Terms & Conditions
General Terms & Conditions ITL Attorneys Belgium
Please note that ITL Attorneys is a brandname consisting of various seperate and distinct legal entities (law firms/offices). Clients do not have a legal service agreement/assignment with ITL Attorneys as a whole, but only with (one of) the seperate law firms (offices). Therefore, every law firm/office of ITL Attorneys has its own conditions and regulations.
ITL Attorneys Belgium is committed to providing the best possible service to its clients. To ensure this, a smooth interaction and collaboration between lawyer and client is very important. After all, a lawyer’s services are tailor-made, based on concrete facts.
Article 1. General Information
ITL Attorneys Belgium (registered in the Crossroad Bank forEnterprises under the corporate name Transport en Logistiek Advocaten BV), hereinafter referred to as “ITL Attorneys”, is a company under Belgian law that has taken the legal form of a private limited company, for the purpose of practising the profession of lawyer.
ITL Attorneys is registered with the Crossroad Bank for Enterprises (CBE) under the number 500.577.408. Frederik Vanden Bogaerde (as permanent representative for Logilex BV, CBE 0837.515.915), Mathias Dendievel (as permanent representative of Ius-D BV, CBE 0700.652.675) and Vincent Van der Mast (as permanent representative for Advocaat Van der Mast Vincent BV, CBE 0700.652.576) practice the profession of lawyer as director of the aforementioned company.
Frederik Vanden Bogaerde, Ius-D BV and Advocaat Van der Mast Vincent BV are the partners of the aforementioned company, an association in the sense of the regulations of the Order of Flemish Bars of 8 November 2006 concerning partnerships between lawyers and concerning one-man companies of attorneys at law.
The other lawyers working at ITL Attorneys practise the profession of lawyer as independent service providers of ITL Attorneys.
Article 2. Applicability
These general terms and conditions apply to all services provided by the lawyers working for ITL Attorneys to its clients. The contractual relationship exists between the client and ITL Attorneys, even if the client has contact with only one or several lawyers working for ITL Attorneys.
These general terms and conditions also apply to all partners and employees, as well as to all respective legal successors under general title. In case of contradiction, these general terms and conditions will prevail over any other general terms and conditionsof the client, unless otherwise agreed in writing by one of ITL Attorneys' directors. Agreements that would deviate from one or more stipulations of these generalterms and conditions will only replace the stipulation(s) from which they deviate. The remaining terms and conditions continue to apply in full.
Article 3. Agreement
Lawyers working for ITL Attorneys perform their services in name and on behalf of ITL Attorneys, unless they have explicitly indicated for a particular case that they handle it in their own name. ITL Attorneys is the client’s sole contracting party for each service provided by ITL Attorneys’ partners, associates, interns and appointees. However, when a lawyer affiliated with ITL Attorneys handles a case in their own name, only the lawyer in question is the client’s contracting party.
The agreement between ITL Attorneys and the client comes to effect when ITL Attorneys begins its activities.
Article 4. Subject of the services
The services provided by ITL Attorneys may include, but are not limited to, advice, assistance in mediation, assistance in negotiations, assistance with procedures, assistance with expert examinations, acting as a representative. The parties shall agree on the precise scope of ITL Attorneys' services at the commencement of the services and, if necessary,adapt and/or expand them as necessary.
ITL Attorneys' commitments are not performance based commitments but best efforts commitments. ITL Attorneys pledges to deliver within a reasonable period of time. Under no circumstances shall ITL Attorneys be liable for late performance due to faults of the client, third parties or force majeure.
Article 5. Internal distribution of work
Unless the client explicitly objects, ITL Attorneys is free to divide cases or certain aspects of them internally amongits associate lawyers. This internal distribution will be done as much aspossible according to the lawyers’ preferred subjects and/or the client’s wishes. When necessary, work will be carried out as a team. The dominus litis always retains supervision of the case.
Article 6. Information
The client shall punctually provide ITL Attorneys, both at the commencement of the agreement and for the duration, if necessary at ITL Attorneys' request, with all information required to enable ITL Attorneys to perform its services in the best possible manner. ITL Attorneys is not liable for damages that would result from incorrect or incomplete information by the client.
If the client, after being requested to do so by ITL Attorneys, fails to provide the requested information or complete certain formalities within the set period, ITL Attorneys reserves the right to suspend its services and invoice the services already provided.
ITL Attorneys will inform the client about the execution of its assignment and about the development of the file.
Conducting legal proceedings entails certain costs, such as, in addition to your own lawyer’s fees, court costs. In principle (in civil cases) the losing party must bear the court costs.These costs usually include the costs of the citation and an indemnity for the procedural costs, i.e. a fixed contribution for the lawyer costs of the successful party. The amount of this procedural indemnity is determinedaccording to certain rules and (periodically indexed) scales of fees. For other proceedings – criminal proceedings, administrative proceedings… - specificrules apply, which may or may not be similar.
