Terms of Engagement
Botany Law is a growing firm which was established approximately 5 years ago. The principal of the firm is Mrs Lavanya Dunraj. There are two part time solicitors and several support staff. At Botany Law we are committed to providing excellent legal services and strive to ensure accessibility, quality and turnaround. The purpose of this document is to set out the terms and conditions which govern our relationship with you and to provide you with an understanding of how we work and expectations we have of each other. 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. The services which we are to provide for you are outlined in our engagement letter.
If your have any questions or concerns about these terms, you should contact us promptly before we commence work for you. This is important because any instructions we receive from you will be on the basis that you have read, understood and accepted these terms of engagement.
Services
We provide legal services across a variety of disciplines. To ensure that you are provided with the best possible service, the respective solicitors concentrate on specific areas of law together with their support teams. We have the following dedicated teams:
- Family Law - primarily Relationship Property and Child Law
- Commercial Law and business advice
- Property conveyancing
- Trusts, Wills and estate planning
The principal of the firm is responsible for the supervision of each team and the manager of the relationship with each client. The principal will delegate work to the most appropriate team and author having regard to the level of expertise and technical specialisation required. In the event that any issues arise out of your relationship with one of our solicitors, I invite you to immediately discuss the matter with the principal.
We will advise you at the commencement of our instructions which solicitor/author will be working on your matter.
Your Instructions
Our ability to provide you with the best possible legal service is enhanced by receiving clear and full instructions from you.
- To assist us it is helpful for you to provide
- Clear instructions, if possible in writing
- Any important time limits that we need to be aware of
- Your expectations about what you want to achieve
- Full details of where we can contact you at any point of the day.
From time to time, you may wish to change your instructions or review where your matter is up to. We invite you to keep in regular contact with us to ensure that we are aware of your most recent instructions. Often work on your matter will proceed to ensure that your interests are protected and will include attendances that you may not be aware of at the time. If you wish us to stop work at any time, you need to let us know immediately. Otherwise we may continue working on your matter.
Fees
Our fees are charges in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Rules of Professional Conduct of the New Zealand Law Society.
The fees which we will charge or the manner in which they will be arrived at, are set out in our engagement letter.
If the engagement letter specifies a fixed fee, we will charge this for the agreed scope of our services. Work which falls outside that scope will be charged on an hourly rate basis. We will advise you as soon as reasonably practicable if it becomes necessary for us to provide services outside the agreed scope and if requested, give you an estimate of the likely amount of the further costs.
Where our fees are calculated on an hourly basis, the hourly rates are set out in our engagement letter. The differences in those rates reflect the experience and specialisation of our professional staff. Time spent is recorded in 6 minute units, with time rounded up to the next unit of 6 minutes.
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 or when the expense is incurred. We may require an advance payment for the disbursements or expenses which we will be incurring on your behalf.
GST (if any)
Is payable by you on our fees and charges.
Invoices
We will send interim invoices to you, usually monthly and/or on completion of a particular stage of a matter and/or on completion of the matter, or termination of our engagement. We may also send you an invoice when we incur a significant expense.
Payment
Invoices are payable within 7 days of the date of invoice, unless alternate 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 5% above our firms main trading bank's 90 day bank bill buy rate as at the close of business on the date payment became due.
Security
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.
Termination
a. You may terminate our retainer any time;
b. 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; and
c. 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.
Commissions
If we place funds on an interest-bearing deposit in our trust account on your behalf, we may charge a reasonable commission out of the interest for arranging and administering the deposit.
Retention of Files and Documents
Generally we are required to store your paper file for 10 years. After that time we may destroy it, except for any documents we agree to hold for you in safe custody. However we do not destroy property relationship files or documents such as wills, trust deeds and powers of attorney. Records of your transactions through our trust account are stored in a computerised form. You may have access to all records relating solely to your investment money and investment property without charge during normal working hours.
Confidentiality
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 Rule of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.
Confidential information concerning you will be as far as practicable be made available only to those within our firm who are providing legal services for you.
We will of course, not disclose to you confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.
Duty of Care
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.
Persons Responsible for the Work
The names and status of the solicitors who will have the general carriage of or overall responsibility for the services we provide for you are set out below and further details will be set out in out engagement letter:
Lavanya Dunraj
Melanie Hendricksen
Client Information
Attached is information required by the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers of the New Zealand Law Society.
General
We trust that the above terms and conditions provide clarity about our relationship with you. If you have any questions about these terms of engagement please let us know. We look forward to working with you and providing a service that is, in all respects, excellent.
Yours faithfully
Lavanya Dunraj
Principal- Botany Law
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