Hamilton Locke Engagement Terms

1. Terms of engagement

This document describes the costs and terms of the services to be provided by Hamilton Locke Pty Ltd ACN 621 047 247 (Hamilton Locke, we or us) and your rights as required by the Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (NSW), the Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (Vic), and the Legal Profession Uniform Law (WA) (together, the Uniform Law) and the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) (Queensland Law) (as applicable). Hamilton Locke is a subsidiary of HPX Group Pty Ltd ACN 621 014 515.

Terms included in any document submitted by you do not apply to this agreement and have no force and effect.

2. Fees and Invoicing

2.1 How we charge you

Unless otherwise agreed, our fees are determined by an hourly charge rate. The relevant rates (exclusive of GST) are:

Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney

Partner	$695 to $1,500 per hour
Special Counsel	$630 to $790 per hour
Senior Associate	$545 to $780 per hour
Lawyer	$300 to $690 per hour
Graduate	$275 to $410 per hour
Law Clerk/Paralegal	$200 to $280 per hour
Consultant	$460 to $695 per hour

We charge these rates proportionately in 6-minute units. Tasks may include attending meetings and court, telephone calls, considering issues, briefing counsel, drafting documents, and conducting research.

All fees, charges and disbursements are exclusive of GST.

2.2 Estimate of costs

Any estimate of costs provided is not a quotation. It is based on our knowledge to date. Our costs may be higher if circumstances change.

Our estimate may change if the scope of work or your instructions change. Our estimate depends on things like duration, complexity, the frequency of communication and the approach taken by other parties, whether we receive prompt responses to questions, changes in law, or if the matter becomes contentious.

As soon as reasonably practicable, we will inform you of any substantial changes to any matter affecting costs.

2.3 Disbursements

We may incur expenses on your behalf. We will charge these as disbursements.

These may include title and company searches, court filing fees, process servers, external paralegal services, travel costs, courier fees and external expert fees. We will notify you in advance if we believe we will incur a substantial disbursement.

2.4 Engagement of third parties and external specialists

If we engage third parties on your behalf to provide specialist advice or services, or to act as our agent:

• we will consult with you about the scope of work, terms, estimated fees, prior to engagement of the third party;
• we will not be responsible for any advice or services provided by the third party; and
• you will be responsible for payment of all fees and expenses of any third parties we engage on your behalf. We may charge a margin in addition to the actual costs we incur.

2.5 Costs in litigation

Where you are successful in litigation and the court makes an order for payment of costs in your favour, you are unlikely to recover from the party liable for costs everything that you must pay us.

Generally, the court will order the liable party to pay costs on a standard basis (being approximately 50% – 66% of your aggregate costs). Enforcement of a favourable costs order can be time consuming and costly, and your costs may be unrecoverable if the liable party is liquidated or goes bankrupt. These costs are still payable by you.

Where you are unsuccessful, the court may order you to pay another party’s costs on a standard basis (being approximately 50-66% of their aggregate costs). Assume that their costs are similar to your own costs. If no agreement is reached, you may have to pay their costs based on a costs assessor’s assessment.

Costs are ultimately at the discretion of the court. It is not possible at this time to provide an accurate estimate.

2.6 Accounts and billing

We generally issue tax invoices monthly. We may issue invoices on a more frequent basis.

You consent to receiving invoices by email at the address you specify, or by any other means provided for in the Uniform Law and Queensland Law.

2.7 Overdue invoices

If you do not pay our invoices on time, we may stop work until we are paid.

If you do not pay an invoice within 30 days of receipt, we may charge you interest on the unpaid amount at the Cash Rate Target, as fixed by the Reserve Bank of Australia, at the date the invoice is issued, plus 2%.

If you do not pay an invoice, we may exercise a solicitor’s lien. This lien allows us to retain all your documents and funds in trust until you pay the outstanding amount.

If you do not pay an invoice, and we refer the outstanding invoice to a third party collection agency or law firm, you will be liable for all costs of that party on an indemnity basis, including any commission they charge.