Article 7. Enlisting thirdparties
If the execution of the service requires the use of a bailiff or a translator, theclient leaves it to ITL Attorneys to choose who to enlist. The same applies to the performance of simple tasks (deposing a procedural document, appearing at a(preliminary) hearing, …) by a local lawyer.
If it is necessary for the performance of the services to make use of other third parties, such as foreign lawyers,notaries, accountant, auditors or experts, the clients leaves it up to ITL Attorneys to choose which one to use. ITL Attorneys takes due care in selecting such third parties. ITL Attorneys can not be held liable for any acts oromissions of those third parties. ITL Attorneys is authorised by the client to accept any limitations of liability of third parties on behalf of the client.
Article 8. Remuneration
§1. ITL Attorneys will periodically (in principle as workin a case progresses) charge its activities, administration costs and advancedcosts to the client by means of provisional fee notes and a statement of fees and expenses. The amount due from the fee statement is broken down into the following items: (1) fees, (2) administrative expenses, (3) legal expenses and, (4) provisional invoices. A specification of the work performed and the costs shall be sent at the firstrequest of the client.
§2. Unless otherwise agreed, work carried out under the heading of fees shall be charged on the basis of an hourly rate, whereby the hourly rate willbe determined in function of the natureof the case, the stakes involved, the degree of difficulty of the case, theexperience of the lawyer in the legal matter concerned and the urgency of the assignment.
In the event that the case is settled with a favourable result, ITL Attorneys is entitled to charge a success fee. Without prejudice to the charging of fees,the administration and office costs are charged under the item administration costs. In addition, external costs are always charged at cost price (parkingcosts, train and plane ticket, hotel costs, translation costs, etc.).
ITL Attorneys and the client can mutually agree - for example for debt collection cases, undisputed cases and simpler cases - other formulas forthe calculation of the fees and administration costs.
The costs which ITL Attorneys has advanced to third parties, such as registries, mortgage offices,registration offices, diplomatic offices, official or unofficial databases, bailiffs, notaries, translators, accountants, auditors, experts and (domesticand foreign) bodies, will be charged separately under the heading of costs on the basis of the costs actually incurred (+ VAT if applicable).
§3. ITL Attorneys reserves the right to askthe client a provision before starting and in the course of its activities, bymeans of a provisional invoice and reserves the right to only to start orcontinue its activities or to advance costs after payment thereof. A statement of expenses and fees in these terms and conditions shall also be understood tobe a provisional invoice.
A provisional invoice is a lump sum paid by the client to ITL Attorneys prior to an interim statement or final statement. This provisional invoice may relate to services already rendered or costs already advanced, or may be an advance payment on services still to berendered or costs still to be incurred, or a combination of the two. In the interim or final statement, the provisional invoice shall be deducted from thetotal amount.
§4. The entry of a statement of fees and expenses in ITL Attorneys' accounts shall constitute evidence of its dispatch and receipt by the recipient.
5. If the client does not agree with a statement of fees and expenses, he must protest in writing, giving reasons, within fourteen days of the date of the statement on penalty of loss of rights.
§6. Unless otherwise agreed, all fee statements are payable in cash at the registered office of ITL Attorneys, without discount. If a statement of fees and expenses is not paid by the due date of the statement, ITL Attorneys is entitled, subject to the provisions below regarding consumers, without having to give prior notice to the client by registered letter, (a) to charge interest on late payments atthe rate of 12% from the date of the statement until the date of full payment, and (b) to charge liquidated damages at the rate of 10% of the amount paid late, without prejudice to its right to claim legal costs (including theapplicable legal costs), should legal proceedings ensue.
If the client is to be considered a consumer within the meaning of Article I.1., 2° Code of Economic Law, interest in accordance with Article XIX.4, 1° WER is applicable, as well as damages in the amount of 10% of the late payment, with a maximum of:
- € 20.00 for overdue payments not exceeding € 150.00
- € 30.00 + 10% on the tranche above € 150.00 for overdue payments of € 150.01 to € 500.00
- € 65.00 + 5% on the tranche above € 500.00 with a maximum of € 2000.00 foroverdue payments amounting to more than € 500.00
The damages referred to in the above paragraph are due by the client-consumer as from expiry of the period of 14 calendar days from the first notice of default considered as a reminder, this period commencing on the 3rd working day after the notice of default is sent. If the first notice of default is sent electronically, the period of14 calendar days commences on the calendar day following the day on which thereminder is sent to the client-consumer. If the consumer-client has not paid his debt when the 14-calendar-day period has expired, interest is due from the calendar day following the day the reminder was sent to the consumer-client.
