Client Care

Information For Clients

Our Commitment to You

We are committed to doing our best to ensure that your legal needs are met in this matter. We will:

Protect and promote your interests and act for you free from compromising influences or loyalties.
Discuss with you your objectives and how they should best be achieved.
Act competently, in a timely way, and in accordance with instructions received and arrangements made.
Provide you with information about the work to be done, who will do it and the way the services will be provided.
Protect your privacy and ensure appropriate confidentiality.
Treat you fairly, respectfully and without discrimination.
Give you clear information and advice.
Keep you informed about the work being done and advise you when it is completed.
Charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable and let you know how and when you will be billed.
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 the justice system. If you have any questions, please contact us on Tel: (03) 379 9705 or or the Law Society on 0800 261 801 or lawsociety.org.nz.

The Basis of Our Charges

Unless agreed otherwise our fees are based on the range of factors applied by the NZ Law Society, including time, expertise, importance, urgency and results achieved. Rates may change from time to time, and a full list of the rates of any lawyers working for you is available at any time. We also charge for disbursements (court fees, registrations, duties/levies etc) and travel expenses incurred on your behalf. These will be itemised separately, and we will notify you if any fees or disbursements need to be paid for in advance.

We are happy to discuss other fee arrangements that you may prefer, such as fixed fees, conditional fees and retainers.

Billing Arrangements

To help you budget we issue interim accounts, usually monthly, while work is in progress, with a final bill on completion. Current payment terms are set out on invoices from time to time, and unless otherwise stated are due for payment within 14 days. We may deduct from funds held on your behalf any fees, disbursements or expenses for which we have provided an invoice. If payment is not made on time, we reserve the right to charge interest on the outstanding amount at 12% per annum until payment is made, and charge you collection costs in respect of recovery and cease our work for you immediately.

Professional Indemnity Insurance & Fidelity Fund

We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets or exceeds standards specified by the Law Society. The Law Society maintains the Lawyers' Fidelity Fund for the purpose 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 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 a client.

Confidentiality

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:
1. to the extent necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions; or
2. 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 you confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.

Termination

You may terminate our retainer at any time.
We may terminate our retainer in any of the circumstances set out in the Law Society's Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
If our retainer is terminated you must pay us all fees due up to the date of termination and all expenses incurred up to that date.

Retention of Files and Documents

You authorise us (without further reference to you) to destroy all files and documents for this 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.

Conflicts 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.

Duty of Care

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.

Trust Account

We maintain a trust account for all funds which 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 interest derived.

Complaints

We maintain a procedure for handling any complaints by clients, designed to ensure that a complaint is dealt with promptly and fairly.

If you have a complaint about our services or charges, you may refer your complaint to the person in our firm who has overall responsibility for your work.

If you do not wish to refer your complaint to that person, or you are not satisfied with that person's response to your complaint, you may refer your complaint to Murray Withers - Principal.

He may be contacted as follows:

by letter to PO Box 13589 Christchurch 8141;
by email to ;
by telephoning Murray on (03) 379 9705.

The Law Society operates the Lawyers Complaints Service and, if you feel that your complaint with Murray Withers & Associates has not been resolved to your satisfaction through our internal complaints procedures, you are able to make a complaint to that service. To do so, you can also contact the NZ Law Society's Lawyers' Complaints Service, at 26 Waring Taylor Street, PO Box 5041, Wellington 6145, Tel (04) 472 7837 or (0800) 261 801, Fax (04) 473 7909.

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.