* No legal advice is provided until engagement is complete. * I am not a legal aid barrister, I am private counsel. * If you need legal aid, please find legal aid barristers here: * I recommend Community Law Centres as being a good first point of call also.
Family member/friend/associate in prison? "I visit and contact clients in custody, regularly."
Enquire direct with me, or, you direct your solicitor to. If you are sending key documents, please send these docs to me in pdf or word form, not as images/photos pasted into the body of emails. I have a free telephone consultation with you (approx 15 minutes, depending on the matter). No legal advice, legal opinions, or 'chances of success' are given until engagement is complete.
If I think I can help you, I will provide you with my ordinary hourly rate for your matter, and what kind of initial retainer may be required, or if I consider a fixed fee is appropriate, I will indicate that I may offer you a fixed fee in my Proposal for Engagement if I think work can be appropriately scoped. A Proposal for Engagement will be sent to you via email within 72 hours.
After you receive your proposal for engagement, I recommend taking a few days to consider the letter, your litigation budget, what your goals are in the litigation, and what evidence you have to hand currently you can send to me or show me. Please note, all engagement letters have a strict 5 calendar day expiry. Experience demonstrates it is important that a client properly considers the funds they have on hand to pay for litigation, and funds that they may be able to gain access to.
If you agree with the terms, conditions, and fees, you can then sign the last page and return to me via email, or indicate your acceptance in writing via email or text message referring to the proposal for engagement. In urgent circumstances, oral acceptance may be acceptable.
If a solicitor is necessary at the outset, you may be asked to pay an initial retainer to the solicitor's trust account (further retainers may be required). The solicitor can be one of your choosing, or I can nominate a solicitor myself. For reverse briefs, I generally use a few solicitors in central and south Auckland.
Once any retainer or fixed fee is paid and the Proposal for Engagement is signed, we can get to work and start litigating.