Legal
Draft prepared 15 September 2026 · not yet in force
These are the standard terms on which LexBridge Legal provides legal services. They apply to every matter we handle for you, current and future, except to the extent we agree otherwise in writing in our letter of engagement for a particular matter.
They are given to you together with the client care and service information that the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 require us to provide. If anything here is unclear, please ask us before you instruct us.
The highlighted passages below are commercial decisions only the firm can make — principally the basis of charging, payment terms and any limitation of liability. They must be completed, and the whole document reviewed by the firm, before it is relied on with any client.
The services we are to provide are set out in our letter of engagement for the matter. We will advise you on New Zealand law only. We do not advise on the law of any other country, and we do not provide tax, accounting, financial or investment advice — if your matter needs that advice, you should obtain it separately, and we can help you find someone suitable.
Our advice is given for the matter it relates to, at the time it is given, and on the basis of the information available to us. It is for you alone and may not be relied on by anyone else, or used for any other purpose, without our written consent. We are not obliged to update advice for later changes in the law or the facts unless you instruct us to.
Our letter of engagement will name the lawyer with overall responsibility for your matter and the person who will do the day-to-day work. We may involve other people in the firm, or engage a barrister, expert, translator or overseas lawyer, where that is appropriate. We will tell you before engaging anyone whose fee you will have to pay.
We must charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable for the services provided, having regard to the factors set out in rule 9 of the Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care Rules 2008 — including the time and labour spent, the skill and responsibility involved, the importance of the matter to you, the urgency, and the results achieved.
[Set out the basis of charging: hourly rates for each person or grade of staff (excl. GST); which matters are handled on a fixed fee and what the fixed fee includes and excludes; whether estimates are given and that an estimate is not a quote; minimum fees; and how urgent or after-hours work is charged.]
All fees are stated exclusive of GST unless we say otherwise. GST is payable in addition at the rate applying at the time.
Where we give you an estimate, it is our good-faith assessment based on what we know at the time. It is not a fixed quote. If it becomes clear that the estimate will be exceeded, we will tell you and discuss it with you before the extra work is done.
In addition to our fee, you are responsible for disbursements — amounts we pay to others on your behalf. These commonly include Immigration New Zealand application and levy fees, court and tribunal filing fees, Land Information New Zealand and title search fees, LIM reports, company and personal property register searches, barristers' and experts' fees, medical and translation costs, and courier and registered post charges.
[State whether an office service charge is made — e.g. a percentage of fees or a flat amount per matter — and what it covers. If none is charged, say so and delete this passage.]
We may ask you to pay significant disbursements to us in advance before we incur them.
[State how often invoices are sent — e.g. monthly, on completion of a stage, or on completion of the matter — and, for property transactions, that the invoice is usually rendered on settlement.]
Invoices are payable within [14] days of the date of the invoice, unless we agree otherwise in writing.
[State whether interest is charged on overdue accounts and at what rate, and whether you will seek recovery costs. If neither is charged, delete this passage.] Where we hold funds in our trust account for you and an invoice is unpaid, you authorise us to deduct our fees, expenses and disbursements from those funds once the invoice has been sent to you.
If you are one of two or more people who instruct us jointly, each of you is liable for the whole of our fees and expenses, whatever the arrangement is between you. Where you instruct us as a trustee, director or agent for someone else, you are personally liable for our fees and expenses in addition to the person you act for.
We maintain a trust account. Money we hold for you is held on trust in accordance with the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 and the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Trust Account) Regulations 2008, and is used only in accordance with your instructions.
Fees paid in advance are held in our trust account and are drawn on only once an invoice has been rendered to you. If you would like funds held for you to earn interest on deposit, tell us in writing; we will need your IRD number, and a fee may be charged for operating the deposit.
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 requires us, before we carry out certain work, to verify your identity and address, to understand the source of the funds involved, and in some cases to identify the beneficial owners of a company or trust. This applies to conveyancing, forming or managing companies and trusts, and handling client funds, among other activities.
We will ask you for documents such as a passport, driver licence and proof of address. Please provide them promptly — we cannot begin the work until this is complete, and delay in providing them may put a settlement date or filing deadline at risk. The cost of any electronic verification we use is a disbursement payable by you.
We may be required to report certain transactions and suspicious activity to the New Zealand Police Financial Intelligence Unit, and the law may prohibit us from telling you that we have done so.
We will hold in confidence all information concerning you or your affairs that we acquire while acting for you. We will not disclose it to anyone else except to the extent necessary or desirable to carry out your instructions, or where required or permitted by law or by our professional obligations.
Confidential information you give us will be used by the people in the firm working on your matter, and by others in the firm to the extent needed for supervision, conflict checking and administration.
We check for conflicts of interest before accepting instructions, and we will tell you promptly if a conflict arises during the engagement. Where a conflict means we cannot continue to act for you, or cannot act for both parties, we will explain the position and you may need to instruct another lawyer. We may act for other clients whose interests differ from yours, provided we comply with our professional obligations, including the duty of confidentiality owed to you.
We will keep the file for your matter, in electronic or hard copy form, for at least [7] years after the matter ends, after which we may destroy it securely without further notice to you. Trust account records are kept for at least six years as the Trust Account Regulations require.
Documents belonging to you will be returned to you on request. Our own working papers, internal file notes and communications remain our property. We may retain copies of anything we return. We may exercise a lien over documents in our possession while any of our invoices remain unpaid, to the extent the law allows.
Unless you tell us otherwise, we will communicate with you by email and may send documents electronically. Email is not a secure medium: it can be intercepted, delayed, corrupted or fail to arrive, and we do not accept responsibility for loss arising from those risks. We filter incoming mail for viruses and malicious content but do not guarantee that our communications are free of them.
Be alert to fraud. We will never email you to tell you that our bank account details have changed. If you receive any message that appears to change our account details, telephone us on 09 215 9798 using the number on this website before transferring any money.
To the extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability to you in connection with a matter — whether in contract, tort, equity or otherwise — is limited to [state the cap: e.g. the amount available to be paid out under the firm's professional indemnity insurance in respect of the matter, or a fixed sum, or a multiple of the fees charged].
Our duties are owed to you as our client and to no one else. No employee, contractor or director of the firm has any personal liability to you in connection with the services — any claim must be brought against the firm.
Nothing in this clause limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 where you acquire services as a consumer. [Confirm this clause with the firm's professional indemnity insurer before use — an unsupported cap can be worse than none, and rule 11 of the Conduct and Client Care Rules constrains what a lawyer may limit.]
You may end our engagement at any time. We may end it only for good cause and on reasonable notice, as rule 4.2 of the Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care Rules 2008 requires — for example if you do not give us adequate instructions, do not pay our invoices, or if a conflict of interest arises.
If the engagement ends, you remain liable for our fees, expenses and disbursements for work done and costs incurred up to that point.
We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets or exceeds the minimum standards specified by the New Zealand Law Society. We will provide you with particulars of the minimum standards on request.
The New Zealand Law Society maintains the Lawyers' Fidelity Fund for the purpose 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 and 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.
We maintain a procedure for handling complaints by clients, designed to ensure that a complaint is dealt with promptly and fairly. It is set out on our complaints page, and includes your right to complain to the New Zealand Law Society Lawyers Complaints Service.
Whatever legal services your lawyer is providing, he or she must —
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 lawsociety.org.nz or call 0800 261 801.