2.8 Your rights

If you are not a commercial or government client within the meaning of the Uniform Law or a sophisticated client within the meaning of the Queensland Law, you have the right to:

• negotiate a costs agreement;
• negotiate the billing method (for example by reference to timing or task);
• receive a bill of costs from us;
• request an itemised bill within 30 days after you receive a lump sum bill or partially itemised bill;
• receive notification from us of any significant change to the basis on which we will calculate legal costs, or any significant change to the estimate of total legal costs;
• seek independent legal advice in relation to this agreement; and
• seek the assistance of the designated local regulatory authority in the event of a dispute about legal costs.

2.9  Your obligations

You must:

• provide us with timely, accurate, and proper instructions, including all relevant documents and other records;
• act reasonably and take reasonable care to protect your interests in matters the subject of this agreement;
• satisfy yourself as to the commercial viability of transactions (if any); and
• where relevant, investigate the bona fides of other parties to the transaction, checking all financial matters and assessing the commercial soundness of the transactions.

2.10  Disputes about legal costs

If you have a dispute about an invoice, we encourage you to discuss your concerns with us. If you do not feel comfortable approaching the solicitor handling your matter, please contact Managing Partner, Brit Ibanez.

Under the Uniform Law and Queensland Law, you have the right to apply:

• for a costs assessment within 12 months of delivery of a bill or request for payment or such extended time as may be permitted by the court or costs assessor after considering the reason for the delay; or
• to set aside this agreement within 6 years or other times as the law permits.

 

More information on avenues available to you in the event of a dispute in relation to legal costs can be found on the website of your local Law Society or legal profession regulatory body.

3. Termination of agreement

You may terminate this agreement at any time by providing us with written notice.

We may terminate this agreement and cease services if:

• you don’t pay our bills;
• you don’t provide adequate instructions within a reasonable timeframe;
• you provide instructions which are false or misleading;
• you don’t accept our advice or you don’t accept an offer of settlement which we think is reasonable;
• we believe we may have a conflict of interest;
• you engage another law practice to provide advice on this matter without our consent;
• you ask us to act unethically;
• we consider it is no longer appropriate to act for you; or
• for any other just cause or any other reason outside our control which has the effect of compromising our ability to perform the work required.

 

If this agreement is terminated, you must pay our fees for work done, and for expenses incurred, up to the date of termination. After termination, we may need to attend to matters to fulfil our duties to the court and to the law, or out of professional courtesy to other solicitors. You must pay our fees and expenses incurred in attending to these matters.

4. Privacy

During our engagement we may collect, handle, use, and disclose personal information (including sensitive and health information) about you, your employees, directors, officers or representatives, and third parties connected to the matter. You may provide this information to us, or we may collect it from other sources such as your agents, government agencies, court or other public records.

We collect, use, disclose and hold personal information to provide our services to you, carry out credit checks, know-your-customer checks, manage and develop our relationship with you, provide you with information about us and our services, comply with our regulatory and legal obligations and to operate our business.

We may disclose personal information for these purposes to:

• HPX Group Pty Ltd, its related bodies corporate and other entities licensed to use HPX Group brands (HPX Group);
• government departments and agencies, relevant courts or tribunals relevant to your matter;
• third parties involved in your matter such as expert witnesses or barristers; or
• our agents and third-party service providers, including overseas service providers (located in India and the Philippines) for administration and business operation purposes (such as matter management and invoicing).

 

Depending on the nature of your matter, we may collect sensitive information (for eg, where you provide us with health information, or political, professional or trade association membership information) that is relevant to your matter.

You consent to us collecting and using your information as set out in this agreement. Where you provide us with sensitive information about someone else (for eg your employee), you must inform them and obtain their permission for us to collect that information.

A copy of our Privacy Policy can be found on our website. It contains further information about how we handle personal information, how you can access or correct personal information we hold, and the process for making a privacy complaint

5. Anti-Money Laundering 

We may need to conduct anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) diligence on you, your personnel and other parties related to your matter. If required, we can’t commence work until we have satisfactorily completed this diligence

Our engagement is conditional on the satisfactory completion of all AML/CTF checks required under Australian law.

