Terms of Engagement

1. Introduction

(a) These Terms of Engagement (Terms) explain how we will work with you, what you can expect from us, and what we ask of you while we are acting on your behalf. They cover important matters such as our services, fees, billing arrangements, privacy, confidentiality, and your rights as a client.

(b) If anything in these Terms is unclear, please contact the partner or lawyer responsible for your matter.

(c) These Terms apply whenever Lane Neave provides legal services to you, unless we agree different arrangements with you in writing. You do not need to sign these Terms; you accept these Terms each time you instruct us on a new matter.

(d) We occasionally update our Terms. The latest version is always available on our website. Any updates will apply from the date they are published and will only affect work we undertake for you after that date, unless we agree otherwise in writing.

2. Services

(a) When acting for you, we will provide our services with reasonable care, skill and professionalism. We will work with you to understand your objectives, keep you informed about the work being done, follow your instructions, and act in your best interests, while complying with our legal and professional obligations.

(b) The scope of our work will be set out in our Engagement Letter, along with any further instructions that you provide to us in writing (or that we record in writing).

(c) To provide services to you, we rely on you providing the information we reasonably request. If you do not provide this information, we may be unable to act for you, continue acting for you, or deliver our services effectively.

(d) We may rely on information and documents supplied by you, your representatives or advisers, and on information from public records or other sources we reasonably consider reliable. We will not independently check that information is accurate or complete unless we expressly agree to verify information. Please tell us promptly if any information you have given us changes or you become aware that it may be incorrect.

(e) Our advice is provided solely for you and for the purpose for which it was given. No other person may rely on it without our prior written agreement.

(f) In providing our services, we work as a team. The lawyer you first contact may involve other lawyers or staff with the appropriate experience and expertise to assist with your matter.

(g) We provide legal advice and services only. Unless we specifically agree with you in writing, our advice will not include tax, accounting, financial, insurance, business, valuation or other professional advice. We are not responsible, and exclude all liability, for advice provided by other advisers or for decisions made based on their advice.

3. Communication

(a) To help us communicate with you effectively, we ask that you provide your full name, current postal address, email address and telephone number. Please let us know promptly if any of your contact details change during the course of your matter.

(b) From time to time, we may send you information about legal developments, events, publications, or services we believe may be relevant to you. You can opt out of receiving these communications at any time.

4. Identity Verification and AML/CFT

(a) Like all law firms and banks in New Zealand, we must comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009. This means we may need to verify your identity and, depending on the matter, obtain information about things like company and trust ownership structures, or your source of wealth or source of funds.

(b) We usually need to complete these checks before we can begin any substantive work, receive or pay out money, or complete a transaction on your behalf. We will let you know what documents we need.

(c) From time to time, or if your circumstances change during our relationship, we may ask you to reconfirm or update your information and documents to ensure our regulatory files remain current.

5. Conflicts of Interest

(a) We have procedures in place to identify and respond to conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest. If a conflict of interest arises that would impact upon our ability to act for you, we will advise you of this and follow the requirements and procedures set out in the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyer of the New Zealand Law Society (NZLS Rules). This may mean we cannot act for you further in a particular matter and we may end our engagement.

(b) Where there is no legal conflict of interest, we may accept instructions from other clients or potential clients who operate in the same market or whose commercial interests compete with yours. We will only do this where we do not hold confidential information about you that is relevant to the other client’s instructions.

6. Our Fees

(a) Your Engagement Letter will explain how our fees will be calculated. This may be by hourly rates, a fixed fee, another agreed basis, or a combination of these.

(b) We will charge fees that are fair and reasonable for the work we undertake, including factors such as the time involved, complexity, urgency, expertise required, responsibility assumed, the importance of the matter, and the outcome achieved.

(c) Any estimate is based on the information and assumptions available when it is given. It is a guide, not a quote, fixed fee or maximum charge, unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing.

(d) Any estimate or charge-out rate does not include disbursements, office services fee or GST, unless we tell you otherwise.

(e) We review our charge-out rates annually and may adjust them from time to time. Any revised rates will apply to work carried out after the effective date of the change, including work on existing matters.

7. Disbursements and Office Services

(a) Disbursements are out-of-pocket expenses we pay to third parties on your behalf when it is reasonably necessary to progress your matter. They typically include court charges, filing fees, registration or search costs, travel, accommodation, courier expenses and fees charged by barristers, agents, experts, interpreters, or other external professionals we engage for your matter.

(i) These are charged to you at the exact amount they cost us, and we will list them separately on your invoice.

