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People often wonder what’s involved in engaging a firm of solicitors; How do we bill you?; How much do we charge? What if cash flow is tight? Who should you approach if you have a concern about how your matter is being handled?
So as to prevent concern about these and other issues, we have included our standard terms of engagement below. We hope they hep you to feel assured about what’s involved when we act for you. We are open to varying our terms depending on your individual circumstances.
If you have any concerns or queries about these or other matters, simply raise them with us and we’ll answer them as best as we can.
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. These 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.
Professional indemnity insurance & fidelity fund
As of December 2008, we do not hold indemnity insurance. This is currently under review. Check back with us in 2009 for an update.
Complaints
If you have any concerns or complaints please contact Jeremy Nash or Joanna Jordan personally. We are committed to resolving any issues as soon as possible.
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 .
Completion
When your matter is completed, we will advise you accordingly and provide a brief summary of the work undertaken if we have not already done so. Where appropriate we will also identify any necessary future action that may be required.
Our guarantee
We are commitment is to serving our clients, not tracking our time sheets. We aim to offer VIP treatment to every client, and measure our success based on meeting or exceeding your expectations.
We are so confident we will deliver unmatched value in the services we provide that we encourage you to determine what the value of the service was worth to you based on your experience. If it was less than the price you paid, call us, articulate the shortcomings, and we will negotiate a fair price with you. What we ask in return is for you to define the unmet expectation, or explain how we could have better served you. In effect, you will be helping us make adjustments and to improve our service.
Providing and improving value to our customers is the primary measure of our success!
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