Complaints

District Law Societies are obliged to consider all complaints received about Lawyers within their district. The area covered by the Otago District Law Society covers all of Otago including Queenstown, Wanaka and Oamaru.

If you wish to make a complaint you will need to put your story down in writing to explain the nature of the problem, and who it is about. You may also wish to include what steps you have taken to this point in trying to resolve the matter yourself.

Here is a checklist of the important information your letter should contain.

Your account should be concise but include all information relevant to your complaint.

The complaint will be investigated by the Complaints Committee. The membership of this committee is extensive enough to avoid possible conflicts of interest.

The powers under the Law Practitioners act 1982 are limited to investigations where rules about legal practice have been broken. If a Law Society believes that a rule has been broken, it has the option in serious cases of prosecuting the lawyer before a Disciplinary Tribunal. Most complaints are resolved without the need to take disciplinary action, and only a very small number of complaints end up with a prosecution.

---

What the Law Society cannot do

The Law Society cannot give legal advice or a second opinion. It cannot award compensation. In all but the most extreme cases of negligence the Society has no option but to refer you to the Courts to pursue a civil action.

The Law Society cannot interfere with or have overturned any Court Judgement or Order which you might think unfair.

---

Cost revisions

The Law Practitioners Act 1982 part VIII sets out a procedure by which a lawyer’s bill of costs may be reviewed. It also sets time limits within which a review may be applied for, and so it is important that any application to the Otago District Law Society for review of a bill of costs is made as soon as possible after the bill of costs is received.

The various criteria for a revision, along with an outline of the process and what information you are entitled to receive on your bill are included in the Society's booklet Cost Revision Procedure Guidelines which can be viewed by clicking here,or downloaded as a file:

	Cost revision (acrobat file)	We recommend you right-click on the file's link and choose "Save Target As..."
	Cost revision (RTF Word file)