CONDITIONS (ENG)

Structure SQ

Services are provided by  BV Lenssens & Partners| KBO 0724.991.460 | Stephanie Square 6 | 1050 Brussels. SQ stands for SQ LENSSENS & PARTNERS, hereinafter named SQ.

Rates and conditions at SQ

1 – THE COSTS OF THE LAWYER

The back office costs of the lawyer are the fixed general expenses for office operations and they are calculated on 20 % of the fees plus VAT. All external costs such as bailiffs and experts , also called litigation expenses (see sub 2) are being excluded.

2 – THE LITIGATION EXPENSES

The litigation expenses are the expenses that the client must pay to third parties such as process servers, the experts , the office of the court, translators and public authorities. The client pays these expenses directly to these third parties. If the lawyer pays litigation expenses on the client’s behalf, these will be listed accurately and in detail in the fee and cost statement. All communication between the lawyer and experts of the client is protected by the professional secret of the lawyer.

3 – THE LAWYER’S FEE

The lawyer’s fee is the remuneration for services rendered by the lawyer , his assistant lawyers or his staff.

In principle, the fee is fixed orally or by writing at the start of the cooperation  and the rate is always confirmed in the invoice and/or the time sheet.

Parties either agree on an hourly rate or on a fixed amount agreed upon for a specific task, procedure or a specific part of a procedure. However the hourly rate is standard.  One can also agree on an additional success fee apart from the hourly fee in case of a positive result. A lump sum fee is possible e.g. for the review of a contract or for a due diligence. As the lawyer cannot predict all interventions in litigation nor the time needed or the result, it is impossible to assess the time needed or the result. However if the lawyer makes an estimation , this estimation never will be binding as such.

For establishing the hourly rate or the lump sum, the significance of the case, the experience, reputation and specialty of the lawyer, the urgency and the financial position of the client are taken into account. Regular clients with at least five new cases on a yearly base also can benefit on request  a Client Reward Program (CRP) meaning that special lower rates can apply.

In general, services and performances are charged at an hourly rate to be agreed upon plus VAT (21%) and costs, unless it is agreed upon or established otherwise. The nature of a file can be decisive to establish a fixed amount, a percentage (e.g. for debt collections) or an extra success fee.

The fee can be incremental depending on the level of difficulty of the actual services rendered and the experience of the lawyer or a flat-line, uniform rate can be applied as an average value for all services to be rendered. All time needed for research, study, strategy and all time needed directly or indirectly for the case will be billed. All time needed for transport and travelling is consistently charged at the hourly rate because the lawyer is indeed active in this file at that moment and this time must be remunerated as well.

4 – THE AMOUNTS REGARDING THE PROCEDURAL COSTS

In Belgium a party winning a process is entitled to recover (part of) the fee and costs of his lawyer from the party losing the process (= ‘recoverability of fees’).
This concerns a fixed compensation, the exact amount of which is established by the judge. The amounts regarding the procedural costs, both the basic amount and the minimum and maximum amount, are established by law. More information can be found on: www.advocaat.be.
In principle, the judge awards the basic amount. If at least one of the parties so asks, the judge may, based on 4 grounds listed in the above-mentioned decree, lower or raise the basic amount within the limits of the minimum and maximum amount. If the judge decides to increase or lower the basic amount, he must motivate this.Parties agree that in case such fee is granted by the judge in favor of the client, the fee has to be considered as an extra success fee for the lawyer.

 5 – GENERAL CONDITIONS

The general conditions remain in full force in relation to the rates SQ and in case of conflict the general conditions will prevail.