(ii) If you instruct us to engage a barrister, specialist consultant, or other external professional on your behalf, you will be responsible for their fees and expenses. Where those fees are billed to us, you agree to reimburse us for those costs when requested.

(iii) We may ask you to pay the anticipated cost to us in advance before we incur the expense or commit to the third party.

(b) In addition to our legal fees, we charge an office service fee of 3.5% of our legal fees. This fee covers legal administrative support provided in connection with our services.

8. Payment

(a) We will generally invoice you monthly while your matter is ongoing and will send a final invoice when the matter is completed or our engagement ends. If substantial work is undertaken, or significant costs are incurred over a shorter period, we may issue an invoice more frequently.

(b) Our invoices are payable within 14 days of the invoice date, unless alternative arrangements have been agreed.

(c) For conveyancing and property transactions, our fees and disbursements must be paid on settlement unless alternative arrangements have been agreed.

(d) We may require advance payment or other reasonable security for our fees and expenses before commencing or continuing work on a matter.

(e) By engaging us, you authorise and instruct us to deduct our fees and other expenses from funds held in our trust account on your behalf immediately on provision of an invoice to you, unless those funds are held for a particular purpose as agreed with us in writing. Any surplus funds remaining after all amounts owing have been paid will be returned to you.

(f) You are responsible for paying our invoices when they are due, even if you expect to be reimbursed by a third party. If we agree to address our invoice to a third party, you remain liable for the amount invoiced if the third party does not make payment.

(g) Credit card payments will attract a 1.7% transaction fee.

(h) If you make a small overpayment (ie, under NZ$10 from within New Zealand and under NZ$50 from overseas), and it is uneconomical to return the funds to you, we will hold the funds and donate to a charity at the end of each calendar year.

(i) We expect our invoices to be paid within the time specified on the invoice. If your account is overdue, we have the right to:

(i) Charge interest on the overdue amount at a rate of 2% per month, from the date the invoice was due;

(ii) Suspend or stop work on any matter which we are providing services to you until payment is received;

(iii) Retain documents, records, or other property we hold for you, to the extent permitted by law; and

(iv) Require payment of fees and disbursements in advance before recommencing work.

(j) We will endeavour to notify you before taking any of these steps.

(k) If we need to take steps to recover any overdue amounts, you will be responsible for reimbursing and agree to indemnify us for all our reasonable costs of recovery, including legal fees (on a solicitor and client basis), debt collection costs and any other expenses incurred in recovering the debt.

9. Trust Account

(a) We operate a trust account for holding money received from you or on your behalf. Any funds we receive will be held in our trust account until they are applied or paid out in accordance with your instructions and our legal and professional obligations.

(b) To protect your funds and comply with anti-money laundering, fraud prevention and other legal requirements, we may need to verify your identity, the source of funds, the purpose of the transaction, and the bank account details of you or any person receiving funds from our trust account. We may ask for documents or information that we reasonably require before receiving, holding, transferring or releasing funds.

(c) We may refuse, delay or place conditions on receiving, holding or paying funds where:

(i) Required identity, verification or other information has not been provided;

(ii) Payment instructions cannot be satisfactorily verified;

(iii) We are unable to meet our anti-money laundering or other regulatory obligations; or

(iv) We identify legal, regulatory, compliance, fraud, cybersecurity or other material risks.

(d) We will not be responsible for any delay caused by taking reasonable steps to verify instructions, protect client funds, or comply with our legal, regulatory and professional obligations.

(e) We keep complete records of all trust account transactions. We will provide information about funds held on your behalf on request and will report to you on trust monies held for you at least annually where required.

(f) Where permitted, funds held in trust may be placed on call deposit or term deposit with a registered bank. We will obtain your written authority before placing funds on term deposit. Any interest earned will be credited to you after deducting any applicable withholding tax and our interest collection commission. Funds held in our trust account that are not invested do not earn interest.

10. Confidentiality and Privacy

(a) We will keep information relating to you and your matter confidential. We will not disclose confidential information obtained through our work for you except where disclosure is permitted or required by law, our professional obligations, or these Terms. Our confidentiality obligations do not apply to information that is already publicly available, other than as a result of any act or omission by us.

(b) If a matter we are acting on for you becomes publicly known, we may refer to our involvement in that matter in our marketing materials, announcements, submissions, legal directories, award submissions, tenders, and similar communications. We will not disclose any confidential information or details about the matter without your consent, unless those details are already publicly available.

(c) We collect, use, store and disclose personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you and request that we correct it if it is inaccurate. For more information about how we handle your personal information, please see our Privacy Policy.

(d) To manage your matter efficiently, we use secure electronic practice, document, and client management systems.

