Who are our Clients?
We don’t know who our clients will be but can only base them on who we are and the other victims we spoke to and heard about. I’m a qualified accountant and we would have used NRL as would all of the people from various walks of life who shared their stories with us.
When there are professionals, like the Real Estate Agents who work for the international firm whose accountant Gabrielle spoke to on a plane, who rely on their Professional Indemnity cover to protect them from negligence and misrepresentation claims from their clients knowing that the majority will not be able to take any action because the cost of litigation is too high, no individual or business is safe.
I accept that Professional Indemnity cover is important for businesses especially for cases like ours where systems were not followed and there was absolutely no malice or premeditation in our lawyers actions.
I find it difficult when a professional - who is aware that the high cost of litigation results in few claims being made - still decides to be negligent and make misrepresentations as a part of normal business.
NRL wants the ease at which clients can get No Win No Fee representation to make these activities a thing of the past.
Are all of our clients individuals?
Some of our clients are individuals but many are incorporated companies, sole traders, partnerships, family trusts, body corporates and even class action law suits and all of them are potential victims of negligence.
While some professionals actively use Professional Indemnity insurance to protect them, from negligence and misrepresentation claims, no one is protected.
NRL is there to give these potential victims a chance for legal justice.
What are our client’s character traits?
The actions of negligent professionals have had a long lasting impression on our clients. We know what it’s like – we didn’t even set a budget for our lawyers because we wanted them to do a thorough and proper job. Our Vendor was found guilty of misrepresentation which is what our lawyer was meant to protect us from.
Our clients are different now that they have been exposed to negligence. What was once an urban myth is now their reality!
We heard too many stories of victims and there was a similar pattern
- Disastrous consequences and no legal action because they couldn’t afford it. They had spent their money paying a premium for the negligence professional’s service.
NRL wants to provide an option for these clients.
This photo was taken on New Years Eve days after we purchased the business with our friends Maarty and Erin – little did we know of what was in store for us.
What were the traits before negligence?
All of the clients were different people before the negligence and had the following character traits:
Cautious and conservative
- There is a belief that if you want a job done properly you spend the extra money and get a professional to do it for you.
Understand the value of money
- Engaging a professional to carry out a job for you is expensive. Our clients knew that engaging a professional would likely cost them more money but they were willing to pay the premium for having the job done properly.
Trusting
- Who better to get to carry out your tasks than someone who is an expert or professional in their field? Our clients understand that the professional knows more than they do which is why they engaged them.
Some would say that they were also naïve but I would disagree. Our lawyers were recommended to me as being the best in our city and we were dealing with the Managing Partner and his Associate. Both were experts in commercial and business legal matters.
While they were found to be negligent, I believe it was not intentional and merely a system failure.
What were the traits after negligence?
All of the clients were far different people after the negligence and now had the following character traits:
Wary
- Once bitten twice shy.
Anxious
- Their trusted professional let them down when they needed them the most.
Untrusting
- They let the professional into their lives and were let down and left to fight an insurance company’s lawyers to get justice. Often the professional has told them “Trust me I know what I’m doing.”
Upset
- Within a matter of hours we were told that our lawyer could no longer represent us and that they had done nothing wrong. Our lawyers had been promoted to us as being at the top of their field.
In Disbelief
- We’d been dropped by our lawyers and could no longer talk to them except through our lawyers at a cost to us. It was also obvious to us what had happened but now we needed to pay money to prove that our professionals were in the wrong.
Resentful
- Our only option was to spend a lot of money and hope that we got some action. We were initially told that the case would cost us $100,000 and would take one year. It took four years and $700,000 due to the actions of the other parties.
- We had engaged lawyers we were told were the best and so paid for this not to happen – of course we were resentful.
Angry
- Naturally.
Uncertain
- If we had engaged "the best" to do the work for us, how was another lawyer going to do better.
Foolish
- Hindsight is a wonderful thing. How could we have been so foolish as to engage our professionals to do the job for us.
Afraid
- Was history going to repeat itself with our new lawyers? Why didn’t we use them in the first place?
Nervous
- How can the NRL service help us and is it as good as it says? We had no option but to pay as we went.
- With NRL, if you and your lawyer both agree, you have the option to pay nothing, except for the assessment and opinion on your case, unless there is a settlement.
- We would have welcomed this outcome as our lawyer would have been motivated to get us the best result as they would have had an interest in it.
Stressed
- Let’s not forget that the professional has also left a lot of damage behind all of which now rests on the clients shoulders.
Frustrated
- All of the plans have been destroyed but the responsibilities and longterm liabilities still remain.
- We’d owned the business for a year and them decided to expand our Petcare business and took on two leases to accommodate our expansion – the multi-year leases were all we had left from our expansion plans.
What is the responsibility of our lawyers?
NRL places a lot of responsibility on the lawyers subscribed to our service to do the best they can for their clients and to be honest.
If at the free meeting with your new lawyer, the lawyer doesn’t think that you have a case, they will tell you and will explain the reasons behind their opinion.
They are not interested in preparing a written review and opinion of your case just to make money from you.
We rely on them to explain to you why they think that you have a case before they go and review it.
This is why it is important that you the client bring all of your information to the initial meeting – even if it is at a coffee shop due to COVID 19.
What is the responsibility of our clients?
NRL relies on the clients who use our service to be honest with their new lawyer because the other party’s lawyers will spend time checking that you are honest.
I spent 1.5 days in the witness stand during our trial and the bulk of the time was spent “testing my credibility.”
Our daughter Paige is incredible and a testament to her exposure to Rotary and its members. She decided that she wanted to help her community and ended up as Chair of our local Youth Council. This lead to other opportunities including the opportunity to be a member of the Ministry of Youth Development Fund Partnership Board which requires approval from the Prime Minister. She is the only member from the South Island and was appointed when she was 17 years old. Gabrielle had to chaperone her to Wellington until she was 18.
She’s studying to be a lawyer and was in Court when she overheard the defendant’s lawyers looking towards her and discussing the MYD Fund Partnership Board. This demonstrated how thorough they had investigated us and highlights why you need to disclose everything to your lawyer as the opposing parties will research you. If only they had been as thorough with their evidence checking.
Paige was a finalist in the 2018 New Zealand Women of Influence Awards – Youth Category. The three of us flew to Auckland for the presentations.