At Bramwell Bate Limited we continually strive to provide our clients with the best possible service, ensuring a superior relationship between lawyer and client. These Terms and Conditions (“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. We will take your continued instructions as your acceptance of these terms, so please ask if you have any questions about them.
1.1 The services which we are to provide for you are outlined in our Letter of Engagement.
1.2 Unless specifically included in our Letter of Engagement, our services exclude taxation advice, investment advice and advice involving the laws of other countries.
1.3 While we will make every effort to draw your attention to impending expiry dates such as PPSR registrations, leases etc. dealing with such expiry situations remains the sole responsibility of the client.
Unless otherwise informed, we can accept instructions from:
a) Directors, employees, or authorised persons (for companies),
b) Trustees or officers (for trusts),
c) Partners or officers (for partnerships),
d) Either partner (for couples).
3.1 We are required to ask you provide us with documents verifying your identity even if we have acted for you previously.
3.2 We are obliged to comply with all laws including AML/CFT and tax regulations.
3.3 We will 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 will not be able to begin acting, or to continue acting, for you until that is completed.
3.4 We may be required to provide information about you, persons acting on your behalf or other relevant persons, to government agencies without notice. By engaging us, you are aware of and consent to this.
3.5 By engaging with us you consent to your information being shared with and used by electronic based services provided by a third party to verify your identity and conduct the due diligence required under the AML/CFT Act. The third party may confirm your documents with the document issuer, the official record holder, a credit bureau and authorised third parties for the purpose of verifying your identity and address. When such services are used, the third party may also hold information on its systems for the necessary due diligence service to be provided.
4.1 We have the following duties when providing legal services to you:
a) To act competently, in a timely way, and in accordance with instructions received and arrangements made.
b) To protect and promote your interests and act for you free from compromising influences or loyalties.
c) To discuss your objectives with you and how they should best be achieved.
d) To provide you with information about the work to be done, who will do it and the way the services will be provided.
e) To charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable and let you know how and when you will be billed (see below).
f) To give you clear information and advice.
g) To protect your privacy and ensure appropriate confidentiality.
h) To treat you fairly, respectfully and without discrimination.
i) To keep you informed about the work being done and advise you when it is completed.
j) To let you know how to make a complaint and deal with any complaint promptly and fairly.
4.2 The obligations lawyers owe to clients are fully 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.
4.3 If you have any questions or wish to make a complaint, please visit www.lawsociety.org.nz or call 0800 261 801.
We will ensure that our fees are fair and reasonable based on the following factors:
a) the time and labour expended by us;
b) the skill, specialised knowledge, and responsibility required for us to perform the services properly;
c) the importance of the matter to you and the results achieved;
d) the urgency and circumstances in which the matter is undertaken and any time limitations imposed by you;
e) the complexity of the matter and the difficulty or novelty of the questions involved;
f) the degree of risk assumed by us in undertaking the services, including the amount or value of any property involved;
g) the experience, reputation, and ability of the people performing the services;
h) the possibility that the acceptance of this matter will preclude us from acting for other clients with conflicting interests;
i) whether the fee is fixed or conditional;
j) any quote or estimate that we have provided;
k) any fee agreement between us and you; and
l) any other relevant circumstances.
To ensure the fees we charge are fair and reasonable in relation to the work we provide, we review our rates annually and adjust these as necessary. These adjustments will be provided in writing if they occur during our term of engagement with you.
We may charge disbursements incurred on your behalf. These include property title searches, companies office fees for filing of annual returns, court filing fees, land registry fees for a discharge of mortgage or transfer of title, and travel costs.
We will charge a fee of up to $90.00 to cover out of pocket expenses (eg photocopying, courier, postage) which are not included in our fee. The amount charged by way of Office Expenses may change from time to time and without notice.
GST is payable by you on our fees and charges, unless your situation qualifies for GST being exempt or zero-rated.
Legal Aid is governed by the Legal Services Act 2011 and the associated regulations. Legal Aid is administered through the Ministry of Justice by the Legal Services Commissioner. We will submit invoices in relation to your grant of aid to the Legal Services Commissioner and provide you with copies. The Legal Services Commissioner will write to you about any conditions including repayment obligations that you may have in relation to the grant of legal aid and your rights as an applicant or recipient of legal aid. You should read the letters you receive from the Ministry of Justice carefully and keep them for later reference. You must let the Legal Services Commissioner know if there is any change in your and your partner’s contact details, employment status, family circumstances or financial details. Assuming you receive a grant of legal aid you should note that upon signing the declaration contained in the Application for Legal Aid you are bound by the terms and conditions dictated by the Ministry of Justice. This means that it is your responsibility to be aware of and fulfil all obligations placed on you in respect of your grant of legal aid. At the end of your matter, Legal Aid will determine your final repayment amount. You may then apply to write all or part of your Legal Aid debt off if you wish. Please note that if you are applying for legal aid, no work will begin until your grant is approved. If your grant is not approved, then you will be responsible to pay for any time incurred at our usual hourly rates.
