These Standard Terms of Engagement (“Terms”) apply in respect of all legal and related services Loo & Koo (“we”) carries out for our clients (“you”), except to the extent that we otherwise agree with you in writing.
These Terms apply subject to any additional or alternative terms which we may agree in writing with you. We have included certain information relating to the provision of our services as required by the Law Society Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
The services we are to provide for you are outlined in our engagement letter.
We perform our services in accordance with all applicable professional and legal obligations.
We spend time to ensure that all matters and issues are understood and considered and you are given the best possible advice. Failure to provide us with information may preclude us from providing service to you or limit the quality of the services provided.
Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person. We must expressly agree in writing before any other person, including any person associated with you, may rely on our advice.
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. We may also involve other lawyers and legal assistants to ensure that you obtain the best advice in the most economical way.
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:
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.
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.
We will charge a fee which is fair and reasonable for the services provided and we have set out the fee we will charge or the manner in which it will be arrived at, in our engagement letter. In calculating the fees, the following maybe taken into account;
We are able to provide estimates and report to you on progress against such estimates.
For some other cases where the scope of the service can be precisely defined, we may provide a fixed quote. Service 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.Y
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.HHH
Unless otherwise stated all fees are plus GST.
In providing services we may incur disbursements or have to make payments to third parties on your behalf. These disbursements include expenses such as court filing fees, barristers’ fees, toll calls, faxes, file management fees, photocopying, travel expenses, couriers, registration fees, fees for experts and others we may incur 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. If you require a file to be retrieved from our file storage facility then we reserve the right to make a charge for retrieving file.
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.
Our invoices are payable on receipt, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us. If an account is not paid, we may choose not to do any further work for you and retain custody of you file until all accounts are paid in full. We may also require interest to be paid on any amount which is overdue. Interest will be calculated at the rate of 1% per calendar month on any amount outstanding. If the account remains unpaid and requires debt collection action, all cost relating to the action will be passed on to you.
We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses. You authorise us:
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.
You may terminate our retainer at any time. 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. 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.
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) 10 years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format.
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. In that case we will charge an administration fee of [ ] % of the interest derived.
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.
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.
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.
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;
(09) 529 3288
(09) 529 3283
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.
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.
These Terms apply to any current engagement and also to any future 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 New Zealand law and New Zealand courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.