The law firm "Van Eeckhoutte, Taquet & Clesse" is a partnership under Belgian law and has its registered office at Drie Koningenstraat 3, 9051 Gent. The partnership is registered at the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises under number 0525.772.266. The lawyers are members of the Bar Association of Ghent. Inge Derde is also a member of the Dutch language section of the Brussels Bar. Willy van Eeckhoutte is a member of the Bar Association of the Court of Cassation.
Together with the law firms Taquet (Brussels) and Clesse (Liège), the partnership is part of the Belgian law firm "Bellaw".
For each professional appeal that a client (hereinafter: you) makes to the law firm Van Eeckhoutte, Taquet & Clesse (hereinafter: we), the following rules apply between the parties. For advice on cassation and cassation proceedings, the agreements made at the time of acceptance of the file will prevail to the extent that they differ from these general terms and conditions.
1. Professional rules
All our lawyers are subject to the code of ethics of the Flemish Bar Council, laid down in the Code of Ethics for Lawyers, the text of which can be found here.
2. Mutual obligation to provide information
As a client, it is your duty upon commencement of the contract to provide all the information we need to offer an optimal service. Only then and only on this basis can we assist you. We are not liable for any damage resulting from incorrect or incomplete information.
For our part, we will inform you from the first contact or at least as soon as possible about
- the fees and costs associated with our services,
- The aim of our services and the chances that we achieve it in whole or in part,
- the risks and dangers that may be associated with certain measures that we take on your behalf, in particular the risk associated with proceedings, including the legal costs that you may be ordered to pay if you should lose a case.
We will also keep you informed of the steps we take, the responses we receive and, in the event of proceedings, the various stages of those proceedings, the procedural documents that are exchanged, the court decisions and the means of recovery available against them.
3. Engagement of third parties
You agree that for specific assignments it may be necessary for the optimal representation of your interests that we engage bailiffs and translators and charge you for them.
We are not liable for the actions of these third parties.
4. Fees and expenses
4.1. Upon commencement of our assignment, you will receive an overview of the fees and costs that we will charge to represent your interests.
All amounts mentioned are subject to the applicable VAT rate, which is currently 21%.
4.2. We try to ensure that the various tasks of your case are entrusted to the lawyer best suited to perform them, so that the fees we charge are as close as possible in proportion to the nature of the services provided, while the quality of the service continues to be guaranteed.
4.3. We also ensure maximum cost control in every file.
The costs are also determined by you, in the sense that we always have to charge replies to telephone calls, e-mails or letters and consultations.
4.4. In order to keep you closely informed of the development of the costs and fees, we issue periodic interim invoices for long-term assignments.
4.5. We reserve the right to ask for an advance payment upon commencement or in the course of our work and to only commence or continue our work after payment. The same applies in the event of non-payment of interim invoices.
We are not liable for any damage caused by the suspension of our work due to this damage.
4.6. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, the following invoice terms shall apply.
The invoice must be paid within the payment period indicated on it, i.e. 14 or 30 days, to the account number BE91 3630 1848 2176, stating the file reference and the invoice number.
In the event of late full payment by a company, interest will be payable on the outstanding balance from the 15th day (in the event of a 14-day payment period) or from the 31st day (in the event of a 30-day payment period) after the invoice date, calculated at the legal interest rate in accordance with the Law of 2 August 2002 on combating late payment in commercial transactions, and a lump-sum indemnity of EUR 150.
In the event of late full payment by an individual, interest and liquidated damages will be payable in accordance with Articles XIX.2 and XIX.4 of the IPC. This provision will apply conversely and in the same way should Bellaw be in default vis-à-vis the individual.
4.7. In the event of disputes over the fee or costs, we will initially try to find an amicable settlement. If this is not possible, we will propose arbitration, in accordance with the arbitration rules of the Ghent Bar Association, which can be found here.
5. Third-parties’ account
We request third parties to deposit any amounts they owe in connection with a case we are working on into our third parties’ account.
You agree that we will deduct from the amounts we receive for your account any sums that you may still owe us according to the invoices. We will inform you of this in writing.
We will transfer the amount due to you minus any deductions as soon as possible to the account you have designated for this purpose.
6. Termination of the assignment
6.1. You may terminate our assignment at any time by notifying us in writing.
In that case, we will send, at your request, the documents you have entrusted to us for the purpose of your case to the lawyer designated by you, or to yourself.
