Sharp Tudhope Terms of Engagement

 

These Standard 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.

 

Services

 

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

 

Financial Fees

 

  1. The fees which we will charge or the manner in which they will be arrived at, 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 you as soon as reasonably practicable if it becomes necessary for us to provide services 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 staff. Time spent is recorded in 6 minute units, with time rounded up to the next unit of 6 minutes.

Disbursements and expenses

 

We incur sundry expenses (such as photocopying and toll calls) in the course of providing services to you. Ordinarily, we will recover such expenses by charging a flat rate of 3 per cent. of our fees for each invoice. On occasion, we may charge you for extraordinary disbursements that we incur.


Sometimes we incur other expenses (such as mileage, travel and accommodation) or have to make payments to third parties on behalf of our clients, such as filing and registration fees. We will charge for the actual cost of these expenses and payments, usually with our next invoice after they have been incurred.


However, at any time we may require you to pay us in advance for any expenses, payments or disbursements that we incur.

 

GST (if any)

 

Is payable by you on our fees and charges.


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.

 

Payment

 

Invoices are payable on the 20th of the month following the date of invoice unless prior alternative arrangements have been made with us. We may require interest to be paid on any amount which is overdue. Interest will be calculated at 17% per annum on the outstanding amount owing.

 

Security

 

We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses. You authorise 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 disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.

 

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.

 

Client care and service


Whatever legal services your lawyer is providing, he or she must –

  • act competently, in a timely way, and in accordance with instructions received and arrangements made;
  • protect and promote your interests and act for you free from compromising influences or loyalties;
  • discuss with you your objectives and how they should best be achieved;
  • provide you with information about the work to be done, who will do it and the way the services will be provided;
  • charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable and let you know how and when you will be billed;
  • give you clear information and advice;
  • protect your privacy and ensure appropriate confidentiality;
  • treat you fairly, respectfully, and without discrimination;
  • keep you informed about the work being done and advise you when it is completed;
  • let you know how to make a complaint and deal with any complaint promptly and fairly.


The obligations lawyers owe to clients are described in the Law Society's Rules of conduct and client care for lawyers (the Rules). 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.

 

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.

 
Confidentiality


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 Rules.


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.

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

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.


Lawyers Fidelity Fund


The Law Society maintains the Lawyers’ Fidelity Fund for the purposes 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.


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 Peter Wilson, General Manager.

He may be contacted as follows:


The Law Society operates the Lawyers Complaints Service and are 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.


Termination


You may terminate our retainer at any time.

We may terminate our retainer for good cause. Good cause includes any of the following circumstances:

 

  • if you give us an instruction that would require us to breach any professional obligation;
  • if you do not make payment of our financial fees, expenses or disbursements within the timeframe for payment set out above, or as otherwise agreed with us [in writing];
  • if we consider that you have misled or deceived us in a material respect;
  • if you fail to provide us with instructions in a sufficiently timely way;
  • except in relation to litigation matters, if you adopt a course of action against our advice that we believe is highly imprudent and may be inconsistent with our fundamental obligations;
  • we consider that due to your conduct and/or your dealings with us that the relationship we have with you is not working and cannot be rectified;
  • for any other reason that is consistent with the Rules.


If we have good cause to terminate our retainer but choose not to do so on one occasion, we can choose to terminate the retainer if any future event happens that gives us good cause to terminate, even if it is an identical or similar event.

If we choose to terminate the retainer for any of the above reasons, we will give you reasonable notice and explain why. If we terminate due to paragraph a. above, we will only do so having had due regard to our fiduciary duties to you and given you reasonable notice to enable you to find another legal representative. If we terminate for any reason, we will give you reasonable assistance to find another lawyer.

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. We reserve the right to charge you for any expenses we incur in terminating our retainer and/or withdrawing from proceedings.

 

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) 7 years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format.


Conflicts 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 Rules.


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.


Trust account


We maintain a trust account for all funds which we receive from clients (except money 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 our bank. In that case we will charge a commission of 7.5% up to $250 per quarter (or an annual amount of $1,000) of interest earned on behalf of clients.


General


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

We may change these Terms at any time, and will publish the changed Terms on our website. The change will bind you in respect of any matters on which we accept instructions after publication of the change.

Our relationship with you is governed by New Zealand law and New Zealand courts have nonexclusive jurisdiction.