General Terms and Conditions

1. Het Reorganisatie Bureau (The Restructuring Desk) / Het Arbeidsrecht Bureau (The Employment Law Desk) (hereinafter: “the office”), a legal entity registered at the trade register under number 66692075, aims to practice the legal profession and to provide legal services. Miss J.A. de Groot is a lawyer (advocaat), registered in the Netherlands at the Dutch Bar Association (Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten), Neuhuyskade 94, 2596 XM Den Haag, tel. 070 – 335 35 35, info@advocatenorde.nl.
2. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, these general terms and conditions apply to all assignments to the office, including all additional, amended and/or follow-up assignments. They also apply to all legal relations as a result of assignments or in connection therewith. Furthermore, these general terms and conditions can be invoked by those persons and corporations that are directly or indirectly affiliated with the office or are in any way engaged in the services provided by or on behalf of the office.
3. Prior to the performance of the assignment the general terms and conditions will be sent to or handed over to the client.
4. If the general terms and conditions are drawn up in the English language, the Dutch version will prevail in the event of a dispute about the content or purpose of the general terms and conditions. The Dutch version can be found on the website(s) www.hetarbeidsrechtbureau.nl / www.hetreorganisatiebureau.nl.
5. Applicability of any other general terms and conditions, such as those of the client, is expressly rejected.
6. The office performs all services and other activities under an assignment agreement (overeenkomst van opdracht) with the office (hereinafter: “the agreement”), unless agreed otherwise in writing.
7. All assignments are accepted and executed exclusively by the office. With regard to the conclusion of the agreement, the office can only be represented by a lawyer associated with the office.
8. Articles 7:404 and 7:407 paragraph 2 of the Dutch Civil Code shall not apply. The client agrees that the agreement will be executed under the responsibility of a lawyer associated with the office, if necessary with the engagement of third parties.
9. When engaging third parties, the office will always exercise due care. The office is not liable for damages resulting from shortcomings of third parties. The client authorizes the office to accept any limitations of liability of third parties on his behalf.
10. The office always takes due care to ensure that the equipment, software, data files, registers and all other matters used by the office in the performance of the agreement function properly, and that a data leak and/or cyber attack (such as getting hacked or catching computer viruses) does not take place. The office is not liable for damages resulting from the improper functioning of the aforementioned matters, data leaks and/or cyber attacks.
11. The performance of the agreement takes place exclusively for the benefit of the client. Third parties cannot derive any rights from the content of the agreement or from the work performed, even if they can be directly or indirectly regarded as an interested party.
12. The client indemnifies and holds the office and each person associated with or formerly associated with the office harmless from and against any and all (alleged) third party claims, including legal and other costs, which are in any way connected to the work for the client performed by the office and/or any person associated with or formerly associated with the office, unless such claims derive from gross negligence or willful misconduct on the part of the office or the aforementioned persons.
13. The office has a professional liability insurance with coverage prescribed by the Dutch Bar Association (Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten) at Markel Insurance (Westerlaan 18, 3016 CK Rotterdam). The office is insured for professional liability for an insured amount of up to € 1,000,000 per year. Further information about the contents of the policy conditions will be provided on request.
14. If during the performance of the work as a result of an act or omission an event occurs that leads to liability towards the client, such liability will always be limited to the amount which in the relevant case is paid out under the (individual) professional liability insurance of the office, plus the amount of the own risk that is charged to the office in accordance with the insurance contract in the relevant case. If for any reason no payment is made on the basis of the insurance, any liability is limited to the fees charged by the office and paid by the client in the relevant case in the relevant year, excluding VAT and disbursements, with a maximum of € 2,500.
15. With regards to all claims for liability and the filing thereof, an expiration period of 1 year applies starting from the moment the client was aware of the grounds of the claim or the moment the client could reasonably have been aware of the grounds of the claim.
16. Liability for indirect damage or consequential damage is under all circumstances excluded.
17. In relation to the execution of the agreement, the client owes the office the fee, plus - if Dutch turnover tax law is applicable - VAT, as well as any disbursements and office costs.
18. Unless otherwise agreed, the fee is calculated on the basis of the number of hours worked multiplied by the hourly rate. The amount of the hourly rate owed is agreed in advance with the client. The fee is yearly adjustable.
19. Disbursements are costs that the office incurs in the interest of the execution of the agreement for the client, including, for example, court fees, costs of third parties, bailiffs costs, courier costs and translation costs. The amount of these disbursements varies with the nature of the legal proceedings, the size of the financial interest, the role of the client in these proceedings as plaintiff or defendant, etc. Payment of these costs is not reimbursement for the work performed by the office. The disbursements are owed by the client to the third party in question, such as the court concerned, the bailiff, etc. The office will send the client the invoices. Disbursements consisting of court registry fees must be paid prior to the legal proceedings, at the latest at a date to be specified by the office. In the event of non-timely receipt of these court fees, the office is allowed - after the client has been notified about this in advance - to discontinue or suspend the work, even if this means that a strict deadline in legal proceedings shall expire.