If we are unable to complete these requirements, we may not be able to act for you. Entering this agreement does not confirm or indicate that we have conducted or cleared AML/CTF.

6. Confidentiality

Subject to law and the terms of this agreement, each party must keep the confidential information of the other party confidential. A party must only use and disclose confidential information of the other party for the purposes of performing the party’s obligations pursuant to this agreement.

We may use your confidential information within HPX Group, and disclose to our agents, service providers and contractors if required for compliance, administration and business operation purposes.

7. Use of Artificial Intelligence

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist with your matter, including for drafting, research, document review and analysis, and for administrative purposes. Our lawyers review and supervise all work produced using AI. If you have specific needs regarding the use of AI tools, please contact your Hamilton Locke contact to discuss.

8. Intellectual Property 

You own the intellectual property in your documents and materials. We own the intellectual property in ours, including anything we create in performing our services (Created Work). We grant you a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use the Created Work for the purposes of receiving the benefit of our services.

Where your matter includes intellectual property work, the proposed work will be undertaken by either a lawyer or a registered Trade Marks Attorney with appropriate competency, including by drawing on technical expertise and who is bound by the Code of Conduct for Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys 2013.

We may use your name and trade marks in marketing material promoting our prior experience. If a matter is sensitive, we will consult with you first.

9. Document retention

On completion or termination of this agreement, we will store copies of your documents electronically. If requested, we will provide a copy of the documents created for you. We will return any original signed documents to you. You must make sure that you collect any documents you need to keep for tax or other purposes.

You authorise us to destroy the file seven years after the date of our final invoice.

If you instruct us to transfer our file, or provide you or another person with a copy of the file or particular documents, we will be entitled to charge you the cost of doing so, calculated in accordance with this agreement, including fees for reviewing and preparing the file, or external consultant costs for copying electronic documents.

10. Limitation of liability

Our liability (and the liability of any person who provides services under this agreement) for any:

• failure by us to comply with any consumer guarantee in respect of the supply of our services that are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption is limited, at our sole discretion, to:
  • the resupply of the services again; or
  • the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again, (Limit 1); and
• loss or damage suffered as a result of this agreement or our engagement which otherwise arises, whether in tort (including negligence), contract or otherwise, must not exceed a total of 10 times the total fees received by us in relation to the matter in which the liability arises (exclusive of GST and disbursements) (Limit 2).

 

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release us (and any person who provides services under this agreement) from all claims arising in connection with this agreement to the extent to which those claims exceed Limit 1 or Limit 2 (whichever is the higher).

We are not liable for any loss or damage to the extent such loss or damage is attributable to a breach of this agreement by you, or the fault, negligence or lack of care on your part or on the part of any person for whom you are responsible.

Neither party is liable (whether in tort, including negligence, contract or otherwise) to the other party for any loss of profit or any other indirect or consequential loss.

This provision does not exclude, restrict or modify the application of any provision of the Australian Consumer Law.

11. General

11.1 Applicable law

The law of the State or Territory in which the Partner responsible for the matter performs the work, applies to these terms and legal costs in this matter.

If the law of Queensland applies to this matter, you have the right to notify us in writing that you require a corresponding law of another State or Territory to apply to this matter. You may also accept or reject a written offer from us that a corresponding law of another State or Territory will apply to this matter.

You direct any money received on your behalf by Hamilton Locke to be banked into the general trust account operated by it in New South Wales. You acknowledge that this trust account is subject to supervision by the New South Wales Law Society and is maintained in accordance with section 137 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (NSW), effective at the time of the deposit. If any claim for defalcation is made, it will be made in and under the rules of New South Wales. No interest is payable on money in our trust account

11.2 Unenforceable provisions

If any part of this agreement is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any respect, the remainder continues in force.

11.3 Survival

Any provision which by its nature is intended to survive termination or expiry, survive the termination or expiry of this agreement.

11.4 Acceptance

If you continue to give us instructions after receiving this agreement, you are agreeing to these terms.