Legal Services Commission files complaint against Heidi Ward

Queensland’s legal watchdog has filed a complaint against a self-proclaimed “legal advocate” over allegations she’s been offering lawyer-like services and acting for a mother charged with her daughter’s murder.

Heidi Ward (black dress) engaging with media outside Mackay court house where she was supporting Jessica Blinda Polsoni Hanbury (striped shirt). Picture: Fergus Gregg

A judge has ordered a Whitsunday mother to stand down from acting as a quasi-lawyer after Queensland’s legal regulator claimed she had been offering legal services and acting on behalf of a mother charged with murder despite not holding the relevant qualifications.

The Legal Services Commissioner has gone to the Supreme Court requesting Woodwark woman Heidi Ward be stopped from engaging in any legal practice including providing legal advice, corresponding on behalf of others, drafting submissions for others or conferring with parties over their legal proceedings and coaching others about appearing in court.

The application also requested she be prevented from advertising her legal services as she was not an Australian legal practitioner.

In written submissions defending herself Ms Ward denied the allegations, stating at no time had she ever pretended to be a lawyer.

Court documents viewed by this publication state a solicitor emailed the Legal Services Commission with a screenshot of a flyer Ms Ward had posted on social media “advertising services as a legal advocate”, prompting an investigation.

This is a flyer Whitsunday woman Heidi Ward shared on social media. The image has been blurred to conceal a mobile number.

The flyer included the headline “Heidi Ward Legal Advocate” and stated “I am not a lawyer but I have a 90% success rate after 107 matters in front of the court”.

It further outlined how she could assist in court and, “evaluate how you respond to legal systems”; scribe, edit and educate in court forms; and help prepare for civil and criminal court; and that she had provided legal assistance to businesses during Covid.

The Legal Services Commission has filed a complaint against Ms Ward over allegations she is acting as a legal practitioner.

The documents also refer to Ms Ward making “an application for habeas corpus” in the Supreme Court in support of Jessica Blinda Polsoni Hanbury, who is charged with murder, and allegedly stating on social media that she was “filing a strike out notice”.

During an appearance in Mackay Magistrates Court for the murder charge, Ms Polsoni also referred to a woman named Heidi as “a friend of mine who helps me to understand the law”, which is stated in court transcripts.

LSC professional conduct director Kellie Grainger, in the application, stated she had undertaken searches for Heidi Ward in legal practitioner registers across each state and territory in Australia.

Heidi Ward outside Mackay courthouse. Picture: Fergus Gregg

“Those searches do not identify a person named Heidi Ward holding a current practising certificate,” she said.

The LSC has alleged the evidence demonstrated Ms Ward had engaged in legal practice by providing legal assistance/advice/services to Ms Polsoni Hanbury in connection with a murder charge, which included helping her “understand the law” and filing a “misconceived attempt to strike out the murder charge against Ms Polsoni”.

“Although (Ms Ward) was herself a named applicant, the material filed in support of that application makes clear that its purpose was directed to Ms Polsoni’s criminal matters and the respondent herself sought no relief,” the document stated.

The LSC further alleged Ms Ward sought to make submissions in relation to the matter.

“It may be inferred that (Ms Ward) named herself as an applicant … in order to obtain an audience before the court after she had previously been denied the opportunity to appear/assist in Ms Polsoni’s criminal proceedings,” the document stated.

Heidi Ward (left) leaves Mackay courthouse with murder accused Jessica Blinda Polsoni Hanbury after a part heard committal. Picture: Fergus Gregg

In a response, also filed in the Supreme Court, Ms Ward claimed the LSC’s application lacked necessary “factual ingredients” and was not served in the correct limitations of time, labelling it a “frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the court’s process”.

Ms Ward claimed she should be “commended” and “applauded” for her role in Ms Polsoni’s release from remand after it was deemed her bail had been wrongfully revoked and claimed, “every AI lawyer App would therefore also be giving legal advice rather than information”.

She claimed nothing in her brochure indicated she was a lawyer, that at no time did she pretend or think she was a lawyer, and Ms Polsoni always made her own decisions.

“No hard has come to anyone being an advocate providing education and assistance for those that are representing themselves,” Ms Ward wrote.

“Supporting and educating people with advocacy should be commended not condemned.”

‘I have never stepped outside the boundaries’

On September 11, 2024 the LSC sent Ms Ward a cease-and-desist notice warning her it was an offence for anyone to represent or advertise an entitlement to engage in legal practice without being an Australian legal practitioner, with the maximum penalty being a fine of up to $48,390- or two-years’ jail, specifically referring to the flyer on social media and the application of habeas corpus.

Heidi Ward is a friend of Ms Polsoni and has been seen accompanying her to court.

The court documents show Ms Ward responded the same day stating, “at no time have I provided legal advice to anyone and anyone I have assisted as an advocate with information where to Google information and legislation have all signed a disclaimer as such”.

She further stated “I have never stepped outside the boundaries of what an advocate is entitled to do” and requested the LSC provide her the complaint about her alleged conduct.

The following day, September 12, Ms Ward emailed the LSC again with multiple points including she “had every lawful right” to be the applicant in the Supreme Court application and that the flyer “must have taken quite a bit of stalking on my Facebook”.

“This information is directly from a Google search on legal advocates, which would mean every legal advocate who is not a lawyer would have received the same cease and desist notice,” she wrote.

She also accused the LSC of acting with “deformation (sic) and harassment and discrimination with completely untrue information”, stating she had not been in the courtroom when Ms Polsoni referred to her friend Heidi.

“I rebut your accusations, and I know I am not allowed to give legal advice and at no time have I done anything other than support my friend through a situation that most could not even fathom,” she wrote.

Ms Ward called for “an immediate apology” and accused the LSC of making “legal threats based on a news article without reading the court transcript”.

In late September Justice Lincoln Crowley made an interim relief order restraining Ms Ward from engaging in legal practice and the matter was listed for a one-day hearing in February 2025.