Terms and Conditions

Unless prior written agreement, all bills, invoices and notes shall be due and payable within eight days. All payments shall be made with the mandatory indication of the file number and the note number. In each case, the debt is portable. In case of any dispute between the attorney and the client, only the Dutch speaking chambers of the Brussels’ courts shall be competent and Belgian Law is applicable on the agreement at all times. The client acknowledges that the fees and expenses and all other terms of the cooperation were always subject to negotiation. The client agrees that the total price of the services cannot reasonably be calculated in advance due to the nature of the service nor can an estimate be made as there are too many variables, but that the hourly rate reflects the way in which the price is to be calculated and that it has been made clear that additional sums can and will be due according to the services and costs whereby either the commissions or the interim statements inform the client sufficiently without the need for additional information. If a combination is made of a reduced hourly rate and a success fee and the client ends the mandate before the success fee can be realized, he will retroactively be due all fees, charges and attachments in the amount of the  calculation of the difference from the original hourly rate. In any case of late payment, an interest of 12 % per annum shall automatically be due. The interest is due starting from the due payment date until the date of full payment. In addition a lump sum compensation of 10 % of the total amount shall be due, with a minimum of EUR 450, and it is subject to the provision of proof of more extensive losses. This 10 % compensation clause applies to all agreements between clients and lawyers, but only mutually in both directions between lawyers and consumers. The interests as well as the lump sum compensation shall be limited according to the limits of the law in Book XIX .4 of the WER (Economic Law Code) towards consumers – clients .Any protest and/or complaint relating to a provision request or statement of fees and charges or relating to liability, shall, on pain of forfeiture, be duly motivated and made in writing. The protest and/ or complaint shall, subject to forfeiture, be made within 8 days upon receipt or knowledge of facts possibly leading to liability and be made by registered mail. The lawyer is subject only to an obligation of  means and his liability is limited to serious misconduct or wilful acts. The liability is at all times limited to the insured and effectively paid out amount of his professional liability insurance as a lawyer and the client renounces any  additional damages more than the insured amount, as well as generally to any consequential damages. The client waves any contractual or non-contractual claim against the lawyer as an independent executive agent of the law firm and limits himself to a claim against the billing company which is his sole contracting party,  excluding explicitly  all other lawyers and law firms that may be in the same general partnership. The prescription period to file a professional liability legal action before the courts shall be conventionally limited and determined at two years following the last intervention of the lawyer and at three years after the facts on which the claim has been based, without the possibility that the latter time limit exceeds the first. All fees and charges are legally to be added with VAT. All existing and new fee agreements including correction coefficients are automatically adjusted and increased to that effect. Office expenses exclude external or exceptional expenses , which shall be billed separately and shall be calculated and invoiced separately in addition to the fees themselves conventionally, at a flat rate and without the lawyer having to provide any further proof, at 20% of the amount of the services and fees, unless otherwise agreed in written form. All fees and expenses are subject to periodic indexation. Indexation is expressed as a percentage that approximates the effect of inflation. The percentage of this adjustment constitutes a party decision by the lawyer but is done at market conditions. Furthermore, the lawyer is always entitled to adjust the rates in the course of time with respect to the future, for example, on the basis of advancing seniority, and the payment of the next invoice with that adjustment is binding for the client and in this regard accepted. The fees, services and costs indicated in the interim statement may not yet be complete and the lawyer reserves the right to complete them afterwards. The lawyer and the client expressly agree that, by way of prohibition, no sound or video recordings can ever be made by the client of the communications between lawyer and client, for example by phone or during consultations or discussions, nor of the pleadings, and the client renounces now for then any evidential value thereof and confirms that, where appropriate, these are conventionally prohibited and excluded within the framework of the agreement. If these conditions are contrary to provisions of mandatory law, the latter shall replace or purge by force of law without affecting the validity of the contract or the other provisions. The present conditions are mentioned when the financial conditions are communicated  and de client agrees on these conditions when he knows that the lawyer starts his interventions. The  present conditions are also repeated on the invoices and their payment reconfirms as far as necessary their acceptance. These conditions may be modified from time to time and the new version will be binding when the invoice on which they are mentioned had been paid.

SQ Privacy Policy

This document contains the Privacy Policy of the website www.sqlawoffices.com. SQ uses your personal data with care. This document contains information in regards to how the SQ website manages your personal data and provides her services to you by using your personal data. SQ might share your data with other SQ divisions, SQ entities, experts and subcontractors.

1 – USE OF PERSONAL DATA

The SQ website automatically processes personal data for its technical and functional management as well as to ensure its fluent use. The SQ website may process your personal data such as your IP-address, the webpages you visit, the browser you are using, the website you have previously visited, demographic information, and the time and duration of your visit on the website.