ITL Attorneys also has the right, in case of non-payment by the client (enterprise or consumer), either to suspend the execution of its activities in all cases with the customer concerned until allstates have been paid in full, or to terminate its overall cooperation with thecustomer with immediate effect. ITL Attorneys shall not be liable for any damage resulting from the suspension of its activities or the termination ofits agreement with the client.
§7. If ITL Attorneys represents the interests of several clients in a case, all these clients are jointly and severally liable to pay the statements of fees and expenses relating to this case (if necessary, increased by the appurtenances mentioned in §5 and all collection costs), regardless of to which client ITL Attorneys has made its statements of fees andexpenses.
Article 9. Third party account
§1. ITL Attorneys shall make every effort to promptly transfer to the client all sums it receives on behalf of the client. If ITL Attorneys is unable to transfer a sum immediately, it will notify the client they received the sum and the reason why the money cannot be transferred.
§2. ITL Attorneys has the right to deduct money from the sums it receives on behalf of the client to cover the amounts owed by the client. ITL Attorneys shall inform the client accordingly.
§3. ITL Attorneys shall make every effort to promptly transfer all sums it receives from the client on behalf of thirdparties to those third parties.
Article 10. Complaints
Should you have a complaint about our firm or if you are dissatisfied with the handling of your case, it is preferable to first discuss this with the lawyer handling your case. If this discussion does not lead to a satisfactory solution for the client, he can contact Frederik Vanden Bogaerde (fvandenbogaerde@itla.eu), Vincent Van der Mast (vvandermast@itla.eu), or Mathias Dendievel (mdendievel@itla.eu) who will investigate the complaint and, if possible, mediate in order to reach a solution.
Article 11. Liability
§1. All lawyers working for ITL Attorneys and ITL Attorneys itself are insured in professionalliability with Amlin Insurance SE through the Flemish Bar Association.
The professional liability of the lawyers working for ITL Attorneys as independent employees is limited to the insured amount of € 2.500.000,00 per claim (first-priority cover).
Frederik Vanden Bogaerde, Mathias Dendievel and Vincent Van der Mast areinsured additionally with AG Insurance NV in professional liability for an additional indemnity of up to 5.000.000,00 EUR per claim per insurance year as a second-priority cover, which is supplementary to and used only after thefirst-priority insurance has been exhausted.
Frederik Vanden Bogaerde is additionally insured with HDI Global SE inprofessional liability for an additional indemnity of up to 20.000.000,00 EUR per claim per insurance year (third rank) above the indemnity of 2.500.000,00 EUR per claim in first-priority cover and 5.000.000,00 EUR per claim in second-priority cover.
§2. The client considers the aforementioned insurance of ITL Attorneys and its lawyers to be sufficient and accepts - except in case of wilful intent, grave error of ITL Attorneys or its appointees or, except in case of force majeure, in case of non-performance of essential obligations, that the compensation for damages suffered by him as a result of a (even serious) professional error on the part of ITL Attorneys and/or its lawyers and/or appointees is limited to the amount for which ITLAttorneys and its lawyers are insured.
§3. If the professional liability insurer does not cover the damages, the total liability of ITL Attorneys, its lawyers and agents, whether contractual or non-contractual, except in case of wilful intent, grave error of ITL Attorneysor its appointees or, except in case of force majeure, in case of non-performance of essential obligations, shall be limited in principal, costs and interest to the amount excluding VAT charged in the file in which the liability is retained and, in the absence of such file, to a maximum of € 2.500,00 per claim.
§4. Under no circumstances, except in cas eof wilful intent, grave error of ITL Attorneys or its appointees or, except incase of force majeure, in case of non-performance of essential obligations,shall ITL Attorneys and its lawyers be liable for any indirect damages,consequential damages, loss of use damages or loss of profit suffered by the client or any third party.
§5. Without prejudice to the above, ITL Attorneys and its lawyers shall not be liable for any failures of third parties engaged in the performance of their services if they were instructed on behalf of and for the account of the client. Therefore, in such case, ITL Attorneys cannot be held jointly and severally liable with such third party for any such compensation to the client.
§6. Notwithstanding ITL Attorneys making reasonable efforts to protect its emails and attachments from viruses or otherdefects that may affect computers or an IT system, it remains the client’s responsibility to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to protect the client’s computers and IT system from such viruses or defects. ITL Attorneys assumes no liability for any loss or damages resulting from receiving or using electronic communications from ITL Attorneys.
§7. The client shall indemnify ITL Attorneys and the lawyers who are part of ITL Attorneys or work on its behalf from any claim by a third party arising out of the performance of ITL Attorneys' services onthe client’s behalf.
Article 12. Professional secrecy and intellectual property rights
§1. ITL Attorneys’ lawyers are subject to the professional secrecy. All letters, advice, procedural documents, etc. are delivered by ITL Attorneys to the client with the express reservation that the client respects their confidentiality.