20. If the assignment involves assistance in a legal procedure, for instance legal proceedings at a court (rechtbank), the client also owes office costs. This is a fixed percentage surcharge of 5% on the fee.
21. The activities are charged to the client periodically - in principle monthly. The invoices specify the amounts charged as mentioned above.
22. Invoices must be paid - without suspension or setoff - within fourteen days, counting from the date of the invoice.
23. Only payment by transfer to one of the bank accounts linked to the office against proper proof of payment will lead to discharge. Payment by means of an appeal by the client to setoff is excluded. The client is not entitled to suspend the obligation to pay invoices from the office.
24. In the event of non-payment of the work carried out for the client by or on behalf of the office, or if the office considers it insufficiently certain that the client will meet the payment obligations towards the office, the office is entitled to stop or suspend the work without further notice of default, until full payment of the outstanding invoices has taken place, to the exclusion of any liability of the office for damages that may arise as a result.
25. In the event of non-payment of one or more invoices, the statutory (commercial) interest is due, as well as - after the first reminder - the extrajudicial collection costs, which amount to at least 15% of the invoice amount, with a minimum of € 250.00.
26. If the client does not agree with the amount of the invoice, the client has the right to dispute the amount of the invoice up to 45 calendar days after the invoice date. This right expires after 45 calendar days and it can only be invoked in writing.
27. If the office performs work for the client for the first time, this will only be done on the basis of payment in advance, unless the office determines otherwise. The office is always entitled to demand payment in advance from the client. An advance received is deducted from the oldest outstanding invoice.
28. If two or more clients are parties to the agreement concluded with the office, all these clients are jointly and severally liable to the office for the fulfilment of their obligations under the agreement.
29. Clients who receive reimbursement for (part of the) invoice(s), for example from a legal expenses insurer or an employer, are and remain severally liable for the payment of the invoice(s), whether or not in addition to the debtor.
30. Both the client and the office may cancel (opzeggen) the agreement at any time. This cancellation will in itself never lead to any (compensation) obligation, except to the obligation for the client to pay outstanding invoices, as well as work in progress and costs. The provisions of these general terms and conditions which are by their nature intended to continue to apply after the agreement between the parties, remain in full force. In the event of a (partial) nullification (vernietiging), (partial) rescission (ontbinding) and or adjustment of the assignment, these general terms and conditions will remain in full force.
31. The office does not use a third-party money account (derdengeldrekening), has no access to a third-party funds foundation (stichting derdengelden) and can therefore not receive third-party funds (derdengelden).
32. In principle, the office works electronically when providing advice, information, invoices, etc. Unless otherwise agreed, the client agrees that data is provided by the office electronically.
33. Personal data of the client is processed in accordance with the Privacy Statement, which is attached to the engagement letter. In this statement is included how the office implements the obligations towards those persons whose personal data is processed, in accordance with the GDPR. The client agrees with the contents of the Privacy Statement.
34. If the services provided have come to an end, the file is kept for seven years, after which the office will destroy it.
35. The client is aware that the office may have an obligation under the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van terrorisme) (hereinafter: “the Wwft”) to identify the client and to verify the identification. The client is obliged to fully cooperate at all times in the manner prescribed in the Wwft. The office will record and store the required information in accordance with the Wwft. The client is also aware of and accepts that, under the Wwft as well as under the accompanying decisions, regulations and guidelines, the office is obliged to report unusual transactions described in those regulations to the authorities set up by the government for this purpose. The client accepts that this obligation to provide information prevails over the confidentiality obligation of the lawyer and waives any right to sue the office or the lawyer under criminal, disciplinary, civil or other law by virtue of such act of the lawyer in accordance with the mentioned legal obligations.
36. The office's complaints procedure, as published and available on the websites (www.hetreorganisatiebureau.nl / www.hetarbeidsrechtbureau.nl), applies to the office's work. If the complaint has not been resolved after completing the internal complaints procedure, the complaint can be submitted to the Court in Amsterdam to obtain a binding decision.
37. The external replacement scheme (e.g. in the event of an emergency) has been filed with the Amsterdam Bar Association (Amsterdamse Orde van Advocaten).
38. The office reserves the right to change the general terms and conditions.
39. Dutch law is exclusively applicable to the relationship between the client and the office. Disputes will only be settled by the competent Dutch court in Amsterdam.

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