Terms of Service

Last updated: 8 October 2026 · Applies to New Zealand and Australia

By using Lawmateanz, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you don't agree, don't use the platform.

"Lawmateanz," "we," "us," and "our" in these Terms refer to LawMate Limited, a company incorporated in New Zealand, unless the context requires otherwise.

1. What this platform is

Lawmateanz is a directory and matching service. We are not a law firm, we do not provide legal advice, and we are not a party to any engagement between a client and a lawyer, or between a lawyer and any accountant/VA/cybersecurity provider found through the platform.

2. Eligibility

You must be 18 or older and provide accurate information. Lawyers and other providers must hold a genuine, current licence/certification in the country and region they select.

3. For clients

Using the platform to find a lawyer is free. We do our best to match you with a suitable lawyer, but we don't guarantee availability, outcome, or the quality of any advice you receive — that relationship is between you and the lawyer.

How we make money: we charge lawyers a flat subscription fee for access to the directory and client matches — we do not take a percentage of any fee, settlement, or award from your case. Lawyers keep 100% of whatever they earn from your matter; what you pay them is a matter between you and your lawyer, not us.

Leaving a review: if you've been matched with a lawyer, you may be invited to leave a rating and review reflecting your own genuine experience. Reviews must be honest and must not contain defamatory, abusive, or knowingly false content. We do not pre-moderate every review before it's published, but we will investigate reports of false or defamatory reviews and remove them where warranted — see our reporting process available on every lawyer's profile. Submitting a review that violates this policy may result in that review being removed and, for repeated or serious violations, restriction from submitting further reviews.

4. For lawyers and other providers

Access to the directory and to client/lawyer matches is subject to the subscription or one-off fees described on our pricing pages. Fees are charged via Stripe and, where recurring, can be cancelled at any time from your dashboard. Fees are flat, not a percentage of any matter — we take no share of your fees, settlements, or awards. Subscribing or purchasing an access pass gives you eligibility to be matched — it does not guarantee any specific number of leads or matches, or that any will occur at all. Volume depends on client demand, other users' activity, your practice area/region, and factors outside our control.

Free trial (lawyers only): once your credentials are verified, you're listed in the directory at no charge until you receive your first client match. That first match is free. After it, you won't receive further matches until you start the flat monthly subscription. There's no time limit on the trial, and no card is needed to start it.

Stale-lead reassignment (lawyers only): if a client was auto-matched to you (as opposed to specifically choosing you from the directory) and you haven't marked the lead as responded to within 48 hours, we may reassign it to another available lawyer so the client isn't left waiting. This never applies to a client who picked you by name. You'll be notified if a lead of yours is reassigned this way.

Refunds: all fees — the lawyer subscription and every one-off accountant/VA/cybersecurity access pass — are non-refundable once processed, except where a refund is required by law (for example, under New Zealand's Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or Australia's Australian Consumer Law, where the service was not provided, or was not provided with reasonable care and skill). This policy doesn't override those statutory rights where they apply — it means we don't offer discretionary refunds for a simple change of mind. For a subscription, cancelling from your dashboard stops future billing immediately, but does not refund the current billing period already paid for.

For lawyers specifically: your public profile displays a response rate — an aggregate percentage of matched clients who reported you got in touch, based on a minimum of 3 responses. This is generated automatically from client self-reports and isn't something we verify beyond that; see our Privacy Policy for how it's calculated. Any Legal Aid or fixed-fee availability shown on your profile is self-reported by you and is not independently verified.

Your public profile may also display client reviews and ratings. Reviews are submitted by clients who were genuinely matched with you through the platform — we do not independently verify the content of any individual review, but limit submission to real, matched clients as described in section 3 above. If you believe a review about you is false, fabricated, or defamatory, you can report it directly from your dashboard; we'll investigate and remove reviews that violate our review policy.

For accountants specifically: Section 330 of APES 110 (the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, mandatory for CA ANZ members) requires disclosing referral fees or commissions to clients in writing. Paying Lawmateanz a fee to be introduced to lawyers may fall within that requirement — confirm the specific application with your own professional body if unsure. As with lawyers, this platform doesn't make that disclosure on your behalf.

5. Your own professional obligations (lawyers)

You are solely responsible for complying with your own jurisdiction's professional conduct rules, including but not limited to:

• Checking for conflicts of interest before accepting any matter
• Assessing your own competence and capacity to take on the matter
• Deciding, independently, whether to accept any particular client
• Setting and clearly explaining your own fees
• Providing the client-care information your jurisdiction requires
• Complying with all applicable professional conduct rules

In particular: paying a fee to receive client referrals may itself need to be disclosed to that client under your jurisdiction's rules (for example, Rule 12.4 of the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules, or the equivalent duty under the NZ Law Society's Rules of Conduct and Client Care) before you act for them. This platform does not disclose that on your behalf — that's your obligation as the lawyer of record, and you should confirm the specific requirement with your own law society if unsure.

6. Referrals to accountants, VAs, and cybersecurity providers

Lawyers receive no commission, rebate, credit, or other benefit for being matched with or referring clients to any accountant, VA, or cybersecurity provider found through this platform. Those providers do not receive any client information without the relevant party's consent. Nothing on this platform implies an endorsement of any provider's quality or suitability, and any user is free to choose a different provider through any other channel at any time.

7. Verification

We run basic checks (format validation, duplicate detection) automatically and manually check practising credentials against the relevant public register before approving a listing. This confirms a credential was current at the time of approval — it isn't an ongoing guarantee, and users should independently verify anyone they engage with.

