STANDARD TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT

Our standard terms and conditions apply whenever you engage Dixon & Co Lawyers to act for you and govern our relationship with you upon instructing our firm to act.

Sharing a handshake to agree on the standard terms of engagement

1. Our Agreement

These standard terms will apply whenever you engage Dixon & Co Lawyers to act for you, subject to any different or additional terms agreed to in writing. You accept and agree to these standard terms by continuing to engage us.  You also acknowledge that in accepting these terms, you agree that these terms shall apply to all related entities in which you have an interest and for whom we accept instructions.

2. Services

In order to provide you with efficient advice and services and to provide the most cost-effective service, it may be that part, or all of your instructions will be delegated to other professionals in our firm. We will provide you with the legal services as outlined in our Letter of Engagement, unless a conflict of interest or other factors prevent us from doing so. If this is the case, we will contact you immediately. Our duty of care is to you, and only you. Our advice may only be relied on by you as our client, and we accept no liability to any third party for advice given to you.

3. Who May Give Us Instructions?

Unless you notify us in writing:

    1. Where there is more than one of you, we may take instructions from any one of you;
    2. If you are a company, society or charitable organisation, we may take instructions from any person who acts as though he/she has authority to give us instructions. 

4. Duty Of Care

Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person.  We owe no liability to any other person, including for example any directors, shareholders, associated companies, employees or family members unless we expressly agree in writing. We do not accept any responsibility or liability whatsoever to any third parties who may be affected by our performance of the Services or who may rely on any advice we give, except as expressly agreed by us in writing.

Our advice is not to be referred to in connection with any prospectus, financial statement, or public document without our written consent.

Our advice is opinion only, based on the facts known to us and on our professional judgment, 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.

Unless otherwise agreed, we may communicate with you and with others by electronic means. We cannot guarantee that these communications will not be lost or affected for some reason beyond our reasonable control, and we will not be liable for any damage or loss caused thereby. 

If you are instructing us in the capacity of director or shareholder of a company, as settlor or trustee of a trust or executor/administrator of an estate then you will be personally and primarily liable to us for our fees and other costs, that is, whilst the company, trust or estate will also be liable for our fees and other costs we may require you to attend to payment in the first instance.

    5. Limitations On Our Obligations Or Liability

    To the extent allowed by law, our aggregate liability you (whether in contract, tort, equity or otherwise) in connection with our Services is limited to the amount available to be payable under the Professional Indemnity Insurance held by the firm.

    The terms on which we may cease work on your behalf (and instruct others to stop doing work) are set out our Standard Terms of Engagement.

    We will have no liability for any loss suffered by you when work is stopped for any of these reasons.

    Our liability for any claim, damages, loss or expense that you incur as a result of anything we have done, or not done in respect of the services we provide to you is limited in total to the sum of the fees we have charged to you, and you have paid to us, in respect of the services.

    We will not be liable for any loss of property or any loss of profits or any consequential indirect or special damage, loss or injury of any kind suffered by you or any other person, or any loss to the extent that it is caused by you, for example through your negligence or breach of contract.

      6. Communications

      We will obtain from you contact details, including email address, postal address, and telephone numbers. We may provide documents and other communications to you by email (or other electronic means). You will advise us if any of your contact details change.

      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. 

      You agree that we may provide you from time to time with other information that may be relevant to you, such as newsletters and information bulletins.  At any time, you may request that this not be sent to you.

        7. Financial

        Fees & Office Services Fees

        The fees Dixon & Co Lawyers will charge or the manner in which they will be arrived at are set out in our Letter of Engagement. If the Letter of Engagement 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.

          We will also take into account the principles of charging as established by the New Zealand Law Society which are:

          • Ethe skill, specialized knowledge and responsibility required to perform the work properly;
          • Ethe complexity of the work and the difficulty or novelty of the questions involved;
          • Eour experience, reputation, and ability;
          • Ethe urgency and circumstances in which the matter is undertaken, and any time limitations imposed, including those imposed by you;
          • Ethe importance of the matter to you and the results achieved;
          • Ethe degree of risk assumed by us in undertaking the work including the amount or value of any property involved;
          • Ethe fee customarily charged in the market and locality for similar legal services;
          • Ethe possibility that the acceptance of the particular retainer will preclude engagement of the lawyer by other clients;
          • Ewhether the fee is fixed or conditional;
          • Eany quote or estimate of fees given by the lawyer;
          • Eany fee agreement entered into between the lawyer and the client;
          • Eour reasonable costs in running our practice;and
          • Eour time and labour expended.