When tendering for a public or private procurement of legal services, ITL Attorneys may be required, subject to strict compliance with the rules oflawyer’s ethics, to disclose the names of the clients for whom it intervenes or has intervened in the matter at hand and to provide information relating to the subject matter of the procurement in the files it handles or has handles. The information provided in this context may under no circumstances relate to the private life of the client.
§2. Legal advice, opinions, documents etc. provided by ITL Attorneys are protected by intellectual property rights and may not be used or reproduced in any way without the express prior written consent of ITL Attorneys.
The client is not permitted to reproduce, disclose or use in any way whatsoever the advice, notes, contracts, procedural documents and all otherintellectual work made by ITL Attorneys without its prior written consent, either itself or with the help of third parties, other than in the context ofthe assignment granted to ITL Attorneys.
Any advice provided by ITL Attorneys is for the sole benefit of the client and is given only in the context of the
relevant case. The advice of ITL Attorneys shall not be used by third parties. Nor are third parties allowed to call on it. The client accepts that it shall not disclose an advice provided by ITL Attorneys to third parties without ITL Attorneys' prior written consent, except, if necessary, to other professional advisers of the client, but without any obligation or liability of ITL Attorneys to them. ITL Attorneys' contractual obligations apply only to the client and do not extend to third parties, unless ITL Attorneys expressly accepts this responsibility in writing.
Article 13. Termination
§1. Both the client and ITL Attorneys have the right to terminate the contract at any time with immediate effect and without justification. In this case, the client is required to pay all work and costs up to the date of termination of the agreement. ITL Attorneys draws up a final invoice of fees and costs and sends it to the client. To the extent permitted by law and ethics, ITL Attorneys may exercise its right of retention before transferring its file to the client.
§2. ITL Attorneys is not liable for damages that would result from the termination of its contract with the client.
Article 14. Archiving
ITL Attorneys archives the file at the end of each assignment and then retains it for a period of five years. Original documents can only be returned to the client at his request and, if necessary, must be archived by him. After the above-mentioned five year period, ITL Attorneys has the right to destroy the file.
Article 15. Modification
ITL Attorneys reserves the right to change these terms and conditions atany time.
Article 16. Applicable law and competent court
§1. All agreements between ITL Attorneys and the client are governed solely by Belgian law. All lawyers at ITL Attorneys are subject (a) to the regulations of the Order of Flemish Bars and the not yet dissolved regulations of the former National Bar Association, which can be consulted on www.advocaat.be and (b) to the regulations of the West-Flanders Bar Association, which can be consulted on www.baliewestvlaanderen.be, and prefer to settle their disputes amicably.
§2. For lawyer’s fees disputes, an extrajudicial dispute settlement exists through the West-Flanders Bar Association: Stafhouder balie West-Vlaanderen, Gerechtsgebouw, Kazernevest 3,8000 Brugge.
Disciplinary matters are the responsibility of the Chairman of the Bar of West-Flanders, Stafhouder balie West-Vlaanderen, Gerechtsgebouw, Kazernevest3, 8000 Brugge.
§3. Only the courts of Kortrijk have jurisdiction to hear any dispute between ITL Attorneys and the client, provided that ITL Attorneys is also entitled to bring the issue before the courts of the client’s domicile or registered office.
In the event of a dispute between ITL Attorneys and a client, the latter can also call upon the services of the Ombudsman Service for Consumer Disputes ,Ligeca, of the Order of Flemish Bars. A complaint is submitted to this serviceby letter, to Mrs Isabel Goris, office of the Ombudsman for Consumer Disputes,Staatsbladsstraat 8, 1000 Brussel, by fax, to Mrs Isabel Goris, office of theOmbudsman for Consumer Disputes, 02 307 72 21 or finally, via the complaintsform available on the website http://oca.ligeca.be. All information relating to the procedure of this service can be found on the aforementioned website.
ITL Attorneys reserves the right to refuse invoking this form of out-of-court dispute resolution depending on the nature of the dispute.
Article 17. Divisibility
If one of the stipulations or part of a stipulation of these generalterms and conditions should be declared null and void or inapplicable, the remaining stipulations will continue to apply.
General Terms & Conditions ITL Attorneys France
Please note that ITL Attorneys is a brandname consisting of various seperate and distinct legal entities (law firms/offices). Clients de not have a legal service agreement/assignment with ITL Attorneys as a whole, but only with (one of) the seperate law firms (offices). Therefore, every law firm/office of ITL Attorneys has its own conditions and regulations.
ITL Attorneys is committed to providing the best possible service to its clients. To ensure this, a smooth interaction and collaboration between lawyer and client is very important. After all, a lawyer’s services are tailor-made, based on concrete facts.
Article 1. General Information
ITL Attorneys France is an branch of ITL Attorneys Belgium (herinafter ITL Attorneys).
