Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006

Complaints and discipline - Complaints service

122: Rules

You could also call this:

"Rules to Follow When Complaining About a Lawyer"

Illustration for Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006

You need to follow some rules when making a complaint about a lawyer or conveyancer. The New Zealand Law Society and the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers make rules for their complaints services. These rules help ensure complaints are dealt with fairly and efficiently. You can find more information about these rules in the Legislation Act 2019, Part 3. The rules are made to help complaints services work well. They cover all types of complaints, including those about service, costs, and conduct. The New Zealand Law Society and the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers must keep their rules up to date. They do this to ensure complaints are dealt with in a fair, efficient, and effective manner. This helps you when you make a complaint about a lawyer or conveyancer.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM366158.

This page was last updated on 4 January 2026 — View changes

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal helpMoney and consumer rights > Consumer protection

121: Obligation to establish complaints service, or

"Lawyers and conveyancers must have a service to handle complaints about them."

123: Administration of complaints service, or

"How the complaints service works to handle complaints fairly and efficiently"

Part 7Complaints and discipline
Complaints service

122Rules

The New Zealand Law Society and the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers must each make and maintain practice rules governing the operation of the complaints service established by it.
The rules governing the operation of a complaints service must be designed to ensure, as far as is practicable, that all complaints received by the complaints service (whether they are about service, costs, conduct, or any other matter) are dealt with in a fair, efficient, and effective manner.
Practice rules under this section are secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

Notes

Section 122(3): inserted, on 28 October 2021, by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).