These general terms and conditions are applicable to all services provided by the lawyers of the firm Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven, a private limited company, with registered office in Belgium, 2600 Antwerp (Berchem), Potvlietlaan 6, LPR Antwerp and known in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises under the number 0766.553.584 (hereinafter ‘Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven’) towards its clients.
T +32 3 448 49 92
F +32 3 448 49 95
E info@legaloffice.be for all administrative matters relating to your case/file
E boekhouding@legaloffice.be for all accountancy matters
In case of conflict, these general terms and conditions will prevail over any contrary general terms and conditions of the client, unless otherwise agreed in writing by one of the directors of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven.
The lawyers associated with Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven perform their services in the name and on behalf of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven. Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven is the sole contracting party of the client for any services performed by one or more particular lawyers of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven.
The services of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven Advocaten may relate, amongst others, to the provision of advice, meetings, negotiations, representation in court, assistance with legal proceedings, acting as agent, etc.
The parties shall specify the precise subject of the services of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven at the start of the activities, and, if necessary, the subject of the services may be adapted or extended during further performance. The possible adaptation or extension of the services may occur informally, and shall be apparent from, amongst others, the placing of orders, the acceptance of work, or the payment of invoices.
The client accepts that Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven has the right to call upon third parties (other lawyers, judicial officers, translators, notaries, experts, accountants etc.) for the performance of its activities on behalf of and for the account of the client. The client shall allow Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven to choose these third parties. However, Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven shall only call upon other third parties with the explicit consent of the client.
All advice provided by Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven, is exclusively for the use of the client, and is only provided in the context of the case/matter for which it is given. An advice of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven may not be used by third parties. Nor may third parties invoke it. The client agrees that he shall not divulge the advice of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven to third parties without advance written consent (except, if necessary, to other professional advisors of the client, in respect of which Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven Advocaten shall have no obligation or liability). The contractual obligations of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven only apply in respect of the client, and do not extend to third parties, unless Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven explicitly accepts this responsibility in writing.
The client shall indemnify Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven and the persons linked to it against all claims of third parties in any way linked to or arising from the client’s assignment and/or the work performed for the client. Compensation shall include defence costs.
It is forbidden for the client to record discussions with the lawyer, irrespective of the medium used.
The client undertakes to provide all relevant information and data. The client is responsible for the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the information and data provided, even if they can be verified.
Where Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven is required (by law, deontological rules or otherwise) to conduct a prior or other customer due diligence, in particular under the Act of 18 September 2017 on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and on the restriction of the use of cash, the client shall provide all information, documents and supporting evidence requested by Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven. In case of non-cooperation on the part of the client, Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven reserves the right to terminate the provision of legal services, irrespective of whether services were already provided prior to the non-cooperation and without prejudice to the client's obligation to reimburse Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven for services already rendered and additional costs.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven may terminate the representation of its client for any reason in accordance with the applicable deontological rules and/or when unpredictable or unforeseeable circumstances arise after the commencement of the representation and make the provision of services by Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven difficult or impossible. The client may terminate the representation by Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven at any time in writing. However, the termination of the service does not affect the client's liability to pay for the services and costs performed prior to the termination and services and costs relating to the transfer of the file.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven applies complete transparency regarding fees and costs. The fee covers the work of the lawyer such as the provision of advice, meetings, correspondence, negotiations, telephone discussions, research, preparation of documents, representation in court, time spent travelling, etc. If specific knowledge of the firm, or models or strategies developed by the firm are used, a charge will be applied for this under fees.
Unless agreed otherwise in writing, for our work we charge a specific hourly rate that is determined according to the experience and knowledge of our lawyers.
Specific case/file costs such as those for court registries, mortgage registry offices, registration offices, enterprise agencies, the Belgian official journal, national register, central office for seizure reports, official and non-official commercial and companies register, other official and non-official registers and databases, work performed by third parties, court costs, judicial officers, experts, translators, parking costs, additional premiums for a professional liability insurance policy when the client’s interests require additional cover, are separately invoiced to the client at cost price.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven rents a Cloud based virtual dataroom software to share documents in a safe and secure way. For the use of this dataroom in one or more of your files, Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven charges a price of 750 euros excluding VAT for files in grade 2 or grade 3. For files of grade 1 a fee of 250 euro excluding VAT is charged. For an efficient management of some of your files, the lawyers will recommend the use of this software and the cost price will be charged to the client.