ITL Attorneys France is registered as a foreign entity the RCS Dunkerque under the corporate name Transport en Logistiek Advocaten BV, with SIREN 951 802 636, with the goal of acting as a liaison office for ITL Attorneys Belgium BV in France.
ITL Attorneys France is led by Mathias Dendievel, who is registered as a lawyer at the Bar of Marseille in acordance to the EU Regulation 98/5/CE
The activities of ITL Attorneys France are strictly limited to the activity of liaison office. All contractual relationships between the client and ITL Attorneys are concluded directly and exclusivly with ITL Attorneys Belgium BV. (registered in the Belgian Crossroad Bank for Enterprises (CBE) under the number 500.577.408).
Article 2. Applicability
These general terms and conditions apply to all services provided by the lawyers working for ITL Attorneys to its clients. The contractual relationship exists between the client and ITL Attorneys, even if the client has contact with only one or several lawyers working for ITL Attorneys.
These general terms and conditions also apply to all partners and employees, as well as to all respective legal successors under general title. In case of contradiction, these general terms and conditions will prevail over any other general terms and conditionsof the client, unless otherwise agreed in writing by one of ITL Attorneys' directors. Agreements that would deviate from one or more stipulations of these generalterms and conditions will only replace the stipulation(s) from which they deviate. The remaining terms and conditions continue to apply in full.
Article 3. Agreement
Lawyers working for ITL Attorneys perform their services in name and on behalf of ITL Attorneys, unless they have explicitly indicated for a particular case that they handle it in their own name. ITL Attorneys is the client’s sole contracting party for each service provided by ITL Attorneys’ partners, associates, interns and appointees. However, when a lawyer affiliated with ITL Attorneys handles a case in their own name, only the lawyer in question is the client’s contracting party.The agreement between ITL Attorneys and the client comes to effect when ITL Attorneys begins its activities.
Article 4. Subject of the services
The services provided by ITL Attorneys may include, but are not limited to, advice, assistance in mediation, assistance in negotiations, assistance with procedures, assistance with expert examinations, acting as a representative. The parties shall agree on the precise scope of ITL Attorneys' services at the commencement of the services and, if necessary,adapt and/or expand them as necessary.
ITL Attorneys' commitments are not performance based commitments but best efforts commitments. ITL Attorneys pledges to deliver within a reasonable period of time. Under no circumstances shall ITL Attorneys be liable for late performance due to faults of the client, third parties or force majeure.
Article 5. Internal distribution of work
Unless the client explicitly objects, ITL Attorneys is free to divide cases or certain aspects of them internally amongits associate lawyers. This internal distribution will be done as much aspossible according to the lawyers’ preferred subjects and/or the client’s wishes. When necessary, work will be carried out as a team. The dominus litis always retains supervision of the case.
Article 6. Information
The client shall punctually provide ITL Attorneys, both at the commencement of the agreement and for the duration, if necessary at ITL Attorneys' request, with all information required to enable ITL Attorneys to perform its services in the best possible manner. ITL Attorneys is not liable for damages that would result from incorrect or incomplete information by the client.If the client, after being requested to do so by ITL Attorneys, fails to provide the requested information or complete certain formalities within the set period, ITL Attorneys reserves the right to suspend its services and invoice the services already provided.
ITL Attorneys will inform the client about the execution of its assignment and about the development of the file.
Conducting legal proceedings entails certain costs, such as, in addition to your own lawyer’s fees, court costs. In principle (in civil cases) the losing party must bear the court costs. These costs usually include the costs of the citation and an indemnity for the procedural costs, i.e. a fixed contribution for the lawyer costs of the successful party. The amount of this procedural indemnity is determinedaccording to certain rules and (periodically indexed) scales of fees. For other proceedings – criminal proceedings, administrative proceedings… - specific rules apply, which may or may not be similar.
Article 7. Enlisting third parties
If the execution of the service requires the use of a bailiff or a translator, theclient leaves it to ITL Attorneys to choose who to enlist. The same applies to the performance of simple tasks (deposing a procedural document, appearing at a (preliminary) hearing, …) by a local lawyer.If it is necessary for the performance of the services to make use of other third parties, such as foreign lawyers, notaries, accountant, auditors or experts, the clients leaves it up to ITL Attorneys to choose which one to use. ITL Attorneys takes due care in selecting such third parties. ITL Attorneys can not be held liable for any acts oromissions of those third parties. ITL Attorneys is authorised by the client to accept any limitations of liability of third parties on behalf of the client.