(e) Your files and data are stored digitally, either in our secure on-premises data centre or with trusted third-party cloud service providers located in New Zealand or overseas. Where information is stored overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is protected appropriately.

(f) We may use firm-approved digital tools to support the delivery of our services, and will do so in accordance with our confidentiality, privacy, professional, and information-security obligations.

(g) If you have questions about how we manage your personal or confidential information, please contact the partner responsible for your matter or our Managing Partner.

11. Documents, Copyright and File Retention

(a) We will provide you with the documents prepared for you as part of our engagement with you. We retain ownership of our internal working documents, records and materials that we create for our own use in providing our services.

(b) We own the copyright in the documents and materials we create for your matter. This means we own the legal rights in those materials, but we give you permission to use and copy them for the purpose for which they were created.

(c) You may not allow another person or organisation to copy, adapt, distribute or use those documents without our prior written consent.

(d) We will normally retain a digital copy of your file for at least seven years after your matter is completed, or longer where required by law, our professional obligations or our records policy.

(e) We may securely delete the digital file after the retention period described above without further notice.

(f) If we agree to hold an important original document for safekeeping, such as a will, enduring power of attorney or deed, we may retain it for as long as it remains legally effective or until it is released in accordance with your instructions and our procedures.

12. Ending the Engagement

(a) Our relationship with you is based on trust and confidence. You may end our engagement at any time by giving us notice in writing.

(b) We may stop acting for you or end our engagement for good reason, in line with the NZLS Rules. This includes circumstances such as:

(i) A conflict of interest arises;

(ii) The relationship of trust and confidence breaks down;

(iii) Invoices or requested advance payments remain unpaid;

(iv) You fail to provide us with necessary instructions; or

(v) We are required to stop acting under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 or other laws.

(c) If our engagement ends, you must pay our fees and disbursements for all work carried out up to the date of termination.

(d) Once the relationship ends, we have no further obligation to advise you, update you on any matters, or provide further services (including notifying you of any future changes in the law or relevant deadlines).

(e) We are entitled to retain your files and documents until all outstanding invoices are paid in full.

13. Insurance

We hold professional indemnity insurance to help protect our clients and our firm. Our insurance cover exceeds the minimum standards required by the New Zealand Law Society. Information about those minimum standards is available from us on request.

14. Lawyers’ Fidelity Fund

(a) The New Zealand Law Society maintains a Lawyers’ Fidelity Fund, which is a fund that may compensate clients in limited cases where a lawyer steals or misuses client money. If a claim is accepted, the maximum compensation available is NZ$100,000 per claimant.

(b) However, this protection is limited. In most cases, the Fidelity Fund does not cover losses arising from investments made by a lawyer on a client’s behalf, except in certain circumstances provided for under the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006.

15. Limitation of Liability

(a) To the extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any loss, damage, cost or expense arising out of or in connection with any matter, or series of related matters, is limited to the greater of:

(i) The amount recoverable under our professional indemnity insurance, up to a maximum of NZ$20,000,000 (inclusive of interest and costs); or

(ii) NZ$2,000,000, or, if lower, five times the fees we have charged for the matter (excluding office service fees, disbursements and GST).

(b) This limit applies whatever legal basis is used for the claim, including contract, negligence, equity, statute or otherwise.

16. Feedback and Complaints

(a) If you would like to comment on any aspect of the service provided by us, including how we can improve our service, please contact the Partner responsible for your business.

(b) If you have any concerns or are unhappy with any aspect of our services, please raise the issue as soon as possible with the person handling your matter so that we can try to resolve it promptly.

(c) If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may raise the matter with the Partner responsible for your work or with our Managing Partner. We will consider your concerns carefully and work with you to reach a fair resolution. We will provide our response in writing.

(d) If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to make a complaint to the New Zealand Law Society’s independent complaints service. You can contact the service for guidance, to lodge a concern or make a complaint by calling 0800 261 801 or by emailing complaints@lawsociety.org.nz.

New Zealand Law Society Client Care and Service Information

Whatever legal services your lawyer is providing, he or she must:

1. act competently, in a timely way, and in accordance with any arrangements made;
2. protect and promote your interests and act for you free from compromising influences or loyalties;
3. discuss with you your objectives and how they should best be achieved;
4. provide you with information about the work to be done, who will do it and the way the services will be provided;
5. charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable and let you know when you will be billed;
6. give you clear information and advice;
7. protect your privacy and ensure appropriate confidentiality;
8. treat you fairly, respectfully and without discrimination;
9. keep you informed about the work being done and advise you when it is completed; and
10. 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 New Zealand Law Society’s 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.