Terms of Engagement

These Standard Payment Terms (“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.

1Financial:

1.1 Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us. We may require interest to be paid on any amount which is more than seven (7) days overdue. Interest will be calculated at the rate of 5% above our firm’s trading bank’s 90-day bank bill buy rate on the date payment became due. If the account is not paid within 30 days after the due date, our costs of collection of the debt will also be recoverable. This clause is intended to be for the benefit of and enforceable by our debt collection agency under the Contracts (Privity) Act 1982.

1.2 We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses. You authorise us:

(a) To debit against amounts pre-paid by you; and

(b) To deduct from any funds held on your behalf in our trust account; any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.

1.3 Where the client is a company, we may require a personal guarantee to be provided for fees payable.

1.4 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.

2. Confidentiality:

2.1We 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;

2.2Confidential information concerning you will as far as practicable be made available only to those within our firm who are providing legal services for you.

2.3We will of course, not disclose to you confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.

3.Termination:

3.1You may terminate our retainer at any time.

3.2We may terminate our retainer in any circumstances set out in the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

3.3If 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.

4.Retention of files and documents:

4.1You 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) seven (7) years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format.

5.Conflicts of Interest:

5.1We 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.

6.Duty of Care:

6.1Our 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.

7.Trust Account:

7.1We 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 7.5% of the interest derived.

8.General:

8.1These Terms apply to any current engagement and also to any future engagement, whether or not we send you another copy of them.

8.2We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time, in which case we will send you amended Terms.