          You should therefore note that time taken is only one factor taken into account when invoicing a client.

          Where our fees are calculated on an hourly basis, the hourly rates are set out in our Letter of Engagement. Time spent is recorded in 6-minute units, with time rounded up to the next unit of 6 minutes.

          We may also charge an Office Services fee 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, file storage and phone calls.

          Where there are additional Conveyancing fees these will be set out in our Estimate of Charges, including but not limited to Kiwsaver Withdrawal Applications, Unit Titles, Cross Lease, Tenanted property.

          When we act for a client purchasing a property or business, we will require our tax invoice, which will list our fee, office services fee, GST and disbursements, to be paid on or before the day of settlement.

          Disbursements And Third-Party Expenses

          In providing services to you, 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. Invoices for disbursements can be provided upon request.

          GST

          Is payable by you on our fees and charges.

          Invoice

          We will send you an invoice of our fees, office services, disbursements, GST and expenses either;

            1. monthly while the work is in progress (interim invoice); and/or
            2. when the work is completed

          We may also send you an invoice when we incur a significant expense.

          Payment Of Invoices

          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.

          If your account is overdue, we may:

            1. charge interest on overdue invoices at a rate equal to that charged on ASB Visa cards from time to time per annum, calculated monthly. You will also be liable for any legal and debt collection costs that we incur in recovering, or attempting to recover, any overdue account from you;
            2. stop work on any matters in respect of which we are providing services to you;
            3. require an additional payment of fees in advance of other security before recommencing work.

          Payment may be made by depositing into our ASB bank account.

          Fees & Disbursements In Advance

          We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses.  We may do this, on reasonable notice, at any time. 

          Estimates

          You may request an estimate of our fee for undertaking the Services at any time. If possible, we will provide you with an estimate (which may be a range between a minimum and a maximum amount or for a particular task or step).  An estimate is not a quote.  Any significant assumptions included in the estimate will be stated and you must tell us if those assumptions are wrong or change.  We will inform you if we are likely to exceed the estimate by any substantial amount.  Unless specified, an estimate excludes GST, disbursements, and expenses.

          Trust Accounting

          We operate a trust account. All money received from you or on your behalf will be held to your credit in our trust account.

          • EPayments out of the trust account will be made either to you or to others with your authority. Written authorisation from you (and if we are acting for more than one of you, from all of you) will be required when payment is to be made to a third party. Before making a payment to another account we may require verification of the account details by the provision of (for example) a copy of a deposit slip cheque or bank statement showing the account number, a signed authority from you including the bank account details, or a signed letter from the relevant financial institution providing bank account details.
          • EA full record of our trust account is kept at all times.
          • EA statement of trust account transactions detailing funds received and payments made on your behalf will be provided to you periodically and at any time upon your request.
          • EIf you wish or expect us to place funds that we hold in our trust account on your behalf on interest-bearing deposit, please refer to our notes regarding FATCA/CRS obligations. Should you comply with these obligations and we put funds on an interest-bearing deposit for you, we will charge a Term Deposit Handling fee. The bank will deduct resident withholding tax on interest earned at the default rate unless you provide us with an IRD number.
          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.

          Legal Aid

          If you are granted legal aid, our fees are not payable by you and our fee terms will not apply to you. We will provide you with further information regarding your legal aid obligations.

          Settlement Money

          For property and financing transactions where payment of monies   is   due   by   you, we require cleared funds for the full amount to be deposited with us no later than the morning of settlement.

          8. Our Monitoring Obligations (AML/CFT) Verification Of Identity

          The Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2013 requires us to collect from you and to retain information required to verify your identity. We may therefore ask you to show us documents verifying your identity (such as a passport or driver’s license). We may retain copies of these documents.  We may perform such other customer verification checks as to your identity and checks as to the source of any funds associated with any transaction to which the Services relate as we consider to be required by law.

          We are required to comply with all laws binding on us in all applicable jurisdictions, including (but not limited to):

            1. AML/CFT – the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009
            2. We are deemed a Reporting Entity under the AML/CFT Act and therefore bound by the Act’s regulations.

          We will undertake customer due diligence, account monitoring and keep records and liaise with banks and other entities as required to comply with such laws. We will periodically request information and documents from you to ensure our compliance. These may relate to you, any other relevant person (e.g., any beneficial owner), the source of wealth, source of funds and any other relevant information. To ensure our compliance and yours, we may be required to provide information about you, persons acting on your behalf or other relevant persons to third parties (such as government agencies). There may be circumstances where we are not able to tell you or such persons if we do provide information.

