Terms of Engagement

Terms of Engagement

These are our standard terms of engagement. They apply for each matter where you instruct us to act for you unless varied by written agreement and your instructions will be deemed to be acceptance of these terms.

The Scope And Quality Of Work

We commit to providing you with the best services possible where the advice given will be based on our experience and professional judgement. This should not be taken as a guarantee regarding outcomes. Our duty of care is to you. Before any other person may rely on our advice we must expressly agree to this.

Managing Your File

The names and status of the person or persons who will have overall responsibility for the services we provide for you are set out in our letter of engagement. To manage your matter efficiently and cost effectively, please provide us with:

Please do not hesitate to ask us to clarify any aspect that you may be unsure of.

Fees

The setting of fees is dependent on a number of factors and the manner in which they will be arrived at are set out in our engagement letter. Estimating fees is dependent on: the complexity, importance and urgency of a matter; the skill, specialised knowledge, responsibility and risk involved; the results achieved; and the time expended by relevant staff including their experience, reputation and ability. All court attendances are billed as per the hourly rates given in our acceptance document.

Fee Estimates

Estimates are a guide to the costs that may be incurred on a matter. They are not a quote or maximum fee. We will keep you regularly updated on the progress of your matter and will advise you in advance whether the fee estimate needs to be adjusted. Estimates will normally be for our fee plus the expenses and disbursements we will incur on your behalf, and will exclude GST.  

Contingency Fee

If funds and/or goods/property are recovered from another party as a result of our investigation, the following will apply as a contingency payment to our firm:

1.  30% cash payment of the total funds recovered; and/or;

2.  20% cash payment of the market value of the goods/property recovered -

after deducting all expenses incurred (as outlined in our fees and expenses clause) whilst pursuing the matter will be retained/claimed by us as part of a contingency fee. 

If funds are recovered and paid directly to us, we will hold payment in our trust account and withdraw said funds from that account upon completion of the investigation.  Any excess amount will be promptly refunded to the client.

If funds are recovered and paid to the client, the client is required to pay us within 28 days of funds being cleared into their nominated bank account.

If goods/property are recovered, the client is required to pay us within 28 days from the date of recovery.  If the market value of goods/property is not agreed upon, the client will be solely responsible for appointing an independent valuer, as agreed by our company to provide a value of said goods/property.

Upon obtaining a recovery, we will provide you with a written statement stating the outcome of the matter which shows the amount of the recovery, the Client’s share, and the method of its determination.

Fixed Fees

If the engagement letter specifies a fixed fee, we will charge this for the agreed scope of our services. Work which falls outside that scope will be charged on an hourly rate basis. There are minimum increments of 15 mins for chargeable time.  We will advise you as soon as reasonably practicable if it becomes necessary for us to provide services outside the agreed scope and if requested, give you an estimate of the likely amount of the further costs.

Disbursements And Expenses

In providing services we may incur disbursements or have to make payments to third parties on your behalf. GST is payable by an internal disbursement recovery fee of 30% of the total GST exclusive fee will be charged. This fee will typically include disbursements such as photocopying, faxes, couriers, national telephone toll calls and mobile telephone calls that do not exceed $10.00 each.  We will invoice you all third party disbursements as they are incurred. Where any of these disbursement costs exceed $150.00 we may ask for a payment in advance before we commence the work. Where an independent professional advisor is required to be engaged, it is expected that this fee will be paid by you prior to their engagement; or an independent arrangement be made between you and the independent professional concerned. In the event that your matter proceeds to court, we will require to charge to cover the preparation and time in court. We will advise you of this by telephone and/or in writing and will provide you with our account details so that payment can be made.

Invoices

It is our practice to bill on a monthly basis where the matter is ongoing and on completion of the matter or on termination of our engagement. Invoices are payable within 7 days of the date of the invoice and upon completion of the matter unless alternative arrangements have been made with us. When we are holding money on your behalf in our trust account, we may draw on that money for our fees and disbursements when invoiced. You authorise us to deduct our fees and disbursements from any judgment, settlement or other money received by us on your behalf.  Although you may expect a third party to pay our invoices, or you may request us to direct our invoices to a third party, you remain responsible for the timely payment of our invoices. All payments made by credit card are subject to a 4% surcharge.   All investigation work, excluding process serving, will have a $170.00 file management fee applied to the invoice for file storage and retention costs incurred by us.

