1 General

1.1 These Terms apply to any current work or any future work we do for you. We may change these Terms. If we do, we will send you a copy of the updated information.

2 Services

2.1 The services we will provide for you are outlined in our letter of engagement as well as any further instructions that you provide in writing (or that we record in writing).

3 Communications

3.1 You will provide contact details including email address, postal address and telephone numbers. We may communicate by email or other electronic means if this is possible, but will use other forms of communication according to your presence. You will inform us if any of your contact details change.

3.2 We will report to you on the progress of your matter and will inform you of any delays, significant changes or complications. You may request an update at any time.

4 Financial Arrangements

4.1 Fees: Our fees is explained in our engagement letter. Time spent is calculated in 6 minute increments. Hourly fees may be adjusted to ensure the fee is reasonable.

4.2 Disbursements and Third Party Expenses: We may incur disbursements and payments to third parties on your behalf. Where these are anticipated they will be stipulated in our engagement letter. You authorise us to incur these disbursements (which may include such items as court filing fees, registration fees, courier charges, service of documents) and to make payments to third parties on your behalf which are reasonably required as part of the Services. These will be shown on your invoice as ‘disbursements’. We will notify you of unanticipated disbursements if they arise.

4.3. GST: Our services will usually attract Goods and Services Tax (GST) and this is payable you on our fees.

4.4 Invoices: We will send interim invoices to you, usually monthly, and on completion of the matter or termination of our engagement.

4.5 Payment: Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us.
a. If you have difficulty in paying our accounts, please contact us promptly to discuss alternate arrangements.
b. If your account is overdue we may:
i. stop work on any matters we are working on for you;
ii. recover from you any costs we incur in seeking to recover any amounts from you, including our own fees and the fees of any collection agency.
c. Payment may be made by electronic payment to our bank account 06-0313-0830785-00. We can also accept cash for smaller amounts.

4.6 Estimates: We will provide you with an estimate (which may be a range between a minimum and a maximum amount or for a particular task or step). An estimate is not a quote. Any significant assumptions included in the estimate will be stated and you must tell us if those assumptions are wrong or change. We will inform you if we are likely to exceed the estimate by any substantial amount. Unless specified, an estimate excludes GST, disbursements and expenses.

4.7 Third Parties: Although you may expect to be reimbursed by a third party for our fees and expenses, and although our invoices may at your request or with your approval be directed to a third party (such as ACC or the Cerebral Palsy Society), you are responsible for payment to us if the third party fails to pay us.

5 Confidentiality and Personal Information

5.1 Confidentiality: We will keep confidential all information about you and your affairs that we acquire while acting for you. We will not disclose this information to any other person except:
a. to the extent necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions; or
b. as expressly or impliedly agreed by you; or
c. as necessary to protect our interests in respect of any complaint or dispute; or
d. to the extent required or permitted by law.

5.2 Confidential information about you will normally be known to those within the firm who are providing services to you.

5.3 Personal information and privacy: In our work for you we will collect and hold personal information about you. We will use that information to provide the Services and to make contact with you about issues we believe may be of interest to you.

5.4 Subject to clause 5.1, you authorise us to disclose, in the course of providing Services, such personal information to third parties for the purpose of providing services and any other purpose set out in these Terms.

5.5 We may disclose your name and address to third parties such as credit agencies to perform a credit reference or to undertake credit management or collection processes if it is reasonable to do so.

5.6 The information we collect and hold about you will be kept at our offices and in our electronic file storage site. You have the right to access and correct this information.

5.7 Verification of identity: The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 requires us to collect from you and retain information required to verify your identity. We may ask you to show us documents verifying your identity (such as a passport or driver’s licence) or we may use RealAML for this purpose. We may keep copies of these documents. We may perform such other customer verification checks about your identity and about the source of funds associated with
any transaction to which the services relate as required by law.

6 Documents, Records and Information

6.1 We will keep a record of all important documents which we receive or create on your behalf on the following basis:
a. We may keep a record electronically and destroy originals (except where the existence of an original is legally important such as in the case of wills and deeds).
b. We may dispose of documents which are duplicates, or which are trivial (such as emails which do not contain substantive information), or documents which belong to us.
c. We are not obliged to retain documents or copies where you have requested that we provide them to you or to another person and we have done so, although we are entitled to retain copies for our own records.