          Please ensure that you and/or any of the persons described previously are aware of and consent to this. It is important to ensure that all information provided to us is accurate.

          If the information required is not provided, or considered by us to be potentially inaccurate, misleading, or in contravention of any law, we may terminate or refuse to enter into an engagement.

          We are required to and will report to the NZ Police Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in relation to all your matters on the following:

            1. All suspicious activities or transactions – Suspicious Activity Report;
            2. All international wire transfers / electronic transfers of funds equal to or above NZ$1,000.00 paid into or paid out of our trust account to/from a bank or financial institution outside of New Zealand – Prescribed Transaction Report (PTR).

          If we are required to file a PTR you will provide us with all information requested of you and we will charge you a $150 administration fee for each PTR we are required to file.

          If you cannot or will not provide us with all information requested or your activity is considered suspicious, we may, without notice, refuse to enter into a business relationship with you, terminate our business relationship with you, delay or refuse to process a transaction and report you to the relevant authorities.

          9. FATCA And AEOI/CRS

          We are required to comply with all laws binding on us in all applicable jurisdictions, including (but not limited to):

            1. FATCA – the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which is an intergovernmental agreement between the United States and New Zealand; and
            2. AEOI/CRS – Automatic Exchange of Information and Common Reporting Standard

          If we are holding significant funds on your behalf you acknowledge that it is only reasonable and practicable for us to lodge those funds on an interest-bearing deposit if we comply with FATCA and AEOIS/CRS requirements. To enable us to place these funds on interest-bearing deposit, you must first complete, sign, and return a self-certification form or forms to us to enable us to comply with our FATCA/CRS obligations.

            10. Confidentiality

            Personal information and Privacy: In our dealings with you we will collect and hold personal information about you. We will use that information to carry out the Services and to make contact with you about issues we believe may be of interest to you. Provision of personal information is voluntary but if you do not provide full information this may impact on our ability to provide the Services.

            Subject to the preceding clause, you authorise us to disclose, in the normal course of performing the Services, such personal information to third parties for the purpose of providing the Services and any other purposes set out in these Terms.

            We may disclose your name and address to third parties such as credit agencies to perform a credit reference or to undertake credit management or collection processes if it is reasonable to do so.

            The information we collect and hold about you will be kept at our offices and/or at secure file storage sites (including electronic file storage sites) elsewhere. If you are an individual, you have the right to access and correct this information. If you require access, please contact our Privacy Officer.

            We will hold, in confidence, all information concerning you or your affairs that we acquireduring 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. as expressly or impliedly agreed by you; or
              3. as necessary to protect our interests in respect of any complaint or disputes; or
              4. 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 your confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.

              11. Documents, Records & Information

              We will keep a record of all important documents which we receive or create on your behalf on the following basis:

                1. We may keep a record electronically and destroy originals (except where the existence of an original is legally important such as in the case of Wills and Deeds).
                2. At any time, we may dispose of documents which are duplicates, or which are trivial (such as emails which do not contain substantive information), or documents which belong to us.
                3. We are not obliged to retain documents or copies where you have requested that we provide them to you or to another person and we have done so, although we are entitled to retain copies for our own records if we wish to do so.

              We will provide to you on request copies or originals (at our option) of all documents to which you are entitled under the Privacy Act 2020 or any other law. We may charge you our reasonable costs for doing this.

              Where we hold documents that belong to a third party you will need to provide us with that party’s written authority to uplift or obtain a copy of that document.

              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 the Services (10 years after our engagement ends other than any documents that we hold in safe custody for you or are otherwise obliged by law to retain for longer). We may retain documents for longer at our option.

              We may, at our option, return documents (either in hard or electronic form) to you rather than retain them. If we choose to do this, we will do so at our expense. 

              We own the copyright in all documents or work we create in the course of performing the Services but grant you a non-exclusive license to use and copy the documents as you see fit for your own personal or commercial use. However, you may not permit any third party to copy, adapt or use the documents without our written permission and for disbursements and expenses incurred, up to the date of termination.

                12. Conflicts Of Interest

                We are obliged to protect and promote your interests to the exclusion of the interests of third parties and ourselves as set out in the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 (Rules). This may result in a situation arising where we have a conflict 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.

                  13. Termination

                  You may terminate this agreement in writing at any time.  If you do so, you will pay our fees, office services fees, disbursements and expenses that have been incurred up to the time of termination.

