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

These Terms may be changed from time to time, in which case I will send you amended Terms.

My relationship with you is governed by New Zealand law and New Zealand courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.

The services to be provided for you are outlined in my engagement letter unless altered with any further instructions recorded in writing. My services do not include advising in relation to the quality of any investment.

I will obtain from you contact details, including email address, postal address and telephone numbers. I may provide documents and other communications to you by email (or other electronic means). You will advise me if any of your contact details change.

I will report to you periodically on the progress of any engagement and will inform you of any material and unexpected delays, significant changes or complications in the work being undertaken. You may request a progress report at any time.

Fees:

1. The fees I will charge or the manner in which they will be arrived at, are set out in my engagement letter.
2. If the engagement letter specifies a fixed fee, I will charge this for the agreed scope of my services. Work which falls outside that scope will be charged on an hourly rate basis. I will advise you as soon as reasonably practicable if it becomes necessary for me to provide services outside the agreed scope and, if requested, give you an estimate of the likely amount of the further costs.
3. My fees are calculated on an hourly basis as set out in my engagement letter. Time spent is recorded in 6 minute units, with time rounded up to the next unit of 6 minutes.
4. Hourly fees may be adjusted (upwards or downwards) to ensure the fee is fair and reasonable to take into account matters such as the complexity, urgency, value and importance of the Services. Full details of the relevant fee factors are set out in Rule 9 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 (Rules).

Disbursements and third party expenses: In providing services I may incur disbursements (expenses) on your behalf. These will be included in my invoice to you when the expense is incurred. Standard expenses incurred within my office such as photocopying, printing, tolls and other administrative overheads will be included in my fee.

GST (if any): Is payable by you on our fees and charges.

Invoices: I may send interim invoices to you, usually monthly and invoice you on completion of the matter, or termination of our engagement. I may also send you an invoice when I incur a significant expense.

Payment: Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made.

1. If you have difficulty in paying any of our accounts, please contact me promptly so that we may discuss payment arrangements.
2. If your account is overdue I may:
   1. require interest to be paid on any amount which is more than 14 days overdue, calculated at the rate of 1.5 % per month;
   2. stop work on any matters I am providing services to you;
   3. require security before recommencing work;
   4. recover from you in full any costs incurred (including on a solicitor/client basis) in seeking to recover the amounts from you, including my fees and the fees of any collection agency.
3. Payment may be made by direct credit payment to:
   
   SBS, Queenstown – OXNEVAD account no: 031355 0017930 00

I do not maintain a trust account and accordingly I will not receive funds on your behalf. Should the situation arise where any payment becomes due to you, arrangements will be made for these to be paid directly to you unless that payment is used to deduct any fees, expenses or disbursements for which I have provided an invoice.

I will not receive funds in advance of fees or expenses being incurred. You may however be required to place funds on account of fees and expenses being incurred on your behalf into another solicitors trust account.

Where it is necessary to incur the services of another party, such as a consultant or expert witness you will be advised and an arrangement will need to be made between you and that other party for you to pay their costs directly.

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 me if the third party fails to make payment.

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

1. to the extent necessary or desirable to enable me to carry out your instructions; or
2. as expressly or impliedly agreed by you; or
3. as necessary to protect our interests in respect of any complaint or dispute; or
4. to the extent required or permitted by law.

Personal information and Privacy: In my dealings with you I will collect and hold personal information about you. I will use that information to carry out the Services and to make contact with you about issues I 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 4.1, you authorise me to disclose, in the normal course of performing the Services, such personal information to third parties for the purpose of providing the Services and any other purposes set out in these Terms.

I 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 I collect and hold about you will be kept in my 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 me.

Verification of identity: The Financial Transactions Reporting Act 1996 requires me to collect from you and to retain information required to verify your identity. I may therefore ask you to show documents verifying your identity (such as a passport or driver’s licence). I may retain copies of these documents. I may perform such other customer verification checks as to your identity and checks as to the source of any funds associated with any transaction to which the Services relate as I consider to be required by law.

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

I will keep a record of all important documents which I receive or create on your behalf on the following basis:

1. I may keep a record electronically and destroy originals (except where the existence of an original is legally important such as in the case of wills and deeds).
2. At any time, I may dispose of documents which are duplicates, or which are trivial (such as emails which do not contain substantive information), or documents which belong to me.
3. I am not obliged to retain documents or copies where you have requested that we provide them to you or to another person and we have done so, although we are entitled to retain copies for our own records if I wish to do so.

I will provide to you on request copies or originals (at my option) of all documents to which you are entitled under the Privacy Act 1993 or any other law. I may charge you our reasonable costs for doing this.

Where I hold documents that belong to a third party you will need to provide us with that party’s written authority to uplift or obtain a copy of that document.

Unless you instruct me in writing otherwise, you authorise me and consent to me (without further reference to you) to destroy (or delete in the case of electronic records) all files and documents in respect of the Services 7 years after our engagement ends (other than any documents that I hold in safe custody for you or are otherwise obliged by law to retain for longer). I may retain documents for longer at my option.

I may, at my option, return documents (either in hard or electronic form) to you rather than retain them. If I choose to do this, I will do so at my expense.

I own copyright in all documents or work I create in the course of performing the 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 my written permission.

I am obliged to protect and promote your interests to the exclusion of the interests of third parties and ourselves as set out in the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 (Rules). This may result in a situation arising where I have a conflict of interest.

I have procedures in place to identify and respond to conflicts of interest. If a conflict of interest arises I 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.

My duty of care is to you and not to any other person. I owe no liability to any other person, including for example any directors, shareholders, associated companies, employees or family members unless I expressly agree in writing. I do not accept any responsibility or liability whatsoever to any third parties who may be affected by my performance of the Services or who may rely on any advice I give, except as expressly agreed by me in writing.

My advice is not to be referred to in connection with any prospectus, financial statement, or public document without my written consent.

My advice is opinion only, based on the facts known to me and on my professional judgement, and is subject to any changes in the law after the date on which the advice is given. I am not liable for errors in, or omissions from, any information provided by third parties.

My advice relates only to each particular matter in respect of which you engage me. Once that matter is at an end, I 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.

Unless otherwise agreed, I may communicate with you and with others by electronic means. I cannot guarantee that these communications will not be lost or affected for some reason beyond my reasonable control, and I will not be liable for any damage or loss caused thereby.

To the extent allowed by law, my aggregate liability to you (whether in contract, tort, equity or otherwise) in connection with my Services is limited to the amount available to be payable under the Professional Indemnity Insurance held by my firm.

You may terminate my retainer at any time.

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

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

Client satisfaction is one of my primary objectives and feedback from clients is helpful. If you would like to comment on any aspect of the service provided by me including how I can improve my service, please contact me.

If you have any concerns or complaints about our services, please raise them with me as soon as possible. I will endeavour in good faith to resolve the matter with you in a way that is fair to all concerned.

If you are not satisfied with the way I have dealt with your complaint the New Zealand Law Society has a complaints service to which you may refer the issue. You can call the 0800 number for guidance, lodge a concern or make a formal complaint. Matters may be directed to:

1. Lawyers Complaints Service
2. PO Box 5041
3. Wellington 6140
4. New Zealand
   
   
5. Phone: 0800 261 801
   
   
6. To lodge a concern:
   www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-the-community/lawyers-complaints-service/concerns-form
   
   
7. To make a formal complaint:
   www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-the-community/lawyers-complaints-service/how-to-make-a-complaint
   
   
8. Email: complaints@lawsociety.org.nz