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1.
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Services
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1.1
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The particular legal services we will provide for you are
outlined in our engagement letter.
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1.2
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We are committed to delivering a service that is consistent and
prompt and which includes:
- Having Partners available to you.
- Helping you achieve your objectives.
- Communicating well.
- Giving pragmatic commercial advice.
- Responding quickly.
- Understanding your business or affairs.
- Having excellent legal skills.
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1.3
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You can help us by:
- Giving clear instructions.
- Discussing any time constraints.
- Telling us if we are not meeting your expectations.
- Providing information to us quickly.
- Asking if you are uncertain of anything.
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1.4
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We will:
- Confirm your initial instructions in a letter of
engagement.
- Tell you the name and status of the person or persons who will
be carrying out the work.
- Provide you with an Information for Clients form
detailing your rights.
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1.5
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In providing conveyancing services to you, we do not carry out
valuations of property or business, and, whilst we will advise you
in relation to the property or business, we are not responsible for
determining whether the property or business meets your needs or
investment profile. We recommend that you consult a suitably
qualified professional such as a Registered Valuer, Financial
Adviser and/or Accountant in relation to these issues.
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1.6
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We do not provide investment advice in respect to financial
products other than bank deposits. Again, we recommend you obtain
appropriate advice from a suitably qualified Financial Adviser or
Accountant in relation to financial products.
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2.0
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Financial Matters
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2.1
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Fees
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2.1.1
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The fees that we will charge or the manner in which they will be
arrived at are set out in our letter of engagement. Our fees are
calculated by reference to guidelines laid down by the New Zealand
Law Society. We are entitled to take account of such matters
as:
- The time spent.
- The skill, knowledge and responsibility required.
- The value of the property involved.
- The complexity, novelty, importance and urgency of the
matter.
- The reasonable costs of running a law practice.
- The result.
The relative importance of these factors will vary according to
the particular circumstances.
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2.1.2
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If our engagement letter includes an estimate of our fees, we
will advise you as soon as reasonably practicable if it appears
likely that our fees are going to exceed that estimate. Unless
specifically agreed by us in writing any estimate of our fees and
expenses does not amount to a quote and our fees and expenses may
exceed that estimate.
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2.1.3
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If our letter of engagement specifies a fixed fee we will charge
this for the agreed scope of our services. 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 fees.
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2.1.4
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Where our fees are calculated on an hourly basis only, the
hourly rates will be set out in our engagement letter. The
differences in those rates reflect the experience and
specialisation of our professional staff. Time spent is recorded in
six minute units with time rounded up to the next unit of six
minutes.
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2.2
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Disbursements and expenses: In providing our
services to you we may incur disbursements on your behalf such as
land registration fees, valuation fees, court filing fees or other
expenses payable to third parties. We will generally ask you to
make advance payments to us to cover these disbursements and
expenses. These payments will be detailed in our invoice to
you.
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2.3
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Services of Other Consultants: Where it is
necessary for us to engage the services of other consultants on
your behalf to provide specialist advice or services, including
advocacy services, we will discuss the terms of any consultant?s
engagement with you. In general we will require payment of any
consultant?s fees prior to our instructing them.
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2.4
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GST (if any): Is payable by you on our fees and
expenses.
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2.5
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Invoices: For ongoing matters we will send
interim invoices to you (usually monthly) and a final invoice on
completion of the matter or on termination of our engagement. We
may also send you an invoice when we incur any significant third
party expenses on your behalf. Where a transaction will be
completed within a short time we will send you an account prior to
or on completion of that transaction.
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2.6
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Payment: Other than for property related
transactions where payment is generally required on settlement, we
require payment of all accounts within 14 days of the date of our
invoice. We may require interest to be paid on any amount that is
more than seven days overdue. Interest will be calculated at 15%
per annum. Other action to recover unpaid fees may also be taken
and the cost of such recovery may be added to the amount due by
you. We may deduct any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we
have provided an invoice from any funds held in our trust account
on your behalf.
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2.7
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Security: We may ask you to pay an amount into
our trust account or to provide other security for our fees and
other expenses. By accepting these Terms you authorise us to draw
on that money to pay our fees and other expenses as they become
due. These will be included in our invoice to you.
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2.8
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Third Parties: It is possible that a court or
tribunal may make an order that you pay another party?s costs and
expenses. Payment of those costs is additional. It does not alter
your liability to pay any costs and expenses payable to us. If your
costs are due to be reimbursed by a third party (e.g. the costs of
preparing a lease) you will remain responsible for payment to us if
that third party fails to pay those costs.
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2.9
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Trust Account: We maintain a trust account for
all funds which we receive from or on behalf of clients (except
monies received for payment of our invoices). If we are holding
significant funds on your behalf 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. You
will need to supply us with your IRD number so we can ensure that
resident withholding tax is deducted at the correct rate.
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3
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Your Satisfaction
Your satisfaction is very important to us. We have a procedure for
dealing with any matters of concern. Further detail is contained in
our Information for Clients form.
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4
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Termination
You may terminate your instructions to us upon giving us reasonable
notice in writing. We may terminate our retainer in certain
circumstances including where you cannot or will not provide
instructions to us or where you do not pay our fees and expenses
when due. In either case you must pay our fees and expenses up to
the date of termination.
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5
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Retention of Files and Documents
Any original documents that we are holding on your behalf will be
filed in our secure deeds room but we will forward your completed
file to a reputable secure document storage company who will hold
it (or an electronic copy of it) for seven years following which it
will be destroyed. You can arrange to collect your file from us
upon completion of any matter but in all cases we are entitled to
retain possession of your files and deeds while there is money
owing to us for our fees and expenses.
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6
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Accepting these Terms
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 and the most
current Terms will be available on our website. If you do not
notify us to the contrary, you will be deemed to have retained us
on the basis of such Terms except to the extent that we agree
otherwise with you in writing.
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7
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Meritas ? Our International Links
Martelli McKegg Wells & Cormack is a member of Meritas, a
network of nearly 200 independent commercial law firms, located in
major cities throughout the world. While Meritas members are not
engaged in the joint practice of law and do not share fees among
themselves, membership in Meritas gives us, and our clients,
important access to competent, legal resources in other
jurisdictions and specialty areas of practice so that our clients?
needs for legal services can be handled efficiently virtually
anywhere. While we will only work alongside and utilise the
services of another Meritas firm in this matter with your express
knowledge and consent, we want you to be aware of Meritas and its
possible benefits to you. Further information about Meritas can be
obtained at the organisation's web site:
www.meritas.org.
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