Delay Or Difficulty In Paying Our Invoices

If you anticipate having difficulty paying an invoice on time, please immediately contact our credit controller. We may be able to make alternative payment arrangements such as payment by instalments. You may be required to pay interest on any amount which is more than 7 days overdue. Interest will be calculated at the rate of 5% above our firm’s trading bank’s 90-day bank bill buy rate as at the close of business on the date payment became due.

If your account remains unpaid we may not continue to act on your behalf. You will be liable for all costs associated with the collection and recovery of your overdue and unpaid account. Information you have provided to us may be used to assist in collecting an overdue account.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

We hold professional indemnity insurance.

Questions And Complaints

We maintain a procedure for handling questions or complaints by clients designed to ensure that these are dealt with promptly and fairly. Please state your concerns clearly in writing and address your letter to your Liaison Partner. Alternatively you may refer your concerns to the investigation member acting for you, or you can contact Daniel A Thompson by letter, phone and/or email (as listed on our website).

Privacy

We will hold in confidence all information concerning you or your affairs that we acquire during the course of acting for you. You have the right to access this information and you may request us to correct this information if it is not correct. We will not disclose any of this information to any other person except:

Termination

You may terminate our retainer or significantly modify your instructions at any time. Please advise us in writing as soon as possible. Until we receive notification in writing we may continue with our original instructions that may incur further costs for you in the meantime.

There may be instances where we may be unable to act for you. These circumstances may include:

Conflicts Of Interest

We will always try to identify any issues in advance and discuss these with you. If for any reason we are unable to continue to act for you, we will advise you in writing. If our retainer is terminated you must pay us all fees due up to the date of termination and all expenses incurred up to that date.

Court/Litigation/Legal Process Attendances

The client acknowledges that the company shall be paid for all subsequent court and/or tribunal attendances that it and its investigators are obliged to attend which arise from our work for you. This will be charged at the hourly rate specified in the request for services, or at a set rate of NZ$240.00/hour (whichever is higher), whether the court and or tribunal action is initiated by the client and/or any other party.  This includes any instance whereby we have been required to instruct legal counsel directly relating to your matter, in which case, our legal fees will be the responsibility of the client at cost plus 30%.

Retention Of Files

You authorise us (without further reference to you) to destroy all files and documents for this matter (other than any documents that we hold in safe custody for you) 3 years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format.

Licensing

The Investigators holds both Private Investigation and Security Guards Licenses issue by the Ministry of Justice under the provisions of the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act 1974. We have no more additional powers than that of an ordinary citizen.

Electronic Computer Forensics Work

‘The client’ as noted in the following terms and conditions is deemed to be any person acting on or behalf of, and with the authority of, any type of organisation or any person purchasing the services and products of The Investigators New Zealand Limited further referred to as The Investigators.

Any verbal or written (including email) instructions received from the client to engage The Investigators in service or the purchase of goods shall constitute a binding contract and acceptance of these terms and conditions. The Investigators terms and conditions can be found on their website via link within The Investigators CMS at the commencement of a case, delivery of hardware or instruction to The Investigators.

1. Acceptance

By submission of hardware to The Investigators, the client agrees with these terms and authorises The Investigators, its employees, and agents to receive and transport this media/equipment/data to, from, and between their facilities.

2. Legal Rights

i. The client warrants that they are the legal owner, representative or otherwise and has legitimate rights to property and all data contained therein sent to The Investigators.

ii. Any property unclaimed for 90 days will be disposed of unless prior arrangements made. In the instance The Investigators receives no written or verbal response from a client for 90 days, any hardware associated will become the property of The Investigators. Data contained within any supplied hardware that becomes the property of The Investigators regarding this clause will be safely and securely destroyed after this period expires.

iii. The client warrants that they have the legal right to instruct The Investigators regarding the supplied hardware and or given instruction.

Iiii. The Investigators reserves all intellectual property rights with regard to documents, software and processes carried out by or created by its staff in the execution of this contract.

