1. Introduction
Legal practice in New South Wales is regulated by the Legal Profession Act 2004 (the "Act"). The Act requires that certain information be provided to clients in relation to the basis for legal charges, billing arrangements, review of legal charges and other information. Our internal quality procedures also require that our terms of engagement be clearly communicated to our clients.
2. Engaging us
2.1 If you engage us we will send you a letter of engagement setting out the work we will do in your matter, the people who will be involved, the reports we will provide to you and how we will calculate our fees. We will send the letter before or, if we need to start work urgently, as soon as practicable after we start work.
2.2 The letter of engagement and these General Terms of Engagement will constitute our costs agreement with you for the matter. The terms of the letter of engagement override these General Terms of Engagement to the extent that they are inconsistent.
2.3 If anything in our costs agreement is inconsistent or does not comply with the Act, it will be excluded, varied or read down to be consistent and comply with the Act.
3. Acceptance of terms
You may accept our costs agreement in writing or orally. If you instruct us to undertake work on your behalf it will be on the basis that our costs agreement is accepted by you.
4. Conduct of the matter and responsibility
4.1 Our letter of engagement will nominate a supervising partner who will be primarily responsible for your matter.
4.2 If you have a complaint, you should contact the supervising partner or the Managing Partner. Any complaint will be discussed with you and with the person involved. We will endeavour to resolve the complaint fairly and sympathetically.
5. Fees
5.1 Our professional fees are calculated on a fixed fee, event cost or time cost basis, or a combination of them. The method applicable to a particular matter will normally be set out in the letter of engagement for the matter. If no method is specified, our professional fees will be calculated on a time cost basis.
5.2 If our professional fees on a matter are to be calculated on a time cost basis:
(1) the hourly rates for work to be performed by our lawyers and paralegals will be those set out in the letter of engagement for the matter;
(2) our time will be charged in units of 6 minutes, rounded up if the time spent is not a multiple of 6 minutes (for example, if 21 minutes is spent it will be rounded up to 24 minutes or 4 units); and
(3) no charge will be made for secretarial or administration staff except in circumstances where, due to the requirements of the matter, the staff are required to work outside normal office hours.
6. Disbursements
6.1 In addition to our fees our invoices will include disbursements paid to third parties who are retained by us in the matter. Such expenses will be charged to you at cost. You may be asked to approve the terms of engagement of any third party retained to advise or to appear on your behalf.
6.2 Disbursements may also include photocopying, telephone calls, couriers, facsimiles, travel expenses and desktop publishing services.
6.3 Most disbursements are charged at their cost to us but in the case of some internal disbursements such as photocopying, faxes and STD and IDD telephone calls, the rate at which they are charged includes a service charge. If you require details of our current disbursement rates, please contact us.
6.4 You agree to pay or reimburse the following disbursements invoiced in each matter:
(1) those incurred with your prior authority; and
(2) those incurred without your prior authority where:
(a) the amount of the disbursement is not significant having regard to the nature of the matter; or
(b) it was not reasonably practicable for us to seek your authority and we considered it desirable to incur the disbursement for the proper conduct of the matter.
6.5 We may ask you for payment in advance on account of disbursements such as barrister’s fees, stamp duty, registration fees, court fees and conveyancing enquiry fees. We may also ask you for payment in advance on account of our professional fees.
6.6 Our invoices provide you with an itemised breakdown of disbursements and will constitute a tax invoice for GST purposes.
7. GST
Our invoices will be "Tax Invoices" for the purposes of any applicable law relating to Goods and Services Tax and the amount for payment will include any such tax which is payable.
8. Billing procedures
8.1 You are entitled to receive a bill of costs for any work that we do for you.
8.2 We will usually send you a bill of costs monthly and on completion of our work. The timing of our bills can be changed by agreement. Please let us know if you have any particular billing preferences.
8.3 Each bill of costs will contain details of our professional fees, expenses and disbursements (including GST). If you want a breakdown of the professional fees you can request it within 30 days of receiving the bill.
8.4 Unless other payment terms are agreed, each bill is payable within 30 days of you receiving it.
8.5 If our bill is not paid in full by the due date, we may charge you interest on the unpaid amount at the rate prescribed by the regulations under the Act.
9. Disputing our costs
9.1 If you have a problem with our costs you should first contact the partner who has responsibility for your matter or, if you prefer, our managing partner. We will attempt to answer your questions and resolve any dispute amicably.