8. One subscription, one professional

A lawyer's subscription and listing are personal to the specific individual whose credentials were verified. A client match belongs to that lawyer — it may not be silently handed off, redistributed, or worked by a different lawyer at the same firm without that other lawyer holding their own verified profile and subscription. The same principle applies to accountants, VAs, and cybersecurity providers: a batch of matched lawyers belongs to the specific verified individual or entity who purchased it, not to an unverified team working on their behalf. If a firm or business wants multiple people available to receive or work matches, each of those people needs their own account. We may suspend or terminate any account found to be sharing matches this way, without refund.

9. Privacy

We handle personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy, and are committed to complying with New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020 and, where applicable, Australia's Privacy Act 1988. We take reasonable steps to protect your information but cannot guarantee absolute security — see our Privacy Policy for what that means in practice, including what happens if a breach occurs.

10. Prohibited conduct

No fraudulent applications, fake credentials, harassment of other users, or use of the platform for anything unlawful.

11. Limitation of liability

Lawmateanz is a directory and introduction service only. We are not a party to, and assume no responsibility for, any engagement between users of this platform. To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• We are not liable for any act, omission, error, negligence, breach of duty, breach of confidentiality, misconduct, or professional failure by any lawyer, accountant, virtual assistant, or cybersecurity provider listed on or matched through this platform.
• We are not liable for the outcome of any legal matter, financial advice, engagement, or service arranged through the platform.
• We do not supervise, control, or take responsibility for the day-to-day conduct of any listed professional once a match has been made — that relationship, and any dispute arising from it, is between the parties to it, not us.
• We are not liable for any security failure, outage, or data incident caused by a third-party service provider (e.g. Stripe, Resend, Vercel, Supabase) that is outside our reasonable control, though we'll still meet our own breach-notification obligations described in our Privacy Policy.
• Our total liability to any user, for any reason, is limited to the fees that user paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

Nothing in this section excludes any right or guarantee that cannot lawfully be excluded under the NZ Fair Trading Act or Australian Consumer Law.

The platform is provided "as is." We don't guarantee it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any particular lawyer or provider will be available at any given time.

12. Indemnification

You agree to cover us for any claim, loss, or cost (including legal fees) arising from your own misconduct, breach of these terms, or violation of any law — including, for listed professionals, any claim arising from your own advice, conduct, or failure to meet your professional obligations (including any disclosure obligation described in section 5).

13. Termination

We may suspend or remove any account that breaches these terms, provides false credentials, or is found not to be validly licensed.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by New Zealand law. Nothing here overrides your own obligations under Australian law if you use the platform there.

15. Changes

We'll update the date at the top of this page if these terms change materially.

16. No Endorsement

Lawmateanz verifies that each listed professional holds a genuine, currently valid credential against the relevant public register (e.g., the New Zealand Law Society or Legal Practice Board of Western Australia register) at the time of listing. This verification confirms credential validity only. It is not, and must not be construed as, an endorsement, recommendation, guarantee, or warranty of any professional's competence, conduct, judgment, or the outcome of any engagement. Selecting or being matched with a professional through Lawmateanz does not create any warranty by Lawmateanz as to that professional's future conduct. Any dispute regarding the quality, competence, or outcome of professional services rendered is strictly between the client and the professional; Lawmateanz is not a party to that engagement and bears no liability for it.

17. Fee Structure — Flat Rate Only

Lawmateanz's compensation from lawyers is a fixed, flat monthly subscription fee, disclosed in advance and identical regardless of the volume, value, or outcome of any client matter. Lawmateanz does not, under any circumstance, receive a percentage, commission, or share of any professional's fees, settlements, awards, or billings, whether directly or indirectly. No arrangement between Lawmateanz and any listed professional constitutes fee-splitting, a referral-fee arrangement, or a contingency interest in any matter. This structure is fixed and cannot be varied on a matter-by-matter basis by either party. Newly lawyers may be listed free of charge until their first client match (see section 4); the trial carries no fee of any kind and no share of any matter.

18. Lawmateanz Answers

Anyone can ask a legal question on Lawmateanz Answers. Every question is reviewed before it's published, and is published anonymously. Please don't include names, contact details, or anything else that could identify you or anyone else. We may edit a question to remove identifying details, or decline to publish it.

Answers are written by independent, lawyers under their own names. An answer is general information based only on what's in the question — it is not legal advice about your situation, and it doesn't create a lawyer–client relationship with the answering lawyer or with Lawmateanz. Lawmateanz doesn't check answers for accuracy and isn't responsible for them. Don't rely on an answer without getting advice about your own matter.

Lawyers who answer remain responsible for complying with their own professional obligations. We may hide any question or answer that breaches these Terms.

19. Referral partners and referral links

Referral partners (for example law firms, community law and legal centres, legal aid providers, accountants, brokers and recruiters in New Zealand or Australia) may share a referral link so that people they cannot help can request a lawyer through Lawmateanz, or so that practising lawyers can apply to list their practice. Referral partners are independent of us and are covered by the Referral Partner Terms.

We pay nothing to, and receive nothing from, referral partners for referrals: no fee, commission, rebate, credit or other benefit. Requesting a lawyer through a referral link is free for clients; lawyers charge for their own services. Using a referral link does not affect which lawyer is selected, except that a referred client is never matched to the lawyer, or any lawyer at the firm, that referred them. We do not guarantee that a referred client will be matched.

Lawmateanz is a directory and matching service, not a recruitment agency or an employer. A partner's lawyer link only lets a practising lawyer apply to list their practice, and every lawyer is verified in the same way. We do not place lawyers in jobs.

20. Contact us

reuben@lawmateanz.com