1. Purpose
This document explains what you can expect from us, and what you agree to when we work for you. These Terms of Engagement apply except where we otherwise agree in writing.
2. Client Care and Service
Our commitment to you is that we will:
- 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 Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers. Those obligations are subject to other overriding duties, including to the courts and to the justice system.
3. 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 and their hourly rate are set out in our letter of engagement.
4. Privacy and Confidentiality
We will hold in strict confidence all information we acquire through our work for you, and which concerns your business or your instructions to us. The only exceptions are where you authorise us to disclose such information or where we must do so by law or by the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
We may collect and hold personal information about you for the purposes of providing our services, obtaining credit information or other references, or telling you about issues that affect you. Under the Privacy Act 2020 you may access the information we hold.
5. How we set our Fees
We will charge a fair and reasonable amount taking into account the time and labour expended, the skill, specialised knowledge and responsibility required, the project’s importance to you, complexity, urgency or risk, reasonable costs of running a practice and any other factors unique to your matter. We will provide an estimate of your fee if you require and will advise you if the actual fee is likely to vary from the estimate.
6. Disbursements and Office Costs
We may have to pay disbursements to third parties such as LINZ, Companies Office, Ministry of Justice, LIM fees, and travel costs. We will let you know if we require these to be paid at the beginning of the engagement. We charge an office charge and a storage fee which will be detailed in our letter of engagement. GST (if any) is payable by you on our fees and charges.
7. Invoices and Terms of Payment
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 if we incur a significant expense. Invoices for conveyancing matters are payable prior to the date of settlement to enable the settlements to proceed or may be deducted from sale proceeds or mortgage loans at the time of property settlement.
Invoices for all other matters are payable immediately, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us and confirmed in writing. Interest of 12% per annum will be applied to any outstanding balances from the date the payment became due. If it is
necessary to take legal steps to recover an unpaid invoice, debt recovery fees, and
associated costs, on an indemnity basis will be added to the amount owing. We may outsource debt recovery to a third party at our sole discretion.
If we are holding funds for you on trust, you authorise us to deduct all amounts owing to us against funds or other property we hold on your behalf.
We may ask you to pay a retainer to us on account of costs or to provide security for our fees and expenses. You authorise us:
- To debit our fees against amounts paid by you on account of costs; and
- To deduct from any disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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 of 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 lawyer is instructed to invest on behalf of the client.
11. 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, please direct this to the Director of Sinisa Law Limited in the first instance:
Ric Sinisa
ric@sinisalaw.co.nz 027 255 4122
The Law Society operates the Lawyers Complaint 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 Complaint Service Office, which can provide information and advice about making a complaint.
12. Termination
We can cancel or terminate our retainer of engagement with you at any time by giving you written notice. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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 Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
15. 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.
16. Trust Account
We maintain a trust account for all funds which we receive from clients (except monies received for payments 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, for which we charge a flat commission rate of 7%, deducted at the time of interest payment.
17. General
These Terms apply to any current engagement, whether or not we send you another copy of them. We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time, in which case we will send you amended Terms. Our relationship with you is governed by the Laws of New Zealand and New Zealand courts have nonexclusive jurisdiction.