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Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006

Complaints and discipline - Complaints

157: Further power to make order for payment of costs

You could also call this:

"A court can order someone to pay costs if a complaint is made against them."

Illustration for Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006

If a Standards Committee makes a decision under section 152(2)(c), they can order someone to pay costs. You might get costs paid to you if you made a complaint. The costs can be paid by the New Zealand Law Society or the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers. If a Standards Committee thinks a complaint was justified, they can order the person the complaint was about to pay expenses. You can be ordered to pay expenses even if the Standards Committee did not find you did anything wrong. The expenses include salaries and overheads of the New Zealand Law Society or the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers. The Standards Committee decides what expenses to include. They think about what is fair when making their decision. You might have to pay for things like staff salaries and overheads.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM366198.

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156: Power of Standards Committee to make orders, or

"The Standards Committee can make decisions about lawyers who do something wrong."

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158: Notice of determination, or

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Part 7Complaints and discipline
Complaints

157Further power to make order for payment of costs

  1. If a Standards Committee makes a determination under section 152(2)(c), that Standards Committee may order that costs be awarded to any person to whom the complaint or matter related, and that those costs be paid—

  2. by the New Zealand Law Society (if that person is a lawyer or former lawyer or an incorporated law firm or former incorporated law firm or an employee or former employee of a lawyer or an incorporated law firm); or
    1. by the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers (if that person is a conveyancing practitioner or former conveyancing practitioner or an incorporated conveyancing firm or former incorporated conveyancing firm or an employee or former employee of a conveyancing practitioner or an incorporated conveyancing firm).

      1. Even though, in proceedings relating to a complaint or matter, a Standards Committee has made a determination under section 152(2)(c) and has not made a finding that there has been unsatisfactory conduct on the part of a person (being a practitioner or former practitioner or an incorporated firm or former incorporated firm or an employee or former employee of a practitioner or an incorporated firm) to whom the proceedings relate, the Standards Committee may, if it considers that the proceedings were justified and that it is just to do so, order that person to pay to the New Zealand Law Society or the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers such sums as the Standards Committee thinks fit in respect of the expenses of and incidental to the proceedings and any investigation of that person's conduct or of that person's affairs or trust account carried out by, or on behalf of, the Standards Committee.

      2. In this section, expenses includes not only out-of-pocket expenses but also such amounts in respect of salaries of staff and overhead expenses incurred by either the New Zealand Law Society or the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers as the Standards Committee considers properly attributable to an investigation.

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