                  We may terminate our agreement if:

                    1. you cannot or will not provide us with the full instructions or information requested;
                    2. you do not pay our accounts on the due date;
                    3. you do not accept an offer of settlement that we think is reasonable;
                    4. you do not accept advice we, or a barrister, gives you; or
                    5. we, on reasonable grounds, believe that we may have a conflict of interest.

                  You will be required to pay our fees for work done.

                    14. Taxation & Accounting Advice

                    We recommend that you seek accounting and taxation advice from other professionals to complement our legal services.

                      15. Email Communication

                      We will usually communicate with you and others by email regarding the legal matter we are handling for you, unless you instruct us not to.

                      Our incoming email messages are scanned for content and viruses and are cleared by our email security. On rare occasions a legitimate email may be treated as suspicious and quarantined before its intended recipient at our firm reads it.

                      Electronic communications are not always secure and may be intercepted or corrupted (e.g., by means of a virus). However, we will take all reasonable precautions to ensure that those services and forms of communication are accurate, reliable, complete, confidential and secure but cannot warrant or guarantee that this is the case. We do not accept responsibility and will not be liable for any loss or damage caused in connection with, or as a consequence of, the corruption of an electronic service or communication.

                      We are entitled to reply upon the authenticity of electronic communications ostensible received from you.

                        16. 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.

                          17. Feedback & Complaints

                          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 the Solicitor responsible for your business or our HR – at (09) 6206240.

                          If you have any concerns or complaints about our services, please raise them as soon as possible with the person to whom they relate. They will respond to your concerns as soon as possible. If you are not satisfied with the way that that person has dealt with your complaint, please raise the matter with the Solicitor responsible for your business or with our HR, who is responsible for the internal complaints process.  We will inquire into your complaint and 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
                            Phone: 0800 261 801

                              To lodge a concern:
                              www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-the-community/lawyers-complaints-service/concerns-form

                              To make a formal complaint:
                              www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-the-community/lawyers-complaints-service/how-to-make-a-complaint

                              Email: complaints@lawsociety.org.nz

                              Customer Care & Service

                              The below contains information that the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 (NZLS Rules) require us to provide to you.

                              Our standard terms of engagement (Terms of Engagement) which (subject to any other agreement we make with you) govern our relationship with you should be read in conjunction with this information.

                              2. Information Required By NZLS Rules – Fees

                              We calculate our fees in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the New Zealand Law Society and take into account several factors having regard to the circumstances of the matter and the nature of our work for you. Payment of accounts is required within 14 days of the date of the invoice unless we have made other arrangements with you.  With your consent, we may deduct fees and expenses from funds held in our trust account on your behalf.

                              Further information about the basis on which fees are charged and when payment of fees is to be made are set out in our Terms of Engagement.

                              3. Insurance

                              We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets or exceeds the minimum standards set by the New Zealand Law Society.

                              4. Lawyers’ Fidelity Fund

                              The Law Society maintains the Lawyers’ Fidelity Fund for the purpose of providing clients of lawyers with protection against loss arising from theft by lawyers.  The maximum amount to an individual claimant is limited to $100,000.00. Except in certain circumstances specified in the Lawyers and 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.

                              5. Complaints

                              It is the policy of Dixon & Co Lawyers to investigate complaints and expressions of dissatisfaction fully and promptly. If you have a concern or complaint relating to the work being carried out for you, or a bill that you have been sent, you should raise this in the first instance with the solicitor dealing with the matter. If you feel uncomfortable talking to the solicitor in charge of your file, or you are not satisfied with their response, please contact the Principal.  The Principal will listen to what you have to say and enquire into the matter on your behalf while keeping you informed of the progress.  It is in everyone’s interest that your concerns are resolved in a timely manner. In the unlikely event that we are unable to resolve your concern, you can make a complaint to the Law Society complaints service.  To do so you need to contact the District Law Society:

                              Auckland District Law Society

                              PO Box 58
                              Auckland 1140
                              Telephone: (09) 303 5270
                              Fax: (09) 309 3726
                              Website: www.adls.org.nz

                              6. Customer Care & Service

                              The New Zealand Law Society’s client care and service information is set out below. 

                              We must:

                                1. act competently, in a timely way, and in accordance with instructions received and arrangements made;
                                2. protect and promote your interests and act;
                                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 in which the services will be provided;
                                5. charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable, and let you know how and 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;
                                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 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.

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