6.2. We can also terminate the assignment at any time by notifying you in writing. We will then only take the urgent measures that need to be taken for the protection of your interests in the short term.
We are not liable for any damage that may result from the termination of our assignment.
7. Insurance
The professional liability of all our lawyers is insured under a collective policy taken out by the Ghent Bar Association with nv AMLIN CORPORATE INSURANCE (with registered office in Belgium, Koning Albert II-Laan 9, 1210 Brussels) for 70% and with the public limited company ZURICH INSURANCE (with registered office in Belgium, Da Vincilaan 5, 1930 Zaventem) for 20% and with nv KBC VERZEKERINGEN (with registered office in Belgium, Professor R. Van Overstraetenplein 2, 3000 Leuven) for 5%, for a total amount up to 2,500,000 euro.
For partner solicitors there is an additional insurance (second rank) of up to 5,000,000 euros with AIG EUROPE (registered office in Belgium, Pleinlaan 11, 1050 Ixelles).
For the private limited company Willy Van Eeckhoutte, a separate professional liability insurance has been taken out via a collective policy by the Association of Lawyers at the Court of Cassation with ETHIAS NV (with registered office in Belgium, Rue des Croisiers 24, 4000 Liège) for an amount of EUR 2,500,000.
The private limited liability company Willy Van Eeckhoutte has taken out additional insurance up to EUR 5,000,000 with the nv ETHIAS (with registered office in Belgium, Rue des Croisiers 24, 4000 Liège) and with the nv AIG EUROPE (with registered office in Belgium, Pleinlaan 11, 1050 Ixelles), each for 50%.
In the third rank, the private limited liability company Willy Van Eeckhoutte has taken out additional insurance with the nv HDI-GERLING VERZEKERINGEN (with registered office in Belgium, Tervurenlaan 273 box 1, 1150 Brussels) for 85% and with the nv AIG EUROPE (with registered office in Belgium, Pleinlaan 11, 1050 Ixelles) for 15%, for a total amount up to 12.000.000 euros.
8. Intellectual property rights
You are not permitted to reproduce, publish, disclose or use in any other way other than in the context of the assignment entrusted to us, the advice, reports, contracts, procedural documents or any other form resulting from our intellectual work, without our prior written consent.
9. Anti-money laundering legislation
The legal profession falls within the scope of money laundering legislation. This legislation aims to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and requires lawyers to follow an acceptance procedure, non-compliance with which can lead to disciplinary sanctions and administrative fines.
We must therefore ask you about the nature of the task being entrusted to us, so that we can establish whether the money laundering legislation applies.
If our engagement relates to one of the activities that the legislator has designated as 'susceptible to money laundering', we must conduct an identity investigation. The activities of lawyers are 'susceptible to money laundering':
- when they assist their client in preparing or carrying out work in relation to:
- the purchase and sale of real estate or businesses,
- managing its money, securities or other assets,
- the opening or management of bank accounts, savings accounts or securities accounts,
- organising the input needed for the formation, operation or management of companies,
- the creation, operation or management of fiduciaries or trusts, companies, foundations or similar structures,
- or when they act for or on behalf of their client in any financial or real estate activity.
If the task you wish to entrust to us falls within the scope of application of the money laundering legislation, we are obliged to identify you and to request, verify and retain a number of documents proving your identity. We may also need to ask you about the origin of funds or assets. We must also identify your eventual beneficiaries. We are obliged to terminate our mediation if the requested information is not received within two weeks after the initial request.
Even during the course of the customer relationship, we have a duty of vigilance and may need to obtain additional information. If the information needs to be adjusted during the course of our business relationship, we will ask you to provide us with this information spontaneously.
If, in the course of our work, we discover facts that are known or suspected to be related to money laundering or terrorist financing, we are obliged to inform the President of the Bar Association at the Bar of Ghent or of the Bar Association at the Court of Cassation, except when these activities relate to determining your legal position or to your defence or representation in legal proceedings. The President of the Bar then decides whether or not to report the information received to the Financial Information Processing Unit.
This duty of disclosure does not exempt us from complying with our professional secrecy obligation, which is a basic feature of the relationship between the client and his lawyer.
10. Archiving
We archive the file after the completion of each assignment and keep it for a period of five years. After that, the file is permanently destroyed.