To assist you with your planning we will issue interim invoices, either monthly or at certain stages of the matter while work is in progress, with a final invoice on completion of the matter or on termination of our engagement. We may also send you an invoice to obtain reimbursement for a significant expense incurred on your behalf.
Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of the invoice. Payment options include:
(a) Online via our payment page https://www.bramwellbate.co.nz/payments/
(b) EFT-POS or credit card (Visa or MasterCard accepted) at our office
(c) Direct Credit to our Bramwell Bate Ltd – Trust Account at ANZ Hastings, account number 06-0507-0871809-02 quoting your client matter reference shown at the top of your invoice.
13.1 If you are anticipating having difficulty paying an invoice on time, please immediately contact either the Bramwell Bate Lawyer who sent you the invoice or our General Manager. Interest of 15% per annum (compounding monthly) may be charged from the date on which payment was due on any invoice remaining unpaid, unless prior arrangements have been made. If enforcement is required to collect debt, you will be responsible for any debt collection cost that we incur in recovering outstanding amounts from you. If you do not pay our fees and disbursements as they fall due, you may be liable for our costs, expenses and charges (including legal costs on a lawyer / client basis) that are incurred by us in collection of our fees and disbursements.
13.2 If payment of our fees is overdue, we may retain custody of any of your property (including documents or files) until all fees are paid.
If you are a company or other incorporated entity we reserve the right to seek appropriate personal guarantees in respect of our fees and expenses.
15.1 We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses. You authorise and instruct us to debit against amounts pre-paid by you.
15.2 We may deduct our fees, expenses or disbursements from funds held in our Trust Account on your behalf for which we have provided an invoice.
We reserve the right to cease work if payment due on any invoice remains unpaid after the due date unless prior arrangements have been made. If your invoice remains outstanding and no appropriate arrangements are made within a further seven (7) days from the due date, we reserve the right to terminate the retainer in accordance with the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
By engaging us you will authorise us to carry out reasonable credit enquiries and you authorise anyone we contact to provide to us information about you that we reasonably request as part of our credit enquiries. You also authorise us to provide information on any amount owed to us which is overdue for payment, to credit agencies.
Although you may expect to be reimbursed by a third party for our fees and expenses, you remain responsible for payment to us if the third party fails to pay us.
19.1 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:
a) to the extent necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions;
b) to the extent required by law or by the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers; or
c) Unless disclosure is otherwise permitted by these terms.
19.2 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.
19.3 We will not disclose confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.
20.1 You may terminate our retainer at any time.
20.2 We may terminate our retainer in accordance with the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
20.3 If our retainer is terminated you must pay us all fees and expenses due up to the date of termination.
21.1 We will keep a record of all important documents which we receive or create on your behalf on the following basis:
a) At the end of our engagement, any paper file will be scanned and stored electronically. Other than documents we hold in safe custody for you eg. Wills, paper files are destroyed.
b) Where we have retained a paper file, you authorise us and consent to us (without further reference to you) to destroy all files and documents in respect of the services six 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).
c) You authorise us and consent to us deleting all electronic files and documents ten 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).
21.2 We will provide documents or files to you only after you have paid all our invoices on all matters and all of the costs associated with the provision of the documents, including the cost of any reasonably necessary review of the documents on a time and attendance basis.
21.3 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.
21.4 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 shall retain the copyright in any unique document we prepare on your behalf using our legal expertise.
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.
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.
25.1 We maintain a trust account for all funds that we receive from 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 gross interest derived.
25.2 In respect of New Zealand residents, Resident Withholding Tax (RWT) will be deducted and paid to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) on the interest you earn in accordance with current tax legislation. If we do not have your IRD number tax will be deducted at the default rate. Individuals or couples may provide us their IRD number(s) and nominate a rate at which withholding tax will be deducted. Impersonal entities for which we hold an IRD number will have tax deducted at the default rate unless we have received a copy of a valid certificate of exemption. For overseas clients, Non-Resident Withholding Tax will be deducted and paid to IRD at the legally designated rate.
We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets the minimum standards specified by the Law Society. We will provide you with particulars of the minimum standards upon request.
To the extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability to you (or any other persons) in connection with any matter (or series of related matters) on which you engage us is limited to the amount available to be paid out for that liability under any relevant insurance held by us, up to a maximum of NZ$5,400,000 (including interest or costs).
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 $100,000.00. 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.
29.1 We maintain a procedure for handling any complaints by clients, designed to ensure that a complaint is dealt with promptly and fairly.
29.2 Please contact us straight away if you have a question or unhappy with any aspect of our work. You may contact:
a) The Director responsible for your work; or
b) Our General Manager.
29.3 The New Zealand Law Society also maintains a complaints service and can be contacted by telephone on 0800 261 801.
30.1 These terms modify some of the duties owed by lawyers to their clients. We recommend that you seek independent legal advice before accepting them.
30.2 We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time.
30.3 Our relationship with you is governed by New Zealand law.
31.1 If we do not hear from you to the contrary by return mail, we will assume that you agree with all the above terms and will proceed accordingly.
31.2 Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns relating to any matters outlined in this letter. We value our relationship with you and encourage you to talk to us with any queries you may have.
31.3 We look forward to working with you.
September 2024