1. General
1.1 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.
1.2 You authorise us to represent you, and to obtain information (including personal information where relevant) in relation to the matters you instructed us on.
2. Services
2.1 We are specialists in employment law, employment dispute resolution, and aspects of education and human rights law. We ordinarily provide services in these fields only. Details of our qualifications and experience are shown on our website www.flemingsingletonlaw.co.nz. Matters outside our expertise may need to be referred to another lawyer. Any such referral would be made in discussion with you.
2.2 Either David Fleming or Keziah Singleton will be responsible for the work done on your behalf. In order to provide the most cost-effective service, appropriate tasks may be delegated to a law clerk or administrator working under close supervision.
3. Communications
3.1 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.
3.2 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.
4. Financial
4.1 Fixed rate for reviewing documents and first meeting: To review documents relevant to your situation, meet with you for up to 1 hour, and advise on your options, we charge a discounted fixed fee which is agreed with you before the meeting.
4.2 Basis of billing after first meeting: standard billing is based on time spent working on your file, at the agreed hourly rates. Time spent is recorded in three-minute units. As an alternative to standard billing, we may agree to undertake work on a different basis such as a fixed fee for specified services. Any variation to standard billing will be recorded in writing.
4.3 Other charges: We do not charge an administration fee. We will charge you for disbursements made on your behalf. These may include court or tribunal filing fees, the costs of printing and binding large documents, courier charges, and fees for special services such as transcription of sound files or the engagement of third-party experts. You authorise us to incur disbursements which are reasonably necessary. You also authorise us to make payments to third parties on your behalf for these disbursements. 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).
4.4 GST: Our services will usually attract Goods and Services Tax (GST). If this is the case, GST is payable by you on our fees and charges.
4.5 Invoices: We will send invoices to you at the beginning of each month, for work done in the previous month. 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. We will send you a final invoice on completion of the matter, or termination of our engagement.
4.6 Payment: Invoices are payable within 7 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us.
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- You authorise us to deduct our fees and other expenses from funds held in our trust account on your behalf on provision of an invoice to you, unless those funds are held for a particular purpose.
- If you have difficulty in paying any of our accounts, please contact us as soon as possible, and before the due date of the invoice, so that we may discuss payment arrangements.
- If your account is overdue we may:
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- require interest to be paid on any amount which is more than 14 days overdue, calculated using the Ministry of Justice Civil Debt Interest Calculator;
- stop work on any matters in respect of which we are providing services to you;
- require an additional payment of fees in advance or other security before recommencing work;
- recover from you in full any costs we incur in seeking to recover the amounts from you, including our own fees and the fees of any debt collection agency.
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- Payment may be made by bank transfer or by credit card. If you pay by credit card, processing fees may be added to your total payable
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4.7 Fees and 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. We may agree to take your pre-payment in instalments, by direct debit. If you use this facility, processing fees may be added to your total payable.
4.8 Estimates: We will provide an estimate of likely costs for work to be done, upon request. An estimate is not a quote. We will inform you if we are likely to exceed the estimate by any substantial amount.
4.9 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, you remain responsible for payment to us in accordance with these Terms if the third party fails to pay us.
4.10 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.
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- Payments out of the trust account will be made either to you, or to us in payment of our invoices, or to others with your authority. Written authorisation from 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.
- A full record of our trust account is kept at all times. A 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.
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5. Legal Aid
5.1 If you are on a low income and have few assets you may be eligible for legal aid. We are registered legal aid providers. Legal aid work is charged according to schedules set by the Ministry of Justice. If you think you may be eligible for legal aid, it is important you tell us as soon as possible.
5.2 We can only accommodate a fixed number of legal aid clients at any one time. Even if you are eligible for legal aid, if we are at capacity for legal aid clients we will only be able to represent you on a standard billing basis.
6. Confidentiality and Disclosure
6.1 Confidence: 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:
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- to the extent necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions; or
- as expressly or impliedly agreed by you; or
- as necessary to protect our interests in respect of any complaint or dispute; or
- to the extent required or permitted by law.
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6.2 Disclosure: 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.
6.3 We will not disclose to you confidential information which we hold in relation to any other client. Aside from this, any information we receive that is material to your matter will be disclosed to you.
6.4 We share office premises with a barrister, Catherine Stewart, who also practices in employment law. We have procedures in place to ensure that sharing the office space does not give rise to any confidentiality issues.
6.5 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.
6.6 We are required to undertake customer due diligence on you, persons acting on your behalf and other relevant persons. You agree to supply us with proof of identity, address and bank account before we commence work on your behalf. Depending on your situation, other information may be required. We may not be able to begin acting, or to continue acting, for you until customer due diligence is completed.
6.7 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 that we have provided that information.
6.8 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
7. Documents, Records and Information
7.1 We will keep a record of all important documents which we receive or create on your behalf on the following basis:
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- We may keep a record electronically and destroy originals (except where the existence of an original is legally important).
- 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.
- Where you have requested that we provide documents to you or to another person and we have done so, we are not required to retain copies although we are entitled to retain copies for our own records if we wish to do so.
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7.2 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 1993 or any other law. We may charge you our reasonable costs for doing this.
7.3 You authorise us (without further reference to you) to destroy all files and documents for a matter (other than any documents that we hold in safe custody for you) 7 years after our engagement ends, or earlier, if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format.
7.4 We own copyright in all documents or work we create in the course of performing the Services but grant you a non-exclusive licence 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.
8. Conflicts of Interest
8.1 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 Rules of conduct and client care for lawyers.
9. Standards of client care
9.1 The New Zealand Law Society has implemented standards of client care and service for your benefit. Information from the Society about this has been supplied to you also with these terms of engagement.
10. Limitations on our Obligations or Liability
10.1 We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets or exceeds the minimum standards specified by the Law Society. To the extent allowed by law, our aggregate liability to 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.
11. Termination
11.1 You may terminate our retainer at any time.
11.2 We may terminate our retainer in any of the circumstances set out in the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
11.3 If our retainer is terminated you must pay us all fees, disbursements and expenses incurred up to the date of termination.
12. Feedback and Complaints
12.1 If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We will consider your complaint and respond to it within 14 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, we will pass on your complaint to an independent lawyer for review.
12.2 If you are still not satisfied with our response to your complaint, or if you feel you cannot raise it with us, contact the New Zealand Law Society. You can find information about how to make a complaint through the New Zealand Law Society at www.lawsociety.org.nz.
