We will always do our best to be available or responsive to you, and to provide services that are accurate, timely and based on sound common sense. You can help us do this by:
We will charge you a fee which is fair and reasonable for the services provided. In determining the fee, the following may be considered:
Please contact us directly for details of staff, services and hourly rates.
In providing our services to you we may incur disbursements and payments to third parties on your behalf. You authorise us to incur these disbursements (which may include such items such as search fees, court filing fees, registration fees, travel and courier charges) which are necessary to provide these services. You also authorise us to make payments to third parties on your behalf which are reasonably required to undertake the services (which may include items such as experts’ costs or counsel’s fees). These will be included in our invoice to you, shown as “disbursements” when the expenses are incurred (or in advance when we know we will be incurring them on your behalf).
In addition to disbursements, we may charge a fee to cover other expenses including toll and mobile charges, faxes, photocopying, postage, courier and bank transactional fees which are not included in our fee and which are not recorded as disbursements.
Our services will usually attract Goods and Services Tax (GST). If this is the case, GST is payable by you on our fees and charges.
Please note that we are happy to give fee and disbursement estimates on request.
When we receive funds on your behalf, such as in a standard conveyancing transaction, our fees and expenses are deducted at settlement of the transaction. If this arrangement does not suit your specific circumstances, you should discuss this with us so an alternative arrangement can be made.
When funds held in our Trust account on behalf of yourself or a third party are of enough amount and required to be held for a period of time, those funds may be placed on interest earning deposit (if feasible) and the interest earned net of resident withholding tax will be paid out.
Unless a different arrangement is made with you, payment of any invoice is due within 14 days of invoice. You can pay any invoice (quoting your client and invoice number reference shown at the top of your invoice) by cash payable to Cargill Stent Clarke Law Limited Trust Account or bank transfer to Cargill Stent Clarke Law Limited Trust Account. Please contact our office for our bank account details.
Interest will be charged on overdue balances at 2% per month. If your invoice remains unpaid (and we have made no other arrangements with you), steps may be taken to recover monies owing. Should such steps be necessary, all debt collection fees including any solicitor’s costs as charged at usual rates are also payable by you. This is a last resort to recover debts and we would prefer we came to a suitable arrangement to avoid debt recovery action being taken.
We reserve the right to stop work if any Invoice remains outstanding and/or if we have reasonable cause to believe that you will not meet the costs of ongoing work being undertaken, or a request for information or action remains unsatisfied.
You may terminate our retainer. If our retainer is terminated you must pay all fees due up to termination and all expenses incurred up to that date.
All money we receive on your behalf in the Trust account will be held in your name. When funds held in our Trust account on behalf of yourself or a third party are of enough amount and must be held for a period of time, those funds may be placed on interest earning deposit. The interest earned net of resident withholding tax will be paid out.
We will provide advice and legal services to you with reasonable skill and care and we acknowledge that (subject to the other exclusions and limitations in these Terms) we will be liable to you for losses, damages, costs or expenses caused by our negligence or wilful default. Our responsibility shall only extend to the advice and services we provide on matters upon which you have actually instructed us.
We will be reliant upon you for the accuracy and completeness of the information and/or documentation you provide as well as the fact that such information and/or documentation will be provided in good time. We will not be liable to you for any losses caused wholly or in part by the provision by you of false, misleading or incomplete information or documentation or due to the acts or omissions of any person(s) other than ourselves. If you have a concern which is particular to you and not of general application it is your responsibility to advise us.
In the event that you are being advised by one of several professionals and a limitation of liability has been agreed in relation to one or more of them, you agree that our liability to you will not be increased due to the limitation of liability agreed by you with other advisers. Our liability to you under or in connection with our engagement shall be limited to that proportion of the total losses (after taking into account your contributory negligence, if any) determined to be just and equitable having regard to the extent of our responsibility for the losses in question.
