Unsatisfactory conduct. Ceasing to act without good cause
This is a summary of a decision made by a Lawyers Standards Committee under the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006. This summary was published in LawTalk 746.
A lawyer who failed to provide client-service information in advance and then terminated the relationship with the client without good cause was found guilty of unsatisfactory conduct. She was given a significant fine and ordered to pay costs.
The lawyer had been instructed to act for the client on the sale and purchase of a property being bought by the client’s son. The sale and purchase agreement had been sent to the lawyer on 1 August 2008, but she failed to communicate with either the client or his son until 9 September, just eight working days before the settlement date. When she did make contact, the lawyer said she would be unable to act for the client in the purchase because she hadn’t received “the required paperwork” from him and because she wasn’t available on the settlement date.
The Standards Committee noted, however, that the lawyer had apparently not taken any steps to provide the client with any paperwork in the first place, as required under the Rules of Conduct and Client Care. Rule 3.4 required her to give him, in advance, written information about the main aspects of client service, including the basis for charging fees. Her own failure to comply with this rule could never be grounds for ceasing to act for the client. Neither did her alleged unavailability on the settlement date justify her ceasing to act: if she was unavailable, she should have told the client this as soon as she received the sale and purchase agreement.
Once she had received instructions to act, the lawyer had a duty to complete the retainer, the Standards Committee said. She had breached Rule 4.2, which requires lawyers to complete the services required by the client under the retainer unless they have good cause to terminate or another exception applies. Rule 4.2(c) also requires a lawyer who terminates for good cause to give the client reasonable notice, specifying the grounds.
The Standards Committee fined the lawyer $1,500 and ordered her to pay costs to the New Zealand Law Society of $500. The Standards Committee decided that the facts of the case should be published, but not the names of the parties.