These Terms of Engagement (“Terms”) apply in respect of all work carried out by us for you, except to the extent that we otherwise agree with you in writing.
1.1 Relationship to the letter of Engagement: These Terms relate to a letter of engagement we have provided to you and apply with respect to the matter where you instructed us, and apply to all other matters that you instruct us on in the future.
1.2 We will:
2.1 Fees:
a) The basis upon which fees are payable by you to us are based on the hourly rate of the partner, solicitor, legal executive or other author who undertakes your legal work. That hourly rate reflects the skill and experience of the person who completes that legal work. We will provide you with details of hourly rates on request.
b) Other factors which may influence the fee charged to you will include:
c) Where an estimate of legal fees has been provided to you we will endeavour to charge you the amount estimated. Should assumptions provided with our estimate be wrong or change or the scope of our attendances be in excess of what we estimated to you, we may increase our legal fees to reflect those unanticipated attendances which shall be charged at the applicable hourly rate. Unless we tell you otherwise in writing, no fee amount we indicate to you is a fixed fee or quote.
d) Where our fees are calculated on an hourly basis time spent is recorded in 6 minute units, with time rounded up to the next unit of 6 minutes.
e) Reference to our fees in these Terms, as the context may require, shall include GST, office service charge, disbursements and expenses and any other amount owing to us in respect of our services.
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 disbursement or expense is incurred. You also authorise us to make payments to third parties on your behalf which are reasonably required to undertake the services. We may require an advance payment for the disbursements or expenses which we will be incurring on your behalf and may decline to act until such payment is received by us.
2.3 Office Service Charge: We charge a further legal fee of 6% plus GST of the fee charged to you which is to compensate us for office services incurred by us in providing legal advice to you. Any fee estimate or hourly rate quoted to you does not include provision for office services and this amount shall be added to any fee or rate indicated to you. The charges include all usual costs and expenses such as courier charges, facsimile costs and photocopying, but exclude international courier costs and toll charges which may be added to the office service charge.
2.4 Searching and Registration: Where we are carrying out searching and registration in relation to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) or the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) we pass on those costs to you. We charge an additional fee of $10.00 for each document searched and $20.00 for each document registered with LINZ.
2.5 GST (if any): Is payable by you on our fees and charges, including where we charge you an office service charge and a fee for searching and registration. Where you are an overseas resident and we are not required by law to charge GST to you. In this case, GST may be charged at a rate of 0%. If it subsequently transpires that GST was chargeable to you then you shall pay us the GST owing, penalties and any costs incurred by us on demand.
2.6 Invoices: We will send interim 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.
2.7 Payment: Invoices are payable within 7 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us.
2.8 Related Parties to You: In the event that a letter of engagement is addressed to you as a director of a company,trustee of a trust or representative of some other body you will be personally liable to make payment of our fees and disbursements (including all amounts payable under these terms) unless you and we agree in writing otherwise. In the event that you are bound by these Terms as a trustee, and have no ability to benefit from that trust, your liability will be limited to the assets of that trust. If the letter of engagement is sent to more than one person, the persons in receipt of that letter will be jointly and severally liable to pay our fees and disbursements.
2.9 Overdue Accounts: 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 commercial overdraft rate as at the close of business on the date payment became due. Accounts which have not been paid by the 20th of the month following due date may be referred to a debt collection agency without notice. You will be liable for all our collection costs (including legal costs on a solicitor/client basis ).
If we not been paid on time or reasonably suspect you will be unable to pay on time going forward then we may decline to act further in accordance with any requirements contained in the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006.
2.10 Security: We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees, disbursements and expenses. If you fail to do so when requested we may decline to act further. You authorise us:
2.11 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 or fails to pay us within the period required by these Terms.
In any litigation you succeed in obtaining an order for costs payable by other parties in a litigation is likely to be for an amount substantially less than the full amount payable to us. You remain liable to us for all monies owed to us. If a Court makes an order that you must pay another party’s legal costs you all have to pay our fees.
