New Zealand Law Society - How the Standards Committees assess complaints about fees
A lawyer’s fees must be fair and reasonable for the services provided. If you have concerns about the fees your lawyer or law firm has charged you, talk to your lawyer or law firm first. They can explain their fees in more detail or help resolve the matter.
If you’re not satisfied with your lawyer’s response after speaking to them, you may consider making a complaint to the Lawyers Complaints Service (LCS). Complaints are initially assessed by the LCS, who will decide if it should be referred to a Standards Committees or if no actions should be taken. Find out more about initial assessment and how the complaints process works.
If you are having difficulty paying your lawyer’s bill, the first step is to tell your lawyer or law firm about your situation. Once they are aware of your circumstances, they may be able to consider an alternative payment arrangement. It will be up to the lawyer or law firm to decide whether this is appropriate.
The law places some limits on complaints about lawyer's fees. Standards Committees can’t consider complaints about bills that are:
unless ‘special circumstances’ apply.
Examples of special circumstances may include where a lawyer has done no work at all but has billed you, or where multiple bills have been issued over a period of years for a single piece of legal work.
To complain about a bill that is older than two years, or less than $2,000, you will need to explain what ‘special circumstances’ you think apply to your situation.
If the bill you are complaining about was issued before 1 August 2008, a Standards Committee can only consider it if you believe there has been gross overcharging or dishonest overcharging.
When a Standards Committee looks at whether a lawyer’s bill for services is fair and reasonable, some fee factors¹ considered include:
If a bill is particularly large or complicated, a Standards Committee may appoint an external costs assessor to consider it. A costs assessor provides the Standards Committee with a report on whether the bill is fair and reasonable in the circumstances.
Complaints can take between 3-18 months to progress through to a conclusion, depending on how quickly you and the lawyer provide the required information, the complexity of the underlying circumstances, and whether a costs assessor is appointed. More information on complaints process.
What you need to provide
For a Standards Committee to consider your complaint about fees, you’ll need to provide:
- a copy of the bill you’re complaining about
- details of why you’re complaining about the bill
- details of the lawyer or law firm who issued the bill
- a copy of the Terms of Engagement/Letter of Engagement that was issued to you by the lawyer or law firm
- a copy of any correspondence you’ve had with the lawyer about the bill
- the lawyer’s time records, if you have them
- a copy of any estimate/fee agreement that you were provided with, if applicable
- details of any ‘special circumstances’, if applicable.
A Standards Committee may also request information or documents from the lawyer, such as an itemised bill, time records and/or an explanation of the bill and any discussions they had with you about it.
After an initial review of a complaint, including a complaint about fees, the LCS can decide to take no action or no further action on the complaint in certain circumstances (meaning the complaint would be closed and the bill would remain as it is).
If a complaint about a bill is referred to a Standards Committee, after considering the complaint, the Standards Committee may:
Find out more: Possible complaint outcomes
While lawyers are not allowed to start or continue any action to collect an unpaid bill while a Standards Committee considers a complaint, they are allowed to charge interest on any unpaid bills while the complaint is processed.
Your lawyer may also retain your file until payment is received (subject to any Privacy Act request you may make for your personal information).
Therefore, there are practical reasons why you may choose to pay the bill in full before the due date and make your complaint afterwards.
You can still make a complaint about fees even if you have already paid them. If the fees are determined to be unfair or unreasonable, the lawyer can be required to fully or partially refund you.
Anyone responsible for paying a lawyer’s fees can make a complaint about it. This includes beneficiaries who have an interest in property out of which a trustee, executor or administrator paid a lawyer’s fees. It also includes a party who is liable to pay the fees of another, such as in a lessee/lessor relationship.
Yes, you can complain about fees and the conduct or services of the lawyer who is responsible for the fees. It is important that you make this clear so that the LCS can ensure all aspects of your complaint are considered during the initial assessment and, where applicable, by a Standards Committee.
The content here is reviewed annually. While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of the information on our website, there may, on occasion, be minor differences between translated versions. Information here is as up to date as possible but may be subject to change at times.