Standard Terms of Engagement

These Standard Terms of Engagement (Terms) apply with regard to all work carried out by Dawson & Associates Ltd for you, except where we otherwise agree with you in writing.

Confidentiality
All information concerning you or your affairs acquired during the course of acting for you will be kept confidential. We will not disclose any of this information to any other person except:

1. Where necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions; or
2. Where required by law or by the Law Society's Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

Your confidential information, as far as practicable, will only be made available to those within our firm who provide legal services for you.

We will not disclose any confidential information relating to any other client. 

We will abide by the information privacy rules set out in the Privacy Act 1993.

Conflicts of Interest
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.

Duty of Care
Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person. We do not owe a duty of care to anyone else. Before any other person may rely on our advice, we must expressly agree to this.

Our Advice
The opinions we provide as to the outcome of any legal matters are an expression of our professional judgment. They are not guarantees.

Liability
Our advice relies on the facts provided by you and any information obtained from agencies such as the public registry offices. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for any mistakes or omissions in the information received or in our advice given as a result of any mistakes or omissions.

Our liability for any action, neglect or omission on the part of the Director(s) or employees of Dawson & Associates Ltd shall be strictly limited to the value of the PI insurance cover held by us.

Fees
Unless otherwise agreed in writing, we charge on an hourly rate basis.

We will not charge for disbursements, unless they are disproportionate to the matter, in which case we reserve the right to recover the actual cost (without mark-up) of these items from you. We will bill you for larger items (e.g. accommodation, travel and court fees). We will discuss these potential costs with you prior to incurring the costs. 

We issue itemised monthly invoices and statements, payable on receipt. We reserve the right to charge interest (at the current Bank business base lending rate) on invoices that remain unpaid after 30 days of the invoice date. Should invoices remain outstanding for longer than 60 days from date of invoice, interest will be charged.

If you are a New Zealand resident or entity our invoices will include any New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST) applicable to the services we supply to you.

All fees must be paid in New Zealand dollars unless agreed otherwise.

Where an arrangement is made to send an invoice to another person appointed by you and that person fails to pay the invoice, you remain liable to pay that invoice.

Should we not receive payment of our fees from you we reserve the right to suspend all work and to retain your file until we receive the due payment.

If we require a retainer in advance to cover fees and disbursements, the retainer must be paid into our trust account. After we send you an invoice we will deduct the required amounts as they become due. We may require further retainers as and when necessary.

Where your matter involves a transaction that may end up in a settlement (such as the sale of business shares or assets) we reserve the right to deduct all our fees and expenses before we distribute any settlement funds to you.

Should you fail to make payment you will be held responsible for any reasonable debt collection and all legal costs and disbursements that we incur in the debt collection process.

Should we hold trust funds on your behalf, we require specific written instructions from you prior to disbursing or otherwise dealing with these funds.

If, in the course of the matter we are required to retain counsel, experts or other third parties, we will seek your prior approval. On receipt of your approval we are deemed to act as your agent on your behalf, and you are primarily responsible as principal for the payment of any costs incurred upon presentation of invoice.

Trust Account
We maintain a trust account for all funds received from clients (except monies received for payment of our invoices). Significant funds held on your behalf will normally be lodged on an interest bearing deposit with a bank. We reserve the right to charge an administration fee for handling these funds.

Retention of Files and Documents
We will, subject to any legal requirement, retain your file on any matter for a minimum of 7 years after the matter has been concluded. We may hold the file electronically rather than physically, whereafter we may destroy the file without further instructions from you or communication to you.

All original agreements will be returned to you.

Please advise us in writing should you wish to keep the file or part thereof before the matter has been finalised.

Termination
You may terminate our engagement at any time, under any of the circumstances set out in the Law Society's Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

If our engagement is terminated you must pay us all fees due and expenses incurred up to the date of termination.

Feedback
We wish to meet your expectations wherever possible, and appreciate any feedback, whether good or bad.

Please contact Peter Dawson if you have any comments about our services.

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

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

Our relationship with you is governed by New Zealand law and New Zealand courts have nonexclusive jurisdiction.

In these terms of engagement, "You" means our client. "The Firm", "We" and "Us" means Dawson & Associates Ltd. Where you are a company, other corporate or unincorporated entity, we act only for you. Unless we expressly agree otherwise we do not act for your directors, shareholders, or members.