Where our advice involves an assessment or legal or commercial risk we will use reasonable efforts to provide you with as accurate an assessment as possible, but you agree to accept any such assessment as an expression of our opinion only and not a statement of fact. You agree that any decision to rely upon any assessment of risk made by us is solely your responsibility and that unless our assessment is shown to have been made negligently, you agree that we will not be liable to you for any losses which you may incur as a result of any reliance placed by you on such opinions.
Cargill Stent Clarke Law Limited are required to retain your file (including electronic) records for at least seven years after the date of final invoice. After that time these records may be destroyed, except for any documents we agree to hold for you in safe custody. Records of all investment money and investment property will be kept in accordance with the Solicitors Trust Account Regulations, the Solicitors Trust Account Rules, and the Privacy Act 1993. Records of your transactions through our Trust account are stored in computerised form. You may have access to all records relating solely to your investment money without charge during normal business hours.
So that we may comply with Inland Revenue Department taxation requirements, if you are buying, selling or transferring property in New Zealand you must provide to us at the onset of your transaction your personal IRD number and/or that of any relevant Company or Trust. We will also require your taxpayer identification number from any overseas countries where you are a tax resident (if applicable).
We are required by law to comply with the above legislation and supply to our Bank (Westpac) if requested, all necessary information, declarations and supporting information pertaining to FATCA, GATCA and CRS. As part of your engagement with us and to enable us to meet these requirements, you agree to provide us with all relevant information and consents as and when requested.
Before we can commence any legal work for you, we are required by law to comply with all AML legislation. This includes us fully identifying, undertaking due diligence and verifying all clients on certain activities prior to us completing a full AML Risk Assessment. As part of your engagement with us and to enable us to meet these requirements, you agree to provide us at the onset of your transaction all relevant information and identification as requested and that there will be a charge relating to AML compliance. These charges will be dependent on client history, time expended, urgency and circumstances.
We may need to collect your personal information in order to conduct our business, act on your behalf and meet our legal obligations. In many cases, before we can act for you we are required to collect personal information from you such as names, addresses, contact details, bank account and other financial information, identity verification such as your driver’s licence, passport and birth certificate and other information which assists us to conduct our business, provide our services and meet our legal obligations under applicable privacy laws and the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009.
All information is stored electronically (requiring logins and passwords) or physically (in secured premises). Only authorised persons are permitted to access your personal information. We may need to disclose your personal information for the purpose of complying with our legal obligations, responding to your questions in relation to our services, or as otherwise stated at the time of collection. We will not disclose personal information, except in accordance with the law.
You have the right to access your personal information we hold and to request that your personal information be updated or corrected. We may charge a fee for providing access and if so, we will advise you of the cost in advance.
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. 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.
This Fund exists to provide compensation for clients who suffer a pecuniary loss in certain circumstances. These circumstances are the theft by a lawyer of money or other valuable property entrusted to that lawyer while they are providing legal services to the public or while they are acting as a solicitor-trustee. It should be noted that the fund will not pay compensation in respect of money instructed to be invested on your behalf.
Cargill Stent Clarke Law Limited hold current Professional Indemnity Insurance which meets the minimum standards from time to time specified by the New Zealand Law Society.
We will provide you with a competent, timely service following your instructions, but if you have any complaint or query at all about our service please raise the matter with either the legal representative from Cargill Stent Clarke Law Limited, the Directors or our office administration email [email protected]. Any complaint will be dealt with promptly and fairly and if you are not satisfied with the outcome, you have the right to take the matter up with the New Zealand Law Society which runs a complaints service.
The office is open from 8.30am to 5.00pm every weekday. If for any reason your call is not answered personally please leave a message and your call will be responded to as soon as possible.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any clarification regarding the abovementioned matters and we look forward to continuing to provide quality services to you.
■ Cargill Stent Clarke Law Ltd ■ 81 Horomatangi Street Taupo ■ P O Box 445/DX KP37002 Taupo 3351 ■ Ph 07 376 0000 ■ Fax 07 378 2697 ■