In these terms and conditions (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Terms and Conditions’), ‘the Lawyer’ means: the law firm Tim Laureys Advocaten CVBA (company number: 0538.933.384).

The Terms and Conditions apply to all assignments, unless otherwise agreed upon in writing prior to the creation of a mission. An assignment shall only be deemed binding after it has been accepted by the Lawyer. With regard to the acceptance of an assignment, the Lawyer can only be represented by the lawyers affiliated to the firm. The client accepts these Terms and Conditions as the only conditions applicable to the contractual relationship with the Lawyer and, insofar as necessary, explicitly waives the applicability of his own general conditions.

Specific conditions can be agreed upon between the Lawyer and the client. Such specific conditions shall only prevail over these Terms and Conditions if they are agreed upon in writing prior to the acceptance of an assignment. In any case, the Lawyer shall remain bound by the Ethical Code.

An accepted assignment only constitutes a best-efforts obligation on the part of the Lawyer, not an obligation to achieve a certain result.

In order to allow for an adequate and timely execution of the accepted assignment, the client shall immediately and spontaneously provide the Lawyer with all information related to his case. The client undertakes to cooperate fully during the course of the assignment. The client guarantees the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the data, information and documents provided to the Lawyer by him or on his behalf. The client shall immediately inform the Lawyer when certain facts or circumstances, of any nature whatsoever, occur that could be important for the execution of the assignment.

The Lawyer declines all responsibility if and for as long as the client does not meet his obligations. In any case, the Lawyer’s liability is limited to the amount paid by the professional liability insurer, if applicable.

Unless otherwise agreed upon, the Lawyer can delegate the work entirely or partially to a lawyer, employee and/or third party designated by him.
In such a case, these conditions shall remain fully applicable. If the execution of (part of) the assignment is to be performed by third parties, the Lawyer is explicitly authorized by the client to accept any liability limitations applied by those third parties on his behalf.

The client shall remunerate the Lawyer as follows: – the fee
(for the work performed by the Lawyer on his case) as well as the lump-sum to cover litigation costs definitively granted by the courts to the client, insofar as this lump-sum can be recovered from the counterparty
– a compensation for the expenses incurred by the Lawyer and related to the work in his case (travel expenses, secretarial work…)
– the specific legal costs each time in accordance with the Lawyer’s usual rates, calculation methods and working methods. The Lawyer shall be free to unilaterally modify these rates, calculation methods and working methods, provided he notifies the client of these changes at least 15 days in advance.

Unless otherwise mentioned on the invoice, the payment term is 14 days as of the date of the invoice. If several clients are involved, they are all jointly and severally liable for the payment of the invoice.
If the invoice remains unpaid after the expiration of the payment term, the Lawyer is entitled to claim contractual interests on the outstanding amount at an interest rate of 1% per month as well as a lump-sum indemnity of 10% on the outstanding amount, with a minimum of 500 euros, without prejudice to his rights according to the applicable law.
In case of non-payment, the Lawyer is also entitled to immediately suspend his work until the client has fully complied with his payment obligations. Such suspension cannot lead to any liability on the part of the Lawyer.

All rights related to the intellectual services the Lawyer develops or uses during the execution of the assignment (including advice, working methods, contracts, subpoenas or other drafts of procedural documents,…), shall belong to the Lawyer, provided that they do not already belong to third parties.
Unless the client obtains the explicit prior written consent of the Lawyer, the client shall not be permitted to distribute, publish or exploit the intellectual works of the Lawyer or the recording thereof on data carriers, either directly or indirectly.

The nullity of one or more provisions of the Terms and Conditions shall not result in the nullity of the entire Terms and Conditions. If necessary, the clause in question shall be replaced, in mutual agreement between the parties, by a clause that approaches the scope and effect of the initial clause as closely as possible.

The Lawyer and the client explicitly agree (a) that all disputes concerning the Terms and Conditions will be exclusively settled by the Belgian courts of the judicial district of Ghent, (b) that the Terms and Conditions are exclusively governed by Belgian law and (c) that only the Dutch text has legal force, and that any translations are merely provided for information purposes.