Without prejudice to the charging of fees, various office expenses will be charged for the opening of the file. With effect from 01.12.2022, the firm applies the following rates for all current and new files:
All sums are excluding VAT (to be increased by the applicable VAT rate, which is currently 21%), and any tax, supplement or similar increase which the client, payer or Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven is obliged to pay or which Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven is obliged to charge based on applicable regulations.
The amounts of both the hourly rates and the flat fee percentage will be communicated to the client at the start of the client relationship and will in any case be provided to the client free of charge and upon his first request.
Fees are reviewed periodically. Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven reserves the right to ask clients for an advance or commission in relation to its fees and expenses. An advance or commission is a lump sum amount to be paid by the client to Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven prior to an interim or final invoice. Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven settles all paid advances when preparing the final invoice. Invoices are normally prepared on a monthly basis.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven will keep a timesheet and record all accountable time units. A time unit is 6 minutes, with each commenced time unit being charged as a full time unit. These time units are then multiplied by the applicable hourly rate, in order to get a correct rate.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven shall adapt the aforesaid fee to the Consumer Price Index. The initial index shall be the index figure of the month preceding that in which the Authority to Act is signed, and the new index shall be that of the month preceding the anniversary of the agreement coming into force.
Before commencement of the file/case, the client must provide Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven details of the legal assistance insurance company with which he works. If the client’s legal assistance insurance company intervenes, Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven shall seek payment of any fees and costs not covered by the legal assistance insurance company from the client.
Where Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven Advocaten acts on behalf of several persons or legal persons linked to each other, these persons or legal persons shall be jointly and indivisibly obliged to pay everything which they or one of them owe(s) to Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven Advocaten. This respective person or legal person shall only cease to be bound in respect of work performed for the other persons or legal persons from termination of the cooperation with one of the persons or legal persons. The respective person or legal person shall remain jointly bound for all work performed up to the time of termination of the cooperation.
The client must pay the invoices (advance invoice, interim invoice or final invoice) within 15 calendar days from the issue date. If the client does not agree with the invoice, he must protest it in writing within 15 calendar days of receipt. A detail of the services rendered is available on first demand. In the absence of any written protest, the invoice will be deemed accepted.
In case the client is a consumer, non-payment or late payment of all or part of the invoice shall give rise to a) suspension of the service obligation on the part of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven; b) the sending of a first notice of default; c) if, after the aforementioned notice of default, payment is still not made within fifteen (15) (in the event of an electronic reminder) or seventeen (17) (in the event of a reminder by post) calendar days, interest and costs will be charged on arrears. The following costs shall be charged: a) € 20 if the balance due is less than or equal to € 150; b) € 30 plus 10% of the amount due on the instalment between € 150.01 and € 500 if the balance due is between € 150.01 and € 500; c) € 65 plus 5% of the amount due on the instalment above € 500 with a maximum of € 2,000 if the balance due is above € 500. Default interest will be equal to the reference rate plus eight percentage points mentioned in Article 5(2) of the Act of 2 August 2002 on combating late payment in commercial transactions and this will be calculated from the due date of the invoice until the day of payment in full.
If the client is a company, interest equal to the legal interest rate shall be due on any invoice remaining unpaid on its due date, ipso jure and without prior warning, from the due date until receipt of full payment. In the latter case, any amount remaining unpaid after the due date will also be increased by a penalty equal to 10% of the invoice amount, with a minimum of EUR 75 per unpaid invoice.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven has the right, without having to give prior notice to the client, to either suspend all further performance on the file/case until all amounts due have been paid in full, or to terminate the agreement with the client with immediate effect, unless this in itself would be untimely in function of the client's interests and advocacy.
