledger to 30 June, headed with the client, their address, the matter reference and the description. They open as one PDF to print or send.

It applies rule 52(5) rather than leaving that to a person. A ledger gets a statement where it held money at 30 June, or had a transaction in the year that no statement has covered. A ledger at nil with no transaction in the year drops out, and the screen reports how many did. The number is then auditable rather than invisible.

A copy of every statement is kept with the month end records, which is rule 52(7) handled at the same time. The same screen gives a statement on completion of a matter or on a client's request. One given that way counts as furnished at the next 30 June run.

A July checklist

1. Every ledger title needs a current client address, because the statement takes its address from there.
2. Prepare the statements as at 30 June, and read the count of ledgers left out rather than skipping past it.
3. Anything held under a power or as controlled money needs its own statement under rule 52(2).
4. A copy of every statement stays on file, not merely sent.
5. For any matter completed during the year with no statement, send one now: it is overdue under rule 52(4)(a), not under (4)(c).

This article is general information about the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015, not legal advice, and does not take account of your practice's circumstances. It quotes rule 52 from the NSW version, current for 6 October 2023 to date, read on the NSW legislation website on 21 September 2026. The Uniform Law and these Rules apply in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia; other states and territories have their own legislation. Where the rule introduces a list with a dash, the quotes above show a colon. Current as at 21 September 2026.