2.12 Credit Card Payment: Where you pay an account to us by way of credit card payment, any credit card facility is only available to you where you meet the costs incurred by us for provision of that facility. At the date of this letter of engagement the commission payable for Visa and Mastercard is 2.4%.
3.1 Our Duty: 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:
3.2 Provision of Information to others within our firm: 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 Other Clients: We will not disclose to you confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.
3.4 Personal information and Privacy: In our dealings with you we will collect and hold personal information about you and entities related to you. We will use that information to carry out the legal services and to make contact with you about issues we believe may be of interest to you.
Provision of personal information is voluntary but if you do not provide full information this may impact on our ability to provide the Services.
Subject to clause 3.1, you authorise us to disclose, in the normal course of performing the legal services, such personal information to third parties for the purpose of providing the legal services and any other purposes set out in these Terms including to agencies undertaking client due diligence under The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terroisnm Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act)
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.
The information we collect and hold about you will be kept at our offices and/or at secure file storage sites (including electronic file storage sites) elsewhere. If you are an individual, you have the right to access and correct this information. If you require access, please contact our practise manager.
3.5 Provision of further information: You agree that we may provide you from time to time with other information that may be relevant to you, such as newsletters and information bulletins. At any time you may request that this not be sent to you.
4.1 Your Termination of Our Services: You may terminate our retainer at any time.
4.2 Our ability to Terminate the provision of Our Services: 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 Fees on Termination: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.
5.1 We will keep a record of all important documents which we receive or create on your behalf on the following basis:
5.2 We own copyright in all documents or work we create in the course of performing the legal 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 party to copy, adapt or use the documents without our written permission.
5.3 Our advice is not be referred to in connection with any prospectus, financial statement or public document without our written approval.
5.4 Where one of our trustee companies acts as a trsutee of your Trust(s), we shall hold the Trust’s core documents as required by the Trusts Act 2029.
6.1 Conflict Procedure: 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.
7.1 Reliance by Others:Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person including for example any directors, shareholders, associated companies, employees, family members or any other representative or party unless we expressly agree in writing. Before any other person may rely on our advice, we must expressly agree to this in writing.
7.2 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.
7.3 Our advice relates only to each particular matter in respect of 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 related or other matters.
8.1 Term Deposits and Administrative Fees:We maintain 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 on a rate for overnight deposits (unless you instruct us otherwise). We will charge an administration fee of 5% of any interest derived.
9.1 These Terms apply to any current engagement and also to any future engagement, whether or not we send you another copy of them.
9.2 We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time, in which case we will send you amended Terms or otherwise make them available to you on our website.
9.3 Our relationship with you is governed by New Zealand law and New Zealand courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.
10.1 To the extent allowed by law, our aggregate liability to you (where in contract, tort, equity or otherwise) in connection with our legal services is limited to the amount available to be payable under the Professional Indemnity Insurance held by the firm.
Set out below is the information required by the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers of the New Zealand Law Society (“Law Society”).
11.1 Fees: The basis on which fees will be charged is set out in our letter of engagement and these Terms. When payment of fees is to be made is set out in our Terms.
11.2 Professional Indemnity Insurance: We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets or exceeds the minimum standards specified by the Law Society. We will provide you with particulars of the minimum standards upon request.
11.3 Lawyers’ Fidelity Fund: The Law Society maintains the Lawyers’ Fidelity Fund for 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 $100,000. Except in certain circumstances specified in the Lawyers and Conveyancers 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.
11.4 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 David Hoskin. He may be contacted as follows:
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.
If we have been unable to resolve a complaint or concern you may contact:
The Lawyers Complaints Service
Phone: 0800 261 801
Website: www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-the-community/lawyers-complaints-service/concerns-form
Email: complaints@lawsociety.org.nz
11.5 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.
11.6 Client Care and Service: The Law Society client care and service information is set out below. Whatever legal services your lawyer is providing, he or she must:
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.lawsociety.org.nz or call 0800 261 801.
11.7 Limitations 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 and these Terms.
If you would like more information in this area please telephone or email your usual contact at Steindle Williams Legal or any director of Steindle Williams Legal.
These terms of engagement have been updated on 18 November 2024.