Unsatisfactory conduct. Provision of client service information in advance
This is a summary of a decision made by a Lawyers Standards Committees under the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006. This summary was published in LawTalk 742.
A lawyer who failed to provide client service information in advance, as required by the Rules of Conduct and Client Care, was found guilty by a Standards Committee of unsatisfactory conduct. The lawyer was fined and ordered to pay costs.
The client, who lived overseas, had phoned the lawyer, after the lawyer had been recommended to him and asked for advice about how to deal with a matter involving an estate. The following day, the lawyer emailed the client with his written advice. Two and a half weeks later, the client received an invoice from the lawyer for the work done.
The client complained to the New Zealand Law Society that the lawyer had never sent him a client care letter as required by the Rules of Conduct and Client Care, that he had never engaged the lawyer’s services and that there was no time breakdown of the bill.
Rule 3.4 of those rules requires lawyers to provide their clients in advance with written information about the main aspects of client service, including how fees would be charged. Rule 3.5 requires a lawyer, before doing significant work under a retainer, to provide a client in writing with, among other things, a copy of the client care and service information set out in the preface to the rules. Rule 3.7(b) excuses lawyers from complying with these requirements if it is impractical to do so under the circumstances.
The lawyer told the Standards Committee that he had prepared a letter of engagement immediately after the phone call but had never mailed it because he was waiting to be sent a physical mailing address. The Standards Committee did not accept that this made it impractical for the lawyer to comply with the relevant rules. The lawyer had obtained the client’s email address at the outset and, once he had this, there was no reason for him not to email the client the necessary information.
The Standards Committee found the lawyer guilty of unsatisfactory conduct. It fined him $500 and ordered him to pay costs to the Law Society of $250.