Corvus Legal
Terms of Engagement
General
These Standard Terms of Engagement (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 exclusive jurisdiction.
Services
The services we are to provide for you are outlined in our letter of engagement.
The services that we provide are based on a time and attendance model unless expressly agreed otherwise, and are not based on outcome achieved for you/on your behalf.
Contact Details
You agree to provide us with your full contact details at our first meeting, including your email address, postal address and telephone numbers, as well as a copy of your photo ID if requested to do so. If these contact details change at any time during the period in which we are acting for you, you will notify us of your new details.
Invoices and other correspondence that we send to you will be considered to be sent and delivered if sent in accordance with your current details on our file.
We 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
The basis upon which we will charge our fees is set out in our engagement letter. GST (if any) is payable by you on our fees and charges.
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 of the agreed scope and, if requested, give you an estimate of the likely amount of the further costs.
Where our fees are calculated on an hourly basis, the hourly rates are set out in our engagement letter. Time spent is recorded in six-minute units.
Disbursements and Expenses
In providing services we may incur disbursements and payments to third parties on your behalf. You authorise us to incur these disbursements (which may include such items such as search fees, court filing fees, registration fees and travel and courier charges) which are reasonably necessary to provide services to you. You also authorise us to make payments to third parties on your behalf which are reasonably required in providing services to you (which may include items such as experts’ costs or counsel’s fees). These will be included in our invoice to you, shown as “disbursements” when the expenses are incurred (or in advance when we know we will be incurring them on your behalf).
In addition to disbursements, we may charge a fee of $20.00 to cover out of pocket costs which are not included in our fee and which are not recorded as disbursements. These include items such as photocopying and printing, postage and phone calls.
Legal Aid
We are happy to consider making an application for Legal Aid in relation to the services provided to you, provided that your matter is one for which you can receive Legal Aid.
We are not obliged to apply for Legal Aid and reserve our right not to make an application on your behalf, if we consider that your matter is too complex or it is inappropriate in our sole discretion to conduct the matter under a grant of Legal Aid. We will discuss this in full with you when we meet.
Any grant of Legal Aid made to you is subject to the terms and conditions as set out in the Legal Aid application form, and as found online at www.justice.govt.nz.
If an application for Legal Aid is declined, revoked, or if you do not comply with the terms and conditions of your grant of Legal Aid, then you agree to be bound by the payment terms as set out above and below. You also acknowledge that you will be invoiced at our private rates (or such other rate agreed in writing) in relation to any work done on your behalf.
Invoices
We will send interim invoices to you, usually monthly, and on completion of the matter, or termination of our engagement. We may send you invoices more frequently when we incur a significant expense or undertake a significant amount of work over a shorter period of time.
Payment
Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of the invoice unless alternative arrangements have been made with us.
If you have difficulty in paying any of our accounts, please contact us promptly so that we may discuss payment arrangements.
Overdue Accounts
If your account is not paid within 14 days of the invoice, then it is considered overdue.
Should an account become overdue, we may:
stop work on any matters in respect of which we are providing services to you until payment is made in full; or
recover from you in full any costs we incur (including on a solicitor/client basis) in seeking to recover the amounts from you, including our own fees and the fees of any collection agency.
Feedback and Disputes
Client satisfaction is one of our primary objectives and feedback from clients is helpful to us. If you would like to comment on any aspect of the service provided by us, including how we can improve our service, please contact our Principal Craig Foster to discuss this further.
If you have any concerns about our services (including fees), please raise them as soon as possible with us. We will respond to you in writing as soon as possible.
If you are not satisfied with the way that your query has been addressed, please contact us so that a meeting can be arranged at a mutually agreeable time and place for a discussion about your concerns. We 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 we 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:
Lawyers Complaints Service
PO Box 5041
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
Confidentiality and Personal Information
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 to the extent necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions; or to the extent required by law or by the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006, including the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
Documents, Records and Information
We will keep a record of all important documents which we receive or create on your behalf on the following basis, including keeping a record electronically and destroying originals (except where the existence of an original is legally important such as in the case of wills and deeds).
Unless you instruct us in writing otherwise, you authorise us and consent to us (without further reference to you) to destroy (or delete in the case of electronic records) all files and documents in respect of your matters (other than any documents that we hold in safe custody for you or are otherwise obliged by law to retain for longer) for 7 years after our engagement ends.
We may retain documents for longer at our discretion or if in your interests to do so, such as Wills instructions or Enduring Powers of Attorney files.
Compliance
We are obliged to comply with all laws applicable to us in all jurisdictions, including (but not limited to):
Anti-money laundering (AML) and countering financing of terrorism (CFT) laws; and
Laws relating to tax and client reporting and withholdings.
We may be required to undertake customer due diligence on you, persons acting on your behalf and other relevant persons such as beneficial owners and controlling persons. We may not be able to begin acting, or to continue acting, for you until that is completed.
Conflicts of Interest
We have procedures in place to identify and respond to conflicts of interest or potential 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 Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers. This may mean we cannot act for you further in a particular matter and we may terminate our engagement.
Duty of Care
Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person. We do not accept any responsibility or liability whatsoever to any third parties who may rely on any advice we give, except as expressly agreed by us in writing.
Our advice is opinion only, based on the facts known to us and on our professional judgement, and is subject to any changes in the law after the date on which the advice is given. We are not liable for errors in, or omissions from, any information provided by third parties.
Our advice relates only to each particular matter in respect of which you engage us. Once that matter is at an end, we 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.