Members' contact details - Unsolicited e-mails and letters

30/03/2009

The Bar Association is frequently asked if it will make available to a third party lists of members' contact details, including e-mail addresses. The Bar Association makes every effort to protect the privacy of members from unsolicited material.� The Bar Association does not� agree to requests for contact lists unless the requesting person or organisation has a valid reason for so asking - eg to compile the NSW Law Almanac.

Where members with a practising certificate have so agreed, their practice address is given on the Association's 'Find a barrister' web site. The practice address of all holders of a NSW practising certificate is also available to the public by way of the public register maintained by the Association pursuant to section 106 of the Legal Profession Act 2004. That register has been structured to make it difficult for marketeers and the like to harvest the information for junk mailing purposes.

Occasionally� barristers receive an e-mail or letter from individuals or companies seeking to sell a product which in some way suggests that the Bar Association is involved in either the distribution of� the 'offer' or provided the barrister's address. �

If the Bar Association ever does enter into an arrangement with a commercial body which may involve a 'mail out' or e-mail broadcast to the Bar,� any such involvement by the Association will be made public by way of In Brief.

PA Selth Executive Director

**30 March 2009 **