AND

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 $385.00 per hour Inclusive -
4. For Estate Administration we charge the same rate as the Perpetual Guardian which we consider "Fair & Reasonable"

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 for the disbursements or expenses which we will be incurring on your behalf.

We charge and additional 15% as a Charge/Fee instead of GST 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 within 14 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us. We may require interest to be paid on any amount which is more than 7 days overdue. Interest will be calculated at the rate of 2% above our firm's main trading bank’s 90-day bank bill buy rate as at the close of business on the date payment became due.

Security: We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses. You authorise us:

to debit against amounts pre-paid by you; and

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.

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 Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

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.

Termination

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.

** Retention of files and documents

1. 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 being documents you handed to us before or during the retainer and other substantive legal documents generated for us and carrying your signature) 7 years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format e.g. pdf. We shall be entitled to charge a uplift fee of $125 for any or all such documents, that you are entitled to plus copy charges @ $1-50 per page for our records or should you or any other person or solicitor require them. You acknowledge that we are required under an array of Legislation to retain originals of many documents. Apart for such documents everything else shall belong to us as solicitors but you are entitled to a copy as stated.

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.

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 monies received for payment of our invoices).

If we are holding significant funds on your behalf [over $50,000-00 ] we will normally lodge those funds on interest bearing deposit with a bank. In that case we will charge an administration fee of 5% of the interest derived or $18.50 per unit of time administration - whichever is the highest.

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 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.

INFORMATION FOR CLIENTS

Set out below is the information required by the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers of the New Zealand Law Society ("Law Society").

1. Fees: The basis on which fees will be charged is set out in our letter of engagement or equivalent  When payment of fees is to be made is set out in our Standard Terms of Engagement.
2. We may deduct from any funds held on your behalf in our trust account any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice sent by email or by post that has not been disputed within 14 days.
3. Professional Indemnity Insurance: We do not hold (and are not obliged to hold) professional indemnity insurance which meets the Law Society standards. 
4. 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 & 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.

1. 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 the person in the “Letters of Engagement”

The Law Society also maintains a complaints service and you are able to make a complaint to that service.  To do so you should contact the Law Society Box 5041 Wellington - 0800 261 801 or at www.lawsociety.org.nz 

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 are set out in our letter of engagement: otherwise HPP Ragg 027 281 4686 nzragg@gmail.com or Box 537 Ashburton

Client Care and Service:

The Law Society client care and service information is set out below.

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 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, call 0800 261 801 or please visit http://www.lawsociety.org.nz

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.

Amendments

Certain paragraphs have been amended and they are indicated by ** amended

General

Any dispute concerning these Terms of Engagement, or our work for you, is to be resolved in New Zealand Courts under New Zealand law.

• New Zealand Law Society on Client Care 
• Lawyers Fidelity Fund
• Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008