Legal aid is government funding to pay for legal help for people who cannot afford a lawyer. Clients may be eligible for a grant of legal aid in respect of certain proceedings/issues.
Circumstances for eligibility are prescribed by the Legal Services Commissioner under the Legal Services Act 2011.
https://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/going-to-court/legal-aid/
From the 1 July 2018 we will be required to obtain more information from you. This is part of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT).
The purpose of this Act is to prevent money laundering or the financing of any terrorism. By requiring more information from you, we have more knowledge about the transactions we are undertaking on your behalf, and are able to ensure that we are not in breach of our requirements under the Act. If we have any suspicions we have an obligation to report this.
https://www.dia.govt.nz/AML-CFT-Information-for-public (TBC FROM CLIENT}
These Standard Terms of Engagement (“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.
2.2. Disbursements and expenses: In providing services 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.
2.3. GST (if any): Is payable by you on our fees and charges.
2.4. Invoices: To help you budget we will send interim invoices to you, usually monthly and on completion of the matter, or termination of our
engagement. We may also send you an invoice when we incur a significant expense.
2.5. Payment: In accordance with usual practice, accounts are due for payment on the 20th day of the month following the date of the issue of our invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us. We may require interest to be paid on any amount which is more than 7 days overdue. Interest will be calculated at the rate of 4% above our firm’s main trading bank’s 90-day bank bill buy rate as at the close of business on the date payment.
2.6. Security: We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses. We may also deduct from funds held on your behalf, any fees, disbursements or expenses for which we have provided an invoice.
2.7. 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.
3.1.
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; or
b. to the extent required by law or by the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
3.2. 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.
3.3. We will of course, not disclose to you confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.
4.1.
You may terminate our retainer at any time.4.2. 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.
4.3. 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.
5.1.
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.6.1.
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 Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.7.1.
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.8.1.
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 a commission fee of 5% of the interest derived.9.1.
These Terms apply to any current engagement and also to any future engagement, whether or not we send you another copy of them.9.2. We may change these Terms from time to time, in which case we will send you amended Terms.
9.3. Our relationship with you is governed by New Zealand law and New Zealand courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.
Set out below is the information required by the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers of the New Zealand Law Society (“Law Society”).
The Law Society operates the Lawyers Complaints Service and you are able to make a complaint to that service. To do so please phone 0800 261 801 and you will be connected to the nearest Complaints Service Office, which can provide information and advice about making a complaint.
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.lawyers.org.nz or call 0800 261 801.