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. If you have any questions, please contact the partner responsible for your work.

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. These fees will be deducted from money held in our trust account unless you instruct us otherwise. 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 you pay by cheque your payment is made when the cheque is cleared.

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):
GST 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:
5.1 - to debit against amounts pre-paid by you; and
5.2 - 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) seven 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.