6.2 We will provide to you on request copies or originals (at our option) of all documents to which you are entitled under the Privacy Act 2020 or any other law. We may charge you our reasonable costs for doing this.

6.3 Where we hold documents that belong to a third party you will need to provide us with that party’s written authority to uplift or obtain a copy of that document.

6.4 Unless you instruct us in writing otherwise, you authorise us and consent to us destroying or deleting all files and documents relating to your matter after completion of the matter and after any legally required retention period. Wills, Will instructions, Enduring Powers of Attorney, Trust Deeds, Leases and other deeds will all be retained for a longer period according to the individual document.

6.5 We may, at our option, return documents (either in hard copy or electronic form) to you rather than retain them. If we choose to do this, we will do so at our expense.

6.6 We own copyright in all documents or work we create in the court of providing the services but grant you a non-exclusive licence to use and copy the documents as you see fit for your own personal or commercial use. However, you may not permit any third part to copy, adapt or use the documents without our written permission.

7 Compliance

7.1 We are obliged to comply with all laws in applicable to us in all jurisdictions, including: a. Anti-money laundering (AML) and countering financing of terrorism (CFT) laws; and
b. Laws relating to tax and client reporting and withholdings.

7.2 We may need to undertake customer due diligence on you, persons acting on your behalf and other relevant persons such as beneficial owners and controlling persons. I may not be able to begin acting, or to continue acting, for you until that is completed.

7.3 To ensure compliance, I may be required to provide information about you, persons acting on your behalf or other relevant persons to third parties (such as government agencies). There may be circumstances where we are not able to tell you or such person if we do provide information.

7.4 Please ensure that you and/or any of the persons described previously are aware of and consent to this. It is important to ensure that all information provided is accurate.

8 Conflicts of Interest

8.1 We must protect and promote your interests to the exclusion of the interests of third parties and ourselves as set out in the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 (Rules). This may result in a situation where we have a conflict of interest.

8.2 We have procedures in place to identify and respond to conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest. If a conflict of interest arises we will advise you of this and follow the requirements and procedures set out in the Rules. This may mean we cannot act for you further in a particular matter and we may terminate our engagement.

9 Duty of Care

9.1 Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person. We owe no liability to any other person including for example any directors, shareholders, associated companies, employees or family members unless we expressly agree in writing. We do not accept any responsibility or liability whatsoever to any third parties who be affected by our provision of Services or who may rely on any advice we give, except as expressly agreed by us in writing.

9.2 Our advice must not be referred to in connection with any public document without our consent.

9.3 Our advice is opinion only, based on the facts known to us and on our professional judgement, and is subject to any changes in the law after the date on which the advice is given. We are not liable for errors in, or omissions from, any information provided by third parties.

9.4 Our advice relates only to the particular matter for which you engage us. Once that matter is at an end, we will not owe you any duty or liability in respect of any related or other matters unless you specifically engage us in respect of those matters.

9.5 Unless otherwise agreed, we may communicate with you by electronic means. We cannot guarantee that these communications will not be lost or affected in some other way beyond our control, and we will not be liable for any damage or loss caused thereby.

10 Termination

10.1 You may terminate our engagement at any time.

10.2 We may terminate our engagement in any circumstances set out in the Rules including the existence of a conflict of interest, non-payment of fees, or failure to provide instructions.

10.3 If you terminate our engagement you must pay all fees, disbursements and expenses incurred by us up to the date of termination.

11 Feedback and Complaints

11.1 Client satisfaction is one of my primary objectives, so feedback from clients is helpful. If you would like to comment on any aspect of the service provided by us, including how we can improve our service, please contact me.

11.2 If you have any concerns or complaints about our services, please raise them as soon as possible. I will respond to your concerns as soon as possible. I will endeavour in good faith to resolve the matter with you in a way that is fair.

11.3 If you are not satisfied with the way I have dealt with your complaint, the New Zealand Law Society has a complaints service to which you may refer the issue. You can call the 0800 number for guidance, lodge a concern or make a formal complaint.

Matters may be directed to:

Lawyers Complaints Service
PO Box 5041
Wellington 6140
New Zealand

Phone: 0800 261 801

To lodge a concern:
www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-the-public/complaining-about-a-lawyer/raise-a-concern/

To make a formal complaint:
www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-the-public/complaining-about-a-lawyer/

Email: complaints@lawsociety.org.nz