3. Liability

i. The Investigators as a company shall carry out its duties to the best of its abilities while exercising due professionalism and diligence. The Investigators will not be liable for errors made as a result of incorrect information from the client.

ii. The Investigators shall not be liable for any claims regarding the physical functioning of equipment or media or the condition or existence of data on storage media supplied before, during, or after service.

iii. The Investigators shall not be liable for any direct or indirect damages, including loss of data or loss of revenue, incidental or consequential, before, during or after service.

4. Confidentiality

i. Except where a statutory provision, regulation or other professional obligation to disclose information is in effect, The Investigators, its officers, employees, and agents agree to absolute non-disclosure of any and all information or data files supplied with, stored on, or recovered from client equipment.

5. Payment

i. Payment in full is required before return of any recovered data/work unless by special previous arrangement.

ii. Payment may be made by credit card or internet banking. We accept Paypal, Visa and MasterCard.

iii. Debt collection fees will become the responsibility of the client if the account is not paid in full by due date which by default will be two weeks from the date of issue. 

iv. Once The Investigators receives either verbal or written authority to proceed a recovery, an invoice will be issued to the client for the work to follow. The issuing of this invoice is acknowledged by the client and The Investigators as a contractual agreement to complete the work outlined in this invoice and the client is then bound by the terms of the invoice.

v. All fees are quoted exclusive of GST.

6. Media Warranty

i. The Investigators gives warranty only on the evidence files copied to any return media found to be “dead on arrival” within 10 days of shipment. Any additional warranty claims must be presented to the original manufacturer. 

7. Shipping

i. All shipping charges are the responsibility of the client unless otherwise agreed.

8. Data Retention

i. The Investigators will retain a copy of any/all evidence files for a period of one month unless a different time period is mutually agreed by the client and The Investigators. Data will be securely destroyed after one month has lapsed.

ii. An additional copies of evidence files may be requested by the client for a fee. The Investigators will always ask for suitable identification before supplying copies of retained data.

iii. Longer-term storage of evidence may be arranged for a nominal fee.

 iv. Any forensic case will have E01 sets retained for one month. Should you believe in that time that your case may proceed further or that evidence will be required in the future, it is suggested you organise with the tech assigned to your case to have these sets provided to you.

9. Cost

i. The client acknowledges they have been given a cost for this exercise and this has been cleared with any and all parties involved before being sent to The Investigators for assessment.

ii. The cost covers only the exercise as confirmed in the overview supplied to the client.

iii. Oversized items may incur additional charges regarding freight 

iv. Spare parts required outside The Investigatorss extensive drive library to repair faulty hardware may add to both cost and timeframe but will always be quoted first if required.

 v. In the instance any item bearing an IMEI number is supplied to the lab (cell phone or tablet) in a damaged state – a service charge will be applied noted to be $200 plus GST unless the client is given written confirmation this is to be waived.

10. Force Majeure

i. Neither party is liable to the other for failure to meet its obligations under the contract to the extent the failure was caused by an act of god or other circumstance outside its reasonable control.

11. Complaints

i. The Investigators must be advised in writing of any complaints within 30 days of the date of work being invoiced.

ii. In the instance of any legitimate complaint, The Investigators has the option of fee adjustment, rectifying the completed work or mediation to be determined by senior management.

12. Legal Obligations

i. Nothing in this agreement shall override the laws and statutes of New Zealand. 

Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007

Under this Act, you must consent to receiving commercial emails from us. Consent can be either explicit, inferred or deemed. We will infer that we have your consent to send you commercial emails from time to time unless you inform us otherwise by letter or email. The email address for unsubscribing to commercial emails is: unsubscribe@theinvestigators.co.nz

Client Feedback

Your feedback is key to the continuing success of our quality management system. Any questions or comments that you may have regarding our work may be directed in writing to your Liaison Partner, our Finance Manager and/or our Operations Manager. Our contact details are: PO Box 120, Clevedon, New Zealand phone 0800 747 633 or by email: info@theinvestigators.co.nz

Client Care And Service

The Investigators' care and service information is set out below. Whatever investigative services your investigator is providing, he or she must:

Any limitations on the extent of our obligations to you or any limitation or exclusion of liability are set out in our letter of engagement. We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time, in which case we will send you amended Terms.