9.2 If we cannot resolve a dispute you may:
(1) apply to the Legal Services Commissioner or the Law Society to have the dispute mediated, if the amount in dispute is less than $10,000;
(2) apply to have our bill of costs assessed under Division 11 of the Act; or
(3) apply to have our costs agreement set aside on the basis that it is not fair and reasonable under section 328 of the Act.
10. Trust moneys
From time to time we may ask that you provide funds on account of costs and disbursements. If we hold such moneys in our trust account, these General Terms of Engagement authorise us to transfer the funds in payment of billed fees and disbursements in accordance with the Act.
11. Payment
11.1 You may pay us by:
- cash, cheque or money order
- credit card
- BPAY or EFT.
11.2 When making any payment, please ensure that you include an invoice or file reference number to help us allocate your payment to the correct invoice or file.
(1) Cash, cheque or money order
Cash, cheque or money orders are accepted for all of our professional fees and other charges. Cash payments may only be made in person at our office, and must be made in Australian dollars. Cheque or money order payments may be made in person or by post. Both personal and bank cheques are accepted and should be marked "not negotiable". Cheques should be made out in Australian dollars and originate from an Australian bank. Personal cheques are subject to 5 days clearance but once cleared will be treated as paid on the day of receipt. Dishonoured cheques do not constitute payment.
(2) Credit Card
We accept payment by credit card for our professional fees and sundry debtors. Cards accepted are:
- Visa
A lower limit of $10 and an upper limit of $100,000 apply for all credit card transactions. Credit card payments may be made in person at our office, by post or by fax to (02) 9293 5311. Please contact us for a credit card payment form for mail or facsimile transactions. We cannot accept credit card payments by phone or for third party disbursements.
(3) BPAY or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
You may pay for all of our professional services and other charges through the BPAY electronic payment system or by making an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) from your bank account into our bank account. The payment details are set out in our invoices or can be obtained by calling us. BPAY and EFT payments must be initiated from your financial institution.
12. Substantial changes to disclosure
You will be informed, as soon as is reasonably practicable, of any substantial changes to anything contained in this document.
13. Engagement of another law practice
It may be necessary for us to engage, on your behalf, the services of another law practice to provide specialist advice or services, including advocacy services, or to act as our agent. We will consult you as to the terms of that law practice’s engagement but you may be asked to enter into a costs agreement directly with that law practice. The law practice engaged by us will disclose costs in a similar manner and we will disclose those costs to you.
14. Privacy protection
Personal information about you, provided by you and other sources, is protected under the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000. Disclosure of such information may be compelled by law (eg. under the Social Security Act). You also authorise us to disclose such information where necessary to others in furtherance of the matter (eg. within the law practice, to the court, the other party or parties to litigation, to valuers, experts, barristers etc).
15. Ending our agreement
15.1 You may end our agreement at any time by giving us written notice.
15.2 We may end our agreement if:
(1) you fail to pay our bills;
(2) you fail to provide us with adequate instructions within a reasonable time;
(3) you give instructions that are deliberately false or intentionally misleading;
(4) you fail to accept an offer of settlement that we think is reasonable;
(5) you fail to accept or act on advice that we give you;
(6) you engage another law practice to act for you on the same matter without our consent;
(7) we, on reasonable grounds, believe that we have a conflict of interest;
(8) you indicate to us that we have lost your confidence; or
(9) there is any other good reason.
If we decide to end our agreement, we will give you at least 14 days written notice setting out our reasons.
15.3 If you or we end our agreement, you will be required to pay our professional fees and charges for work done, and for expenses and disbursements incurred, up to the date that the agreement comes to an end. For lump sum fee matters, you must pay that part of our lump sum fee that we reasonably estimate has been incurred in respect of legal services provided to you up to the date that the agreement comes to an end, plus charges, expenses and disbursements.
16. Retention of files
16.1 We reserve the right to keep your files and documents if there is any money owing to us for fees or disbursements, even if this agreement has been terminated by us, regardless of the reason for termination.
16.2 These General Terms of Engagement authorise us to destroy your files in a matter after a period of 7 years from the date we provide you with our final invoice.
17. Applicable law
The law of New South Wales applies to legal costs regarding this matter. If this matter has a substantial connection with the law of any other State or Territory, you may wish to have the matter dealt with by the law of that State or Territory. If you do so, separate disclosure requirements may be imposed on us and we will disclose our costs in accordance with those requirements. You may, however, contract with us that the costs assessment scheme in New South Wales is applicable in the event of any dispute arising as to costs.