Thank you for your instructions.  We enclose:

(a)     Information for clients which lawyers are required by the New Zealand Law Society to provide; and

(b)     Our standard terms of engagement.

INFORMATION FOR CLIENTS

Set out below is the information required by the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers of the New Zealand Law Society ("Law Society").

1. Fees:
The basis on which fees will be charged is set out in our Letter of Engagement.  The time for payment of fees is set out in our Standard Terms of Engagement.

We may deduct from any funds held on your behalf in our trust account any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.

2. 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.

3. Professional Indemnity Insurance:
We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets or exceeds the minimum standards specified by the Law Society.  We will provide you with particulars of the minimum standards upon request.

4. Lawyers Fidelity Fund:
The Law Society maintains the Lawyers Fidelity Fund for the purposes of providing clients of lawyers with protection against pecuniary loss arising from theft by lawyers.  The maximum amount payable by the Fidelity Fund by way of compensation to an individual claimant is limited to $100,000.  Except in certain circumstances specified in the Lawyers & Conveyancers Act 2006 the Fidelity Fund does not cover a client for any loss relating to money that a lawyer is instructed to invest on behalf of the client.

5. Complaints:
We maintain a procedure for handling any complaints by clients, designed to ensure that a complaint is dealt with promptly and fairly.

If you have a complaint about our services or charges, you may refer your complaint to the person in our firm who has overall responsibility for your work.

If you do not wish to refer your complaint to that person, or you are not satisfied with that person's response to your complaint, you may refer your complaint to the Practice Manager.  The Practice Manager may be contacted as follows:

• by letter;
• by email at law@crlaw.co.nz;
• by telephoning at (06) 353 5210.

The Law Society also maintains a complaints service and you are able to make a complaint to that service.  To do so you should contact the Law Society.

The New Zealand Law Society

Street address:    Level 7, Law Society Building, 26 Waring Taylor Street, Wellington 6011

Postal address:    PO Box 5041, Lambton Quay, Wellington 6145 (DX SP20202)

Telephone:          (04) 472 7837

Fax:                    (04) 473 7909

6. Client Care and Service:
The Law Society client care and service information is set out below.

Whatever legal services your lawyer is providing, he or she must:

• Act competently, in a timely way, and in accordance with instructions received and arrangements made;
• Protect and promote your interests and act for you free from compromising influences or loyalties;
• Discuss with you your objectives and how they should best be achieved;
• Provide you with information about the work to be done, who will do it and the way the services will be provided;
• Charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable and let you know how and when you will be billed;
• Give you clear information and advice;
• Protect your privacy and ensure appropriate confidentiality;
• Treat you fairly, respectfully and without discrimination;
• Keep you informed about the work being done and advise you when it is completed;
• Let you know how to make a complaint and deal with any complaint promptly and fairly;

The obligations lawyers owe to clients are described in the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.  Those obligations are subject to other overriding duties, including duties to the courts and to the justice system.

If you have any questions, please visit www.lawsociety.org.nz or call (04) 472 7837.

7. The limits of our liability to you:

• The limits of our liability to you are set out in this document and in each Letter of Engagement we send.
• We do not accept liability for any loss that happens because you did not receive or read a communication we sent you.
• We are not qualified to give you investment advice. You should get that advice from a qualified financial advisor.

8. Email:
While we use standard virus checking software, we accept no responsibility for viruses or anything similar in any emails or any attachments which come from Cooper Rapley.  We also do not accept any responsibility for any changes to, or interception of, any email or any attachment after it leaves our information systems.

9. Suspending your work:
We may suspend (temporarily stop) work on your file if you have not:

• Paid our accounts on time;
• Given us information that we have asked for;
• Done something that we have asked you to do.

STANDARD TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT

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.

1. Fees:
We are required to provide you with information regarding the basis on which fees will be charged and when payments are to be made.  The Law Society requires us to take into account the following relevant factors:

• The time and labour expended;
• The skill, specialised knowledge and responsibility required;
• The importance of the matter and the result achieved;
• The urgency;
• The complexity or novelty of the questions involved;
• The experience, reputation and ability of the lawyer requested by the client;
• The reasonable costs of running a practice;
• The fee customarily charged in the locality for a similar level of service.

You are entitled to request an estimate of our fees.  However it is not always possible to be accurate at this early stage.

In addition to the fees we may charge you for office expenses (such as photocopying, printing, binding, toll calls, faxes, computer searches) and disbursements (out of pocket expenses paid to others).

2. When Payable:
Other than transactional matters in which the fees and expenses are payable on settlement date, our accounts are payable by the 20th of the month following the date of the invoice.  We may require an advance payment of our anticipated fees.  We may require interest to be paid on any amount which is more than 1 month overdue.  Interest will be calculated at the rate of 1.5% per month.

If we hold your money in our trust account and we have rendered a bill of costs to you, you hereby direct that we may deduct our fees and disbursements from the money held in our trust account.

If you pay by cheque your payment is made when the cheque is cleared.

Acceptable methods of payment are:

• Direct Credit (this is the preferred method of payment)
• A cheque made out to Cooper Rapley
• Cash/Eftpos payments
• Credit cards (Master Card or Visa only are accepted)

In default of payment when required, the client undertakes to pay late payment fees of 1.5% per month on any amount outstanding and to indemnify Cooper Rapley and pay all costs and expenses if legal action is necessary to recovery from you any overdue amount.

If any account is not paid on time we may decide not to carry out further work or incur further disbursements.

3. 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 when the expense is incurred.  We may require an advance payment for the disbursements or expenses which we will be incurring on your behalf.

4. GST (if any):
Is payable by you on our fees and charges.

5. 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.

6. Third Parties:
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.

7. Retention of Files and Documents:
You 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) 7 years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format.

8. General:
These Terms apply to any current engagement and also to any future engagement.