Legal Information
Pursuant to Article 18 of the law dated March, 26th 2010 on Professional Services and Article III-74 CDE, the Client is provided with the following legal information:
| Name | S.N.C. GUILMOT & BASSINE | |
| Address | 435, avenue Brugmann – B-1180 Brussels (Belgium) | |
| office@guilmotbassine.com | ||
| Nr Enterprise | BCE 475.706.014 | |
| Professional Organization | Ordre français des avocats du Barreau de Bruxelles | |
| Legal Title | Avocats | |
| Granting Jurisdiction | Belgium | |
| General Terms and Conditions | See hereunder and www.guilmotbassine.com | |
| Predetermined price of the Services | None save predetermined rates as per appending letter | |
| Nature of Services | Legal defense in front of the Courts in the case referred to in the appending correspondence and/or legal advice and assistance in civil/business/labor/tax/administrative issue as per the appending correspondence. | |
| Insurance | Professional Liability: Ethias Insurance Cy, rue des Croisiers 24 à B-4000 Liège, Belgium (tel + 32 4/220.31.11). Geographic scope of the insurance: worldwide save USA and Canada. |
Contractual conditions governing professional services provided by S.N.C. Guilmot & Bassine
Acceptance of the contractual conditions governing professional services
These contractual conditions govern the legal relationship between the firm SNC GUILMOT & BASSINE and the client. In order to make this relationship as transparent as possible, the firm has informed the client of the existence of these conditions by referring it to the web site www.guilmotbassine.com. A copy of these contractual conditions will be sent to the client on request. By giving instructions to the firm to act (or where applicable by maintaining the dossier being handled by the firm), the client expressly gives consent to their application to the relationship between the client and the firm, to the exclusion of all other general conditions.
Identity of contracting parties
The identity and details communicated to the firm by the client when opening its dossier(s) must comply with the law of 12 January 2004. The client undertakes to inform the firm of any change that may occur to the information provided when opening the dossier.
Dispatches from the firm are covered by trade secrecy and are reserved for the exclusive use of their addressee(s). When the client receives documents via the firm, it accepts them under confidential conditions and undertakes to respect their confidentiality.
Determining fees and costs and billing
Unless otherwise stipulated, the fees for intervention by the firm to pay for the services of the lawyers called on to act are billed at the following hourly rates (rates are mentioned excluding VAT which needs to be added at a rate of 21% accordingly):
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- Partners: 175 € to 300 € (+VAT)
- Full-time staff: 150 € to 225 €(+VAT)
- Trainees: 100 € to 150 €(+VAT)
The hourly rates are adapted in each individual case depending on the usual criteria: urgency of the services required, importance of the case, and the practical difficulties of implementation.
Unless otherwise stipulated, the costs incurred for carrying out missions are calculated as follows:
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- Opening dossier: 25 € to 75 € (+VAT)
- Typed page: 10 € (+VAT)
- Electronic mail: 6 € (+VAT)
- Hearing dossier: 20 € to 50 € (+VAT)
- Registered mail: 10 € (+VAT)
- Travel costs per km: 0.5 € (+VAT)
- Closing a dossier: 15 € to 50 € (+VAT)
- Archiving costs: 20 € to 60 € (+VAT)
- Other costs or expenses at cost.
Fees advanced by the firm on behalf of the client (court bailiffs, assessors, clerk of the court, mortgage, land registry, etc.) are reimbursed by the client at cost.
Depending on the needs, the firm sends out provisional or interim statements. Unless it is expressly mentioned that these statements cover all sums due at the time they were issued, statements are intended to allow the client to spread the payment of final costs and fees and should not be understood as a complete statement of sums due at the time of issue. On closing a dossier, a final statement of fees and costs is drawn up and sent to the client.
Unless otherwise stipulated, the statements sent out by the firm are payable within thirty days of their dispatch date and are governed by the terms of the law of 2 August 2002 concerning the prevention of late payment of commercial transactions.
Clients are invited to contact the firm to find out if they benefit from the total or partial intervention of a third party for the payment of fees.
Collaboration
In accordance with the usual practices of the profession, it is customary for lawyers that are members of the firm and their staff to assist and replace each other where appropriate, without the need to notify the client in advance, unless a different choice has been specifically expressed by the client and agreed with the firm.
The choice of third parties (bailiff, assessor, colleague, etc.) required to assist with the handling of a dossier is made freely by the firm, or in consultation with the client where appropriate. Under no circumstances can the firm be held responsible because of such a choice. The client is the contracting party and the direct debtor of such third parties, to the exclusion of the firm.
Third party accounts
The firm invests the funds it is called upon to hold on behalf of third parties, whether on behalf of the client or any other third party for which the funds are destined, on a third-party account opened for this purpose, on which the interest is credited to the Order of Lawyers (Ordre des avocats). Unless otherwise agreed, the funds are held on this account until a ruling has been made or an agreement has been reached. The client may request that the funds bear interest in its favour if an express request is made and the firm and the client agree on the form of the special investment of the funds.
Liability
The firm is covered by insurance covering its professional liability up to a maximum total amount of 3,250,000.00 € (three million two hundred and fifty thousand euros), of which 1,250,000.00 € is stipulated per claim and 2,000,000.00 € of cover per lawyer, per annum and per claim; a copy of the policy will be provided at the written request of the client. At the written request of the client, the firm may however increase the amount of this cover and thereby the limit of contractual liability of the firm, in which case the parties will agree on the modalities of such special cover. It is expressly agreed by the parties by acceptance of these general conditions, as stipulated above and under the terms of the Bar Association Regulations (Règlement de l’Ordre français des avocats du barreau de Bruxelles) of 1st October 2000, that the liability of the firm and the personal liability of the lawyers that form it is expressly limited to this amount of insurance cover as implemented where appropriate; the client’s attention is therefore drawn to the fact that, unless otherwise stipulated and accepted by the firm, the client expressly agrees to limit claims to the remaining amount of the cover where appropriate in the case of multiple claims in the same year and for the same lawyer.
Without prejudice to the above, the firm also declines all responsibility of whatsoever nature concerning advice given by lawyers external to the practice, by accountants, auditors, assessors or other suppliers of services on which the firm may call as part of its intervention, as well as for any indirect damage or repercussions or prejudice to third parties.
Documents – Archiving
Unless otherwise agreed, the client is requested not to entrust original documents to the firm.
On closing of the dossier, unless otherwise stipulated, the firm retains the archives during a period of five years, at the end of which they are automatically destroyed.
Applicable law – disputes
The contractual relationship between the firm and the client, whatever the location of the service(s) performed, is governed by Belgian law to the exclusion of (i) the rules of private international law or of international conventions that would give rise to the application of another national law, and (ii) any other law, concerning its validity, interpretation, execution or extinction.
Any dispute that may arise from this agreement shall be subject to negotiation between the parties, or recourse to mediation where applicable. If this should fail, the dispute will fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the French speaking courts of Brussels, except for any professional jurisdictions for disciplinary or ethical matters or disputes concerning fees.