The present general terms and conditions apply to all services rendered by a lawyer, member of the group STUDIO | LEGALE Advocaten.
STUDIO | LEGALE is a group of lawyers and has no legal personality. The lawyers act individually on their own account. On the STUDIO | LEGALE website www.studio-legale.be a list can be consulted of the lawyers associated with STUDIO | LEGALE as well as the company number of the lawyer, who may practise his profession in the form of a private limited company.
Some lawyers of the STUDIO | LEGALE group sometimes operate under a commercial name such as STUDIO | PENALE. The contractual link with the lawyer is concluded with the dominus litis of a case or, where appropriate, with his company.
If a client appeals to a lawyer of STUDIO | LEGALE, this client is considered to have received the general terms and conditions and to accept them.
If one or more clauses of these general terms and conditions are invalid or void, this shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the other clauses of these general terms and conditions. In such a case, the void or invalid provision shall be replaced by a provision with the same or a similar scope as close as possible.
The fees agreed upon with STUDIO | LEGALE Advocaten are exclusive of VAT
Fees are payable no later than 8 calendar days after sending the invoice or the fee statement.
If the client does not agree with the statement of fees, he must protest in writing and with justification within 8 calendar days after the invoice date.
A detail of the services rendered is available upon first request of the client.
In case of late payment of the invoice or the fee statement, interest on arrears shall be due as of right and without prior notice at a rate of 10% per annum, as well as a fixed compensation of 10% (with a minimum of 250 €).
If a term of payment is exceeded, the lawyer is entitled by law and without prior notice to suspend further services until the amounts due have been paid in full.
The parties agree that there shall be immediate compensation between their mutual claims as from the arising of the respective claims, including claims that are not yet certain, due or payable and including all claims that depend on a future condition including all compensation due for whatever reason (including damages, costs or expenses) in accordance with the Act of 15 December 2004 on financial securities.
The professional liability of the STUDIO | LEGALE Advocaten is at least covered by the civil professional liability insurance concluded by the Order of Flemish Bars.
The liability insurance of the respective lawyers can be found on the website of Web de STUDIO | LEGALE www.studio-legale.be.
The client considers this insurance sufficient and accepts that the liability of the lawyer can never exceed the insured amount.
The claim for compensation for a mistake which may give rise to damages expires one year after the service was rendered.
STUDIO | LEGALE shall transfer all sums received for the client to the client within the shortest possible time.
STUDIO | LEGALE may deduct fees and expenses still due from the amounts received for the client. The client is informed of this in writing.
STUDIO | LEGALE shall transfer all amounts received from the client for the account of third parties to these third parties as soon as possible.
STUDIO | LEGALE processes personal data of the client in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 dated 27 April 2016.
STUDIO | LEGALE is the controller and determines the purpose and means of data processing. Accordingly, the lawyer makes daily efforts to protect and manage the processing of the client’s personal data in all transparency.
STUDIO | LEGALE processes all data (such as name, e-mail, invoicing data, mobile phone number, and all data regarding the legal file) which it considers necessary to execute the agreement with the client and to handle the case as carefully as possible.
After termination of the case STUDIO | LEGALE retains the files for a period of five years. After this period original documents are returned to the client and should be archived by the client himself.
Depending on the nature of the services to be provided by STUDIO | LEGALE’s lawyers, they may be obliged to comply with the legislation and bar regulations on anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing. In such a case, the lawyer is primarily under an obligation of identification and vigilance with respect to his client and is under the obligation to keep information regarding the identification, the characteristics of the client and the purpose and nature of the transaction for a period of 10 years. To this end, the lawyer may carry out checks using external electronic databases. The client is aware of these identification obligations and accepts that the corresponding costs and fees will be charged. This procedure requires the cooperation of the client and obliges clients who work under the form of a of legal entity or other legal arrangement to inform their lawyer who is the beneficial owner behind this legal form. The client undertakes to inform the lawyer of any change that may affect his or her status and will provide the information requested by the lawyer on first request. If the client refuses to provide such information, after it has been requested, the lawyer will not be able to enter into the business relationship and, if he has already acted provisionally, will terminate his further intervention. In addition, the anti-money laundering legislation obliges the lawyer in certain circumstances to report possible suspicions of money laundering or terrorist financing in which the client would be involved to the President of his/her Bar Association. The lawyer is not liable to the client for the consequences of any report made in good faith.
Belgian law shall apply and the courts of Antwerp shall have jurisdiction. If the Justice of the Peace has jurisdiction, the Justice of the Peace of the 5th canton in Antwerp shall be addressed.
