Navigation

Standard Terms of Engagement

Thank you for your instructions to act for you in this matter. We set out our current terms of engagement which are:

 Services

The services which we are to provide for your are outlined in our engagement letter.

2.Financial

2.1 Fees:

  1. The fees which we will charge or the manner in which they will be arrived, are set out in our engagement letter.
  2. If the engagement letter specifies a fixed fee, we will charge this for the agreed scope of our services. Work which falls outside that scope will be charged on an hourly rate basis. We will advise your as soon as reasonably practicable if it becomes necessary for us to provide service outside the agreed scope and if requested, give you an estimate of the likely amount of the further costs.
  3. Where our fees are calculated on an hourly basis, the hourly rates are set out in our engagement letter. The differences in those rates reflect the experience and specialisation of our professional stuff. Time spent is recorded in 6 minute units, with time rounded up to the next unit of 6 minutes.

2.2 Disbursements and expenses:

In providing services we may incur disbursements or have to make payments to third parties on your behalf. These will be included in our invoice to you when the expense is incurred. We may require an advance payment for the disbursements or expenses which we will be incurring on your behalf.

Here are some examples of our disbursements – Bureau fee $35, Fax first page $6 all subsequent page $1 each, print and photocopying $0.30 each page,  LIM report, title search fee, bank charge, PPSR search, phone costs etc will be charged on actual costs we incurred.

2.3 GST (if any):

Is payable by you on our fees and charges.

2.4 Invoices:

We will send invoices to you, usually monthly and on completion of the matter, or termination of our engagement. We may also send you an invoice when we incur a significant expense.

2.5 Payment:

Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us. We may require interest to be paid on any amount which is more than 7 days overdue. Interest will be calculated at the rate of 5% above our firm’s main trading bank’s 90-day bank bill buy rates as at the close of business on the date payment become due.

2.6 Security:

We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses. You authorize us:

  1. to debit against amounts pre-paid by you; and
  2. to deduct from any funds held on your behalf in our trust account any fees, expenses or disbursement for which we have provided an invoice.

2.7 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, nevertheless you remain responsible for payment to us if the third party fails to pay us.

  1. Confidentiality

3.1 We will hold in confidence all information concerning you or your affairs that we acquire during the course of acting for you. We will not disclose any of this information to any other person except:

  1. to the extent necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions; or
  2. to the extent required by law or by the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

3.2 Confidential information concerning you will as far as practicable be made available only to those within our firm who are providing legal services for you.

3.3 We will of course, not to disclose to you confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.

  1. Termination

4.1 You may terminate our retainer at any time.

4.2 We may terminate our retainer in any of the circumstances set out in the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

4.3 If our retainer is terminated you must pay us all fees due up to the date of termination and all expenses incurred up to that date.

  1. Retention of Files and Documents

You authorise us (without further reference to you) to destroy all files and documents for this matter (other than any documents that we hold in safe custody for you such as Lease, Will etc) 7 years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format.

  1. Conflict of Interest

We have procedures in place to identify and respond to 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 Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

  1. Engagement of Another Lawyer

It may be necessary for us to engage, on your behalf, the services of another lawyer to provide specialist advice or services, including advocacy services. We will consult you as to the terms of that lawyer’s engagement, but you may be asked to enter into a fees agreement directly with the other lawyer.

  1. Court Costs

If, in any proceedings to which this Agreement relates, an order is made requiring another party to pay your costs of the proceedings, that order will not affect your liability to pay our fees and disbursements under this Agreement, but the amount recovered (if any) may be applied towards satisfaction of our fees and expenses. It is possible that a Court may make an order that you pay another party’s legal costs (if for instance you lose the case), which costs would be in addition to the fees and disbursements payable to us under this agreement.

  1. Duty of Care

Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person. Before any other person may rely on our advice, we must expressly agree to this.

  1. Trust Account

We remain a trust account for all funds which we receive from clients (except monies received for payment of our invoices). If we are holding significant funds on your behalf we will normally lodge those funds on interest bearing deposit with a bank. In that case we will charge an administration fee of 5% of the interest earned.

  1. General

11.1 These Terms apply to any current engagement and also to any future engagement, whether or not we send you another copy of them.

11.2 We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time, in which case we will send you amended Terms.

11.3 Our relationship with you is governed by New Zealand law and New Zealand Courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.

Leslie Hills Law

Barristers and Solicitors

Information for Clients

  1. Fees: The basis on which fees will be charged is set out in our letter of engagement. When payment of fees is to be made is set out in our Standard Terms of Engagement. We may deduct any funds held on your behalf in our trust account any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.
  1. Professional Indemnity Insurance: We hold professional indemnity insurance with limit of liability per claim being NZ$1,000,000, Aggregate limit of liability being NZ$2,000,000.
  1. Lawyers Fidelity Fund: The Law Society maintains the Lawyers Fidelity Fund the purpose of providing clients of lawyers with protection against pecuniary loss arising from theft by lawyers. The maximum amount payable by the Fidelity Fund by way of compensation to an individual claimant is limited to NZ$100,000. Except in certain circumstances specified in the Lawyers & Conveyances Act 2006 the Fidelity Fund does not cover a client for any loss relating to money that a lawyer is instructed to invest on behalf of the client.
  1. Complaints: We maintain a procedure for handling any complaints by clients, designed to ensure that a complaint is dealt with promptly and fairly. If you have a complaint about our services or charges, you may refer your complaint to the person in our firm who has overall responsibility for your work. If you do not wish to refer your complaint to that person, or you are not satisfied with that person’s response to your complaint, you may refer your complaint to Shirllay Sun. She may be contacted as follows:

.       by letter;

.       by email at shirllay@clear.net.nz;

.       by telephoning her at 03 9611325.

The Law Society operates the Lawyers Complaints Service and you are able to make a complaint to that service. To do so, phone 0800 261 801 and you will be connected to the nearest Complaints Service Office, which can provide information and advice about making a complaint.

  1. Persons Responsible for the Work: The names and status of the person or persons who will have the general carriage of or overall responsibility for the services we provide for you are set out in our letter of engagement.
  1. Client Care and Service: The obligations lawyers owe to clients are described in the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers. Those obligations are subject to other overriding duties, including duties to the courts and to the justice system. If you have any questions, please visit www. lawyers.org.nz.
  1. Limitation on extent of our Obligations or Liability: Any limitations on the extent of our obligations to you or any limitation or exclusion of liability are set out in our letter of engagement.

 

Leslie Hills Law

Barristers and Solicitors