The client acknowledges that he/she was informed about the law of 21 April 2017 on the recoverability of fees and expenses associated with the assistance of the lawyer. Court fees may be used by the lawyer to discharge his/her fees and expenses.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven pays all sums which it receives for the client as quickly as possible to the client. From the sums which it receives for the client, Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven Advocaten may deduct sums to cover provisions, costs or fees, even if these are not yet due. Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven shall notify the client of this in writing. This provision does not affect the right of the client to dispute invoices for fees and to claim payment of these deducted sums.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven pays all sums which it receives from the client for third parties immediately to these third parties.
The third party account number is BE43 6304 3921 0201 (BIC/SWIFT: BBRUBEBB) under the name of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven BV.
All lawyers employed at Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven have an individual professional liability and insolvency insurance (with Amlin Europe nv) via an insurance policy underwritten by the Order of Flemish Bars. The amount paid out by the insurance company, subject to specific clauses of the insurance policy subscribed to, is a maximum of 2,500,000.00€ per claim.
In addition, Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven has taken out a supplementary, secondary, professional liability insurance policy for lawyers with the insurance company AG Insurance nv. The cover of this is 5,000,000.00€ per insurance year, as a supplement to and following exhaustion of the 2,500,000.00€ per claim of the primary insurance.
For lawyers Kristiaan Caluwaerts and Kristof Uytterhoeven, a tertiary professional liability insurance policy has been taken out with HDI Global Specialty SE. The cover of this is 10,000,000.00€ per claim and per year of damage, as a supplement to and following exhaustion of the underlying secondary and primary policies.
The client accepts that the compensation for damage suffered by him/her because of a professional error of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven shall be limited to the amount paid out by the professional liability insurance company. The client therefore accepts that the compensation for damage suffered by him as a result of a professional error of Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven shall be limited to the amount for which Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven is insured.
In any event, if Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven is not informed of a claim, in writing, within one year of the discovery of any event or circumstance which incurs or may incur liability, the claim shall be null and void.
If the professional liability insurer does not cover the damage, without Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven being at fault, the compensation on the grounds of professional misconduct is limited in principal sum, costs and interests to the amount paid by the client during the year preceding this act or omission and with an overall maximum of € 50,000.00. A copy of the policy terms and conditions can be provided on request.
Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven are not liable for any shortcomings of third parties which are recruited during the performance of their services, regardless whether these third parties have invoiced their fees and costs to Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven or directly to the client.
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Where applicable, Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven collects all data necessary in the context of its services, including the client's name, address, telephone numbers, e-mail address, and any other information about the client.
This data may be transmitted to third parties, such as bailiffs, translators, other lawyers, notaries, experts, accountants etc., engaged by Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven in the context of its services. In that case, Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven then acts as Controller and the third party as Processor within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC and the Act of 30 July 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data.
The client has the following rights: the right to access, the right to rectification, the right to exchange data, the right to restriction of processing, the right to transferability of personal data, the right to object and the right not to be subjected to automated decision-making. The client may invoke the aforementioned rights at any time, in which case it is sufficient to contact Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven at the following contact details: Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven | Potvlietlaan 6, 2600 Berchem | +32 (0)3 448 49 92 | info@legaloffice.be.
If there are complaints relating to the processing of the client's personal data, the latter may contact Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven | Potvlietlaan 6, 2600 Berchem | +32 (0)3 448 49 92 | info@legaloffice.be, with a view to resolving them internally, or file a complaint with the Data Protection Authority | Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussels | +32 (0)2 274 48 00 | +32 (0)2 274 48 35 | contact@apd-gba.be].
Notwithstanding Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven's reasonable efforts to safeguard its e-mails and attachments from viruses or other defects which may affect computers or an IT system, it remains the client's responsibility to ensure that appropriate measures exist to protect the client's computers and IT system from such viruses or defects. Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven accepts no liability for any loss or damage resulting from the receipt or use of electronic communications from Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven.
Unless otherwise required by mandatory legal provisions, the legal relationship between the client and Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven is exclusively governed by Belgian law, with the exception of rules of international private law. In the event of a dispute between Caluwaerts Uytterhoeven and the client, the courts of Antwerp, Antwerp division will be competent.