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August
2008
STANDARD 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. We may change our engagement terms
from time to time. You will be advised if there are any changes
to our standard terms.
| 1.1
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The legal services
we are to provide for you are outlined in our letter of engagement
("engagement letter"). Where we have not provided
you with an engagement letter in relation to a particular
legal service, that service may be outlined other correspondence
between us.
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| 1.2
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You agree that
when we act for you, we can accept instructions from any of
the following unless you expressly advise us otherwise in
writing:
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a. |
If you are
a company, we can accept instructions from any director or
officer of that company or any employee or other person whom
you have authorised to work with us;
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b. |
If you are
a trust, we can accept instructions from any trustee or officer
(if applicable) of that trust;
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c. |
If you are
a partnership we can accept any instructions from any partner
or officer (if applicable) of that partnership;
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d. |
If you are
a couple in a transaction, we can accept instructions from
either of you;
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e. |
If you are
an incorporated society, we can accept instructions from any
officer of that society or any employee or other person whom
you have authorised to work with us.
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a |
In setting
our fees we take various factors into account. Those factors
are:
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The skill,
specialised knowledge and responsibility required to perform
the services properly;
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The time and
labour expended;
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The urgency
and circumstances in which the matter is transacted;
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The importance
of the matter to you and the result achieved and any time
limitations imposed, including those imposed by you;
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The degree
of risk assumed by us in undertaking the services including
the amount or value of any property involved;
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Any
fee arrangement (including a conditional fee arrangement)
entered into between you and us;
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The reasonable
costs of running our practice;
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The experience,
reputation and ability of the lawyer;
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The complexity
or difficulty of the matter and the difficulty or novelty
of the questions involved;
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the possibility
that the acceptance of the particular retainer will preclude
our engagement by other clients;
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whether the
fee is fixed or conditional (whether in litigation or otherwise);
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any quote or
estimate of fees given by us; and
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the
fee customarily charged in the market and locality for similar
legal services.
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b |
The fees we
will charge or the manner in which they will be arrived at,
are set out in our engagement letter.
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c |
If the engagement
letter specifies an estimate of our fee, that estimate is
based on the agreed scope of our legal services and our professional
judgment. Unless otherwise agreed, 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 legal services outside the agreed
scope and, if requested, give you an estimate of the likely
amount of the further costs.
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d |
Where our fees
are calculated on an hourly basis, the hourly rates are set
out in our engagement letter. If there are differences in
those rates, the differences reflect the experience and specialisation
of the lawyers in the firm. Time spent is recorded in 6 minute
units, with time rounded up to the next unit of 6 minutes.
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| 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 expense
is incurred. We may require an advance payment (by invoicing
you) for the disbursements or expenses which we will be incurring
on your behalf. In additional to these disbursements and payments
we also charge an office service charge on each matter to
cover our routine copying, printing, postage and other office
consumables. Our current office service charge is $30.00 (including
GST) which may change from time to time or may change where
the cost of such consumables on a legal matter may justify
a higher charge.
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| 2.3
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GST (if
any): Is payable by you on our fees and charges.
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| 2.4
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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 (or will incur)
a significant expense.
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| 2.5
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Payment:
Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of the invoice,
unless alternative arrangements have been made with us. We
may charge you interest on any amount unpaid on the due date
for payment at the rate of 5% above our firm's current overdraft
interest rate charged by the firm's bank as at the close of
business on the date payment became due.
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| 2.6 |
Security:
We may ask you to provide security for our fees and expenses.
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| 2.7
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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.
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| 3.1
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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:
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a
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to the extent
necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions;
or
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b |
to the extent
required by law or by the Law Society's Rules of Conduct and
Client Care for Lawyers.
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| 3.2
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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.
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| 3.3 |
We will of
course, not disclose to you confidential information which
we have in relation to any other client.
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| 4.1 |
You may terminate
our retainer at any time.
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| 4.2
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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
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| 4.3
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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.
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| 5
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Retention
of files and documents
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| 5.1
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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.
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| 6.1
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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.
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7.1
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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.
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8.1
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We do not currently
maintain a trust account.
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| 9.1
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These Terms
apply to any current engagement and also to any future engagement,
whether or not we send you another copy of them.
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9.2
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We are entitled
to change these Terms from time to time, in which case we
will send you amended Terms.
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9.3
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Our relationship
with you is governed by New Zealand law and New Zealand
courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.
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