2 – USE OF COOKIES

The SQ website uses cookies. Cookies are small files which are installed on the device in order to store data which is used by the server of the domain name that placed the cookie. The SQ website uses cookies and similar technologies for the storage and saving of your preferences and settings. Cookies also allow the SQ website, amongst other legitimate purposes, to avoid fraud, analyze its services and improve this service by enforcing modifications. Cookies and similar technologies can be controlled by the user of the SQ website in different ways, for example by changing the settings on the applied internet browser.

3 – SECURITY MESURES

SQ secures your personal data through various technical and organizational measures, such as antivirus protection, secured servers and data processing agreements with third parties hosting this website.

4 – LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

The SQ website may provide referrals – including hyperlinks – to websites offered by other companies/entities, people or by social media. SQ is not responsible or liable for any processing of your personal data through these websites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the use of such websites.

5 – YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to access, correct, delete or transfer your personal data processed by the SQ website at any time. You also have the right to object to or limit the processing of your personal data, for example for direct marketing purposes. If you wish access to your personal data processed by SQ or have your data updated, corrected or deleted, please send your request to me@sqlawoffices.com. You can also sent your request by post to SQ. You can exercise your rights free of all chargers, unless the requests are disproportionate in which case the a cost might be charged.
Should you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy, please mail  me@sqlawoffices.com.

 6 – RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR PERSONAL DATA

SQ Lenssens & Partners BV, located at Stephanie Square 6, 1050 BRUSSELS, will be responsible for your personal data and Ms. Melek ERYORUK  me@sqlawoffices.com is in charge.

Legal notice

SQ website

The information on the SQ website is for general purposes and guidance only and does not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. For specific legal advice, please contact the SQ group in the relevant jurisdiction. Except as required by law, SQ nor its subsidiaries , lawyers or staff shall not be liable for any losses or damages whatsoever, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise arising from reliance on information contained in this website, or from any interruption or delay in access to the website for whatever reason.

Copyright

This website, and the copyright in the materials on this site, are owned by SQ and/or its subsidiaries and lawyers. SQ and any other names, images and logos identifying SQ offices are proprietary trademarks of SQ. You may print or otherwise store, temporarily, extracts from this website without alteration for the purposes of your own personal use, provided you keep intact all and any copyright and proprietary notices. Neither this website nor any part of this site may be otherwise copied, reproduced, modified, publicly displayed, republished or distributed in any media (including without limitation via any other website) without the prior written permission of SQ. Requests for permission should be addressed to me@sqlawoffices.com . All rights reserved.

Third party websites

This website contains links to other websites over which SQ has no control. SQ does not accept responsibility or liability for the operation or content of such websites. Links to this website are not permitted without the prior and express written consent of SQ.

Applicable law

This website (including this Legal Notice) shall be governed by Belgian law. The Belgian courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes arising from this site. Please note that SQ terms and conditions may be amended from time to time, so please ensure that you check them when you use this site

Accessibility

SQ is committed to ensuring that the pages within this website are accessible to all individuals including those with disabilities.

Throughout the design process SQ has ensured that this website meets accessibility standards.

Cookie Policy

We use a small number of cookies to help us give you a better site experience. These cookies are non-intrusive and are used by most web sites. You can control the use of cookies on your device, including deleting and blocking the cookies we and other sites use, through the browser settings on your device.

This web site uses a small number of non-intrusive cookies. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, mobile phone or tablet by web sites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make web sites work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to web site owners.

We use cookies to (a) remember your browsing preferences when you visit the site so that we can give you a better site experience and (b) collect anonymous statistical information about the way you use the web site so that we can improve the way the site works (for example, we collect information about the number of visitors to the various parts of the site).The cookies we use are nonintrusive and are used by most web sites. None of your personal details are held in these cookies.

Most web browsers (including Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari) allow you to control your cookie settings and to delete any cookies already stored on your computer or other device. You can control the use of cookies on your device, including deleting and blocking the cookies we and other sites use, through the browser settings on your device. Please note that any changes you make may affect your ability to properly use this web site.

To find out more about the way cookies work, how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit: www.allaboutcookies.org