General conditions

article 1. The partnership
Wybenga Wildeboer van den Puttelaar is a partnership of private companies with limited liability (hereinafter: the partnership). A list of the partners will be sent to the client at his request.

article 2. Scoop of these conditions
The rights and defences in these general conditions can be invoked by the partnership and by all those persons and legal entities that work for the partnership and its clients and by all legal entities affiliated with the partnership or its partners.

article 3. Assignments, applicable law
Assignments are accepted and carried out exclusively by the partnership, not by individual partners or lawyers engaged by the partnership. Articles 7:404 and 7:407 par 2 of the Dutch Civil Code shall not be applicable. All relationships between the client and the partnership will be governed by Dutch Law.

article 4. Fees
For carrying out an assignment the client owes a fee, increased by 5% for general overhead and also increased with specific disbursements and Dutch VAT if applicable. The client is obliged to pay an advance amount or to offer other collateral at any time the partnership so requests. Any amount paid in advance will be set off with the partnership’s final fee note. Unless there is a specific agreement to the contrary, all fees are based on hourly fee amounts as annually determined by the partnership. These hourly fee amounts are increased per 1 January of each year to correct for inflation. 

article 5. Payments
Payment of all fee notes sent by the partnership should follow within the period stipulated. The client is in breach of payment without any further action required by the partnership as soon as the payment is late. From the moment of late payment the client owes statutory interest over the amount unpaid. The partnership is entitled to suspend its activities for the client in case of breach of his payment obligations. The costs of collection incurred by the partnership as a result of client’s breach of payment are for the account of the client. These costs are at least 10% of the amount unpaid with a minimum of € 250. Payments received from the client once he is in breach of payment will first be deducted from the costs, subsequently from the statutory interest and finally be applied towards the principal amount.

article 6. Liability
The liability of the partnership is limited in any matter to the amount which in that matter will be paid out by the partnerships’ professional liability insurer(s), increased with the so called deductible. The partnership is not liable for any faults or omissions by third parties involved in the carrying out of the assignment, unless these third parties can be considered to be subordinates of the partnership. The liability of the partnership for faults and omissions not covered by its professional liability insurance is limited to the amount(s) of fees charged to the client in the matter concerned.

article 7. Indemnity
In case a third party requests compensation from the partnership for damages incurred by that party in connection with services rendered to the client, the client shall hold harmless and indemnify the partnership in all respects in connection with such claim.

article 8. Complaints and dispute resolution
Any complaints about the services rendered by the partnership can be addressed to either the lawyer handling the case or to the complaints officer of the partnership, Mrs. Ch.L. van den Puttelaar. The client will receive a response in writing within four weeks from filing the complaint. All disputes resulting from the rendering of services by the partnership, including all disputes with respect to fees, will exclusively be dealt with in conformity with the Reglement Geschillencommissie Advocatuur. A copy of these regulations will be sent free of charge at the first request. The regulations can also be found at www.advocatenorde.nl, at www.sgc.nl or are available from the Geschillencommissie Advocatuur, P.O. Box 90600, 2509 LP The Hague. If and to the extent that the Geschillencommissie Advocatuur is not competent to hear a dispute, the dispute shall exclusively be dealt with by the competent court in Rotterdam, except that the partnership as a claimant is entitled to also seize the Court competent for the client’s domicile.

article 9. Applicability
These conditions are applicable to all services rendered or to be rendered by the partnership. Deviations thereof are valid and binding only if they are agreed in writing. In case of conflict between the Dutch and the English version of these general conditions, the Dutch version shall prevail.