Article 8. Remuneration
§1. ITL Attorneys will periodically (in principle as workin a case progresses) charge its activities, administration costs and advanced costs to the client by means of provisional fee notes and a statement of fees and expenses. The amount due from the fee statement is broken down into the following items:
(1) fees, (2) administrative expenses, (3) legal expenses and, (4) provisional invoices. A specification of the work performed and the costs shall be sent at the firstrequest of the client.§2. Unless otherwise agreed, work carried out under the heading of fees shall be charged on the basis of an hourly rate, whereby the hourly rate willbe determined in function of the natureof the case, the stakes involved, the degree of difficulty of the case, theexperience of the lawyer in the legal matter concerned and the urgency of the assignment.In the event that the case is settled with a favourable result, ITL Attorneys is entitled to charge a success fee. Without prejudice to the charging of fees,the administration and office costs are charged under the item administration costs. In addition, external costs are always charged at cost price (parking costs, train and plane ticket, hotel costs, translation costs, etc.).
ITL Attorneys and the client can mutually agree - for example for debt collection cases, undisputed cases and simpler cases - other formulas forthe calculation of the fees and administration costs.
The costs which ITL Attorneys has advanced to third parties, such as registries, mortgage offices, registration offices, diplomatic offices, official or unofficial databases, bailiffs, notaries, translators, accountants, auditors, experts and (domesticand foreign) bodies, will be charged separately under the heading of costs on the basis of the costs actually incurred (+ VAT if applicable).
§3. ITL Attorneys reserves the right to ask the client a provision before starting and in the course of its activities, bymeans of a provisional invoice and reserves the right to only to start orcontinue its activities or to advance costs after payment thereof. A statement of expenses and fees in these terms and conditions shall also be understood tobe a provisional invoice. A provisional invoice is a lump sum paid by the client to ITL Attorneys prior to an interim statement or final statement. This provisional invoice may relate to services already rendered or costs already advanced, or may be an advance payment on services still to berendered or costs still to be incurred, or a combination of the two. In the interim or final statement, the provisional invoice shall be deducted from the total amount.
§4. The entry of a statement of fees and expenses in ITL Attorneys' accounts shall constitute evidence of its dispatch and receipt by the recipient.
§5. If the client does not agree with a statement of fees and expenses, he must protest in writing, giving reasons, within fourteen days of the date of the statement on penalty of loss of rights.
§6. Unless otherwise agreed, all fee statements are payable in cash at the registered office of ITL Attorneys, without discount. If a statement of fees and expenses is not paid by the due date of the statement, ITL Attorneys is entitled, subject to the provisions below regarding consumers, without having to give prior notice to the client by registered letter, (a) to charge interest on late payments atthe rate of 12% from the date of the statement until the date of full payment, and (b) to charge liquidated damages at the rate of 10% of the amount paid late, without prejudice to its right to claim legal costs (including theapplicable legal costs), should legal proceedings ensue.
If the client is to be considered a consumer within the meaning of Article I.1., 2° Code of Economic Law, interest in accordance with Article XIX.4, 1° WER is applicable, as well as damages in the amount of 10% of the late payment, with a maximum of:
- € 20,00 for overdue payments not exceeding € 150,00
- € 30,00 + 10% on the tranche above € 150,00 for overdue payments of € 150.01 to € 500.00
- € 65,00 + 5% on the tranche above € 500,00 with a maximum of € 2000.00 foroverdue payments amounting to more than € 500.00
The damages referred to in the above paragraph are due by the client-consumer as from expiry of the period of 14 calendar days from the first notice of default considered as a reminder, this period commencing on the 3rd working day after the notice of default is sent. If the first notice of default is sent electronically, the period of14 calendar days commences on the calendar day following the day on which the reminder is sent to the client-consumer. If the consumer-client has not paid his debt when the 14-calendar-day period has expired, interest is due from the calendar day following the day the reminder was sent to the consumer-client.
ITL Attorneys also has the right, in case of non-payment by the client (enterprise or consumer), either to suspend the execution of its activities in all cases with the customer concerned until allstates have been paid in full, or to terminate its overall cooperation with thecustomer with immediate effect. ITL Attorneys shall not be liable for any damage resulting from the suspension of its activities or the termination ofits agreement with the client.
§7. If ITL Attorneys represents the interests of several clients in a case, all these clients are jointly and severally liable to pay the statements of fees and expenses relating to this case (if necessary, increased by the appurtenances mentioned in §5 and all collection costs), regardless of to which client ITL Attorneys has made its statements of fees and expenses.
Article 9. Third party account
§1. ITL Attorneys shall make every effort to promptly transfer to the client all sums it receives on behalf of the client. If ITL Attorneys is unable to transfer a sum immediately, it will notify the client they received the sum and the reason why the money cannot be transferred.
§2. ITL Attorneys has the right to deduct money from the sums it receives on behalf of the client to cover the amounts owed by the client. ITL Attorneys shall inform the client accordingly.
§3. ITL Attorneys shall make every effort to promptly transfer all sums it receives from the client on behalf of thirdparties to those third parties.
