These are the terms that explain the relationship between us. They apply to all work carried out by us for all clients, unless otherwise agreed in writing. You do not need to sign anything – these terms will automatically commence when you give us instructions to act for you, which will constitute your acceptance.

1.     What we do
We will provide you with legal advice and representation relevant to your instructions. We do not provide financial, tax or investment advice. 

When we start working together, we will provide a Letter of Engagement which sets out the scope of work, the person with overall responsibility for your work and any specific arrangements we have around fees and invoicing.  

2.     How much it will cost
The basis upon which we will charge fees is set out in the letter of engagement.

3.     GST
We charge GST on our fees and any other charges. 

4.     Invoices
We will send you regular invoices throughout our engagement – usually every fortnight and will send a final invoice when the work is completed.

5.     Payment of invoices
Invoices are due for payment within 7 days unless we have agreed to other payment terms (we appreciate that some companies pay on the 20th of the month for example and can accommodate that).

If a third party is going to pay your invoice, you will remain responsible for payment – even if we agree to make the invoice out to them at your request.

6.     Overdue invoices
Please speak with us if there is an issue paying your invoice by the due date.

If an invoice is more than 7 days overdue, we will start charging interest at the rate of 5% per annum, compounding monthly.

If an invoice is more than 14 days overdue, we may commence debt recovery action against you. You will be liable for any collection costs we incur in pursuing the debt.

7.     Ending our relationship
You may terminate our retainer at any time. 

We may terminate our retainer in any of the circumstances set out in the Rules, including the existence of a conflict of interest, non-payment of fees, and failure to provide instructions.

If our retainer is terminated you must pay all fees, disbursements and expenses incurred up to the date of termination.

8.     Confidentiality
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: 

• to the extent necessary or desirable to enable me to carry out your instructions; or

• as expressly or impliedly agreed by you; or

• as necessary to protect our interests in respect of a complaint or dispute; or

• to the extent required or permitted by law.

Confidential information concerning you will as far as practicable be made available only to those within our firm who are providing legal services to you.

9.     Privacy
We will collect and hold personal information about you (and/or people associate with your organisation), which may include names, contact, and employment information. We collect this information in order to undertake work for you, carry out our instructions, contact you about issues that may be of interest to you and to comply with our legal obligations.

Information that we collect will be held electronically and will be accessible only to authorised staff. We use reasonable safeguards to protect information we hold.

Individuals have a right to ask for a copy of personal information we hold about them and can request the correction of any information they believe to be incorrect. If you would like to access or correct any information we hold about you, please contact us at admin@MDLawyers.co.nz or PO Box 1249, Hamilton 3240.

Verification of identity:
All law firms must comply with the requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML) for the purpose of keeping New Zealand safe from money launderers in addition to the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 1996. This 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 licence, a current bank statement, or rates demand, or utility bill to verify your address. While in many cases it may be self-explanatory, we may ask you more details information about the nature and purpose of your proposed relationship with us. We may retain copies of these documents. We may perform such other customer verification checks as to your identity and 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.

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

• 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).

• 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 me.

• We are not obliged to retain documents or copies where you have requested that we provide them to you or to another person and I have done so, although I am entitled to retain copies for my own records if I wish to do so.

We will provide to you on request copies or originals (at our choice) of all documents to which you are entitled under the Privacy Act 1993 or any other law. we may charge you reasonable costs for doing this.

11.  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.

12.  Intellectual property
We own all intellectual property that we create while working for you.  You cannot reproduce or share intellectual property without our permission. 

13.  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 or potential conflicts of interest.  If a conflict of interest arises, we will advise you of this and follow the requirements set out in the Rules.  This may mean we cannot act for you further in a particular matter and may terminate our engagement. 

14.  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 judgement, 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 loss or damage caused thereby.