Article 10. Complaints
Should you have a complaint about our firm or if you are dissatisfied with the handling of your case, it is preferable to first discuss this with the lawyer handling your case. If this discussion does not lead to a satisfactory solution for the client, he can contact Frederik Vanden Bogaerde (fvandenbogaerde@itla.eu), Vincent Van der Mast (vvandermast@itla.eu), or Mathias Dendievel (mdendievel@itla.eu) who will investigate the complaint and, if possible, mediate in order to reach a solution.
Article 11. Liability
§1. All lawyers working for ITL Attorneys and ITL Attorneys itself are insured in professionalliability with Amlin Insurance SE through the Flemish Bar Association.
The professional liability of the lawyers working for ITL Attorneys as independent employees is limited to the insured amount of € 2.500.000,00 per claim (first-priority cover).
Frederik Vanden Bogaerde, Mathias Dendievel and Vincent Van der Mast areinsured additionally with AG Insurance NV in professional liability for an additional indemnity of up to 5.000.000,00 EUR per claim per insurance year as a second-priority cover, which is supplementary to and used only after thefirst-priority insurance has been exhausted.
Frederik Vanden Bogaerde is additionally insured with HDI Global SE inprofessional liability for an additional indemnity of up to 20.000.000,00 EUR per claim per insurance year (third rank) above the indemnity of 2.500.000,00 EUR per claim in first-priority cover and 5.000.000,00 EUR per claim in second-priority cover.
§2. The client considers the aforementioned insurance of ITL Attorneys and its lawyers to be sufficient and accepts - except in case of wilful intent, grave error of ITL Attorneys or its appointees or, except in case of force majeure, in case of non-performance of essential obligations, that the compensation for damages suffered by him as a result of a (even serious) professional error on the part of ITL Attorneys and/or its lawyers and/or appointees is limited to the amount for which ITLAttorneys and its lawyers are insured.
§3. If the professional liability insurer does not cover the damages, the total liability of ITL Attorneys, its lawyers and agents, whether contractual or non-contractual, except in case of wilful intent, grave error of ITL Attorneysor its appointees or, except in case of force majeure, in case of non-performance of essential obligations, shall be limited in principal, costs and interest to the amount excluding VAT charged in the file in which the liability is retained and, in the absence of such file, to a maximum of € 2.500,00 per claim.
§4. Under no circumstances, except in cas eof wilful intent, grave error of ITL Attorneys or its appointees or, except incase of force majeure, in case of non-performance of essential obligations,shall ITL Attorneys and its lawyers be liable for any indirect damages,consequential damages, loss of use damages or loss of profit suffered by the client or any third party.
§5. Without prejudice to the above, ITL Attorneys and its lawyers shall not be liable for any failures of third parties engaged in the performance of their services if they were instructed on behalf of and for the account of the client. Therefore, in such case, ITL Attorneys cannot be held jointly and severally liable with such third party for any such compensation to the client.
§6. Notwithstanding ITL Attorneys making reasonable efforts to protect its emails and attachments from viruses or otherdefects that may affect computers or an IT system, it remains the client’s responsibility to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to protect the client’s computers and IT system from such viruses or defects. ITL Attorneys assumes no liability for any loss or damages resulting from receiving or using electronic communications from ITL Attorneys.
§7. The client shall indemnify ITL Attorneys and the lawyers who are part of ITL Attorneys or work on its behalf from any claim by a third party arising out of the performance of ITL Attorneys' services onthe client’s behalf.
Article 12. Professional secrecy and intellectual property rights
§1. ITL Attorneys’ lawyers are subject to the professional secrecy. All letters, advice, procedural documents, etc. are delivered by ITL Attorneys to the client with the express reservation that the client respects their confidentiality.
When tendering for a public or private procurement of legal services, ITL Attorneys may be required, subject to strict compliance with the rules oflawyer’s ethics, to disclose the names of the clients for whom it intervenes or has intervened in the matter at hand and to provide information relating to the subject matter of the procurement in the files it handles or has handles. The information provided in this context may under no circumstances relate to the private life of the client.
§2. Legal advice, opinions, documents etc. provided by ITL Attorneys are protected by intellectual property rights and may not be used or reproduced in any way without the express prior written consent of ITL Attorneys.
The client is not permitted to reproduce, disclose or use in any way whatsoever the advice, notes, contracts, procedural documents and all otherintellectual work made by ITL Attorneys without its prior written consent, either itself or with the help of third parties, other than in the context ofthe assignment granted to ITL Attorneys.
Any advice provided by ITL Attorneys is for the sole benefit of the client and is given only in the context of the relevant case. The advice of ITL Attorneys shall not be used by third parties. Nor are third parties allowed to call on it. The client accepts that it shall not disclose an advice provided by ITL Attorneys to third parties without ITL Attorneys' prior written consent, except, if necessary, to other professional advisers of the client, but without any obligation or liability of ITL Attorneys to them. ITL Attorneys' contractual obligations apply only to the client and do not extend to third parties, unless ITL Attorneys expressly accepts this responsibility in writing.
Article 13. Termination
§1. Both the client and ITL Attorneys have the right to terminate the contract at any time with immediate effect and without justification. In this case, the client is required to pay all work and costs up to the date of termination of the agreement. ITL Attorneys draws up a final invoice of fees and costs and sends it to the client. To the extent permitted by law and ethics, ITL Attorneys may exercise its right of retention before transferring its file to the client.
§2. ITL Attorneys is not liable for damages that would result from the termination of its contract with the client.
Article 14. Archiving
ITL Attorneys archives the file at the end of each assignment and then retains it for a period of five years. Original documents can only be returned to the client at his request and, if necessary, must be archived by him. After the above-mentioned five year period, ITL Attorneys has the right to destroy the file.
Article 15. Modification
ITL Attorneys reserves the right to change these terms and conditions atany time.
Article 16. Applicable law and competent court
§1. All agreements between ITL Attorneys and the client are governed solely by Belgian law. All lawyers at ITL Attorneys are subject (a) to the regulations of the Order of Flemish Bars and the not yet dissolved regulations of the former National Bar Association, which can be consulted on www.advocaat.be and (b) to the regulations of the West-Flanders Bar Association, which can be consulted on www.baliewestvlaanderen.be, and prefer to settle their disputes amicably.
§2. For lawyer’s fees disputes, an extrajudicial dispute settlement exists through the West-Flanders Bar Association: Stafhouder balie West-Vlaanderen, Gerechtsgebouw, Kazernevest 3,8000 Brugge.Disciplinary matters are the responsibility of the Chairman of the Bar of West-Flanders, Stafhouder balie West-Vlaanderen, Gerechtsgebouw, Kazernevest3, 8000 Brugge.
§3. Only the courts of Kortrijk have jurisdiction to hear any dispute between ITL Attorneys and the client, provided that ITL Attorneys is also entitled to bring the issue before the courts of the client’s domicile or registered office.
In the event of a dispute between ITL Attorneys and a client, the latter can also call upon the services of the Ombudsman Service for Consumer Disputes ,Ligeca, of the Order of Flemish Bars. A complaint is submitted to this serviceby letter, to Mrs Isabel Goris, office of the Ombudsman for Consumer Disputes,Staatsbladsstraat 8, 1000 Brussel, by fax, to Mrs Isabel Goris, office of the Ombudsman for Consumer Disputes, 02 307 72 21 or finally, via the complaintsform available on the website http://oca.ligeca.be. All information relating to the procedure of this service can be found on the aforementioned website.ITL Attorneys reserves the right to refuse invoking this form of out-of-court dispute resolution depending on the nature of the dispute.
Article 17. Divisibility
If one of the stipulations or part of a stipulation of these generalterms and conditions should be declared null and void or inapplicable, the remaining stipulations will continue to apply.
ITL Attorneys Netherlands
Please note that ITL Attorneys is a brandname consisting of various seperate and distinct legal entities (law firms/offices). Clients do not have a legal service agreement/assignment with ITL Attorneys as a whole, but only with (one of) the seperate law firms/offices. Therefore, every law firm/office of ITL Attorneys has its own conditions and regulations.
ITL Attorneys Netherlands has its registered office in the Netherlands, at Sint Jorisveld 10, 2023 GD in Haarlem and is registered in the Dutch Chamber of Commerce under KvK-number 34124562. Our VAT-number is NL808467475B01.
For our professional liability insurance, ITL Attorneys Netherlands is insured with Sure Business as authorized representative of AIG Europe SA.
All lawyers of ITL Attorneys Netherlands are admitted to the Dutch Bar Association (Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten). More information about the Dutch Bar Association and the regulatory provisions applicable to our services, can be found at www.advocatenorde.nl.
ITL Attorneys processes personal data in accordance with our Privacy Statement which can be found at www.itla.eu/privacy-cookie-policy.
On this page you can find the General Terms & Conditions and the Complaints Procedure of ITL Attorneys Netherlands.
General Terms & Conditions ITL Attorneys Netherlands in English
General Terms & Conditions ITL Attorneys Netherlands in Dutch
Complaints Procedure ITL Attorneys Netherlands in English
Complaints Procedure ITL Attorneys Netherlands in Dutch
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Pharetra luctus pellentesque at turpis montes. Non sed pellentesque faucibus id eu nullam et sociis venenatis. Pulvinar iaculis ac malesuada praesent.Ut condimentum metus leo justo praesent arcu volutpat. Cras pharetra laoreet dolor arcu ornare massa. Tristique dolor velit erat nisl pharetra sit. Neque non sagittis tempor et. Sit tortor lobortis egestas condimentum aliquam vivamus massa. Volutpat molestie lorem facilisi risus cursus fermentum fermentum vel fames. Pulvinar eget quisque sagittis sagittis non.
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