HRM Lawyers
Conditions
1."HRM Advocaten" is the trade name of the working company HRM Lawyers B.V. This operating company is a separate private limited liability company established for the object of conducting an attorney-at-law and procurator practice, to be interpreted in the widest sense of the word. In conducting this practice, each operating company of HRM Advocaten may arrange to be assisted by persons especially engaged by that operating company of HRM Advocaten to perform the instructions of its clients.
2.HRM Advocaten will consider all instructions of clients to have been given exclusively to HRM Advocaten. HRM Advocaten, therefore, is the only contracting party with respect to these instructions and these instructions will exclusively be accepted by HRM Advocaten even if such instructions were given with the express or tacit intention that they should be performed by a specific person and irrespective of whether any person involved in the performance of those instructions is employed by HRM Advocaten. Solely HRM Advocaten may be held liable for the fulfilment of the obligations under the instructions given. Article 7:404 of the Netherlands Civil Code and Article 7:407, paragraph 2, of the Netherlands Civil Code are excluded.
3.In the unlikely event that, during the performance of the client's instructions, a situation should take place which would result in a claim for damages, liability will be limited to the amount or amounts to which the professional liability insurance taken out by the HRM Advocaten operating companies confers entitlement, including any excess which must be borne by the operating company under the policy. An omission will also be considered as a "situation" referred to in the previous sentence. Any right of action the client may have against the HRM Advocaten operating company will lapse on the expiry of three (3) years following the moment the client has become aware, or should have become aware of the actual harmful event resulting in a claim for damages or as much earlier as the policy cover under the policy of the professional liability insurance of the HRM Advocaten operating company has lapsed.
4.The maximum amount or amounts to which the professional liability insurance taken out by the HRM Advocaten operating companies confers entitlement will be communicated to the client upon his or her first request. Upon the client's request the abovementioned maximum amount or amounts may be increased on a one-off basis. The costs incurred by this increase will be at the client's expense.
5.If damage or injury is caused to persons or objects by or in connection with the performance of the client's instruction, or otherwise, for which the HRM Advocaten operating company can be held liable, such liability will be limited to the amount or amounts to which the general liability insurance taken out by the HRM Advocaten operating company confers entitlement, including any excess which must be borne by the HRM Advocaten operating company under the policy.
6. Persons engaged in connection with the performance of the client's instructions may wish to limit their liability with respect to their engagement. The HRM Advocaten operating company assumes - and, if necessary, hereby stipulates - that all instructions given to the HRM Advocaten operating company by clients include the authority to accept such limitation of liability, also on behalf of these clients.
7. Third parties to be engaged by the HRM Advocaten operating company will be selected with due care and, where reasonably possible, after consultation with the client. The client will not be consulted on the engagement of procurators, bailiffs, couriers and translators (including sworn translators). The HRM Advocaten operating company cannot be held liable for failures by third parties. The costs incurred by engaging the services of third parties will be at the client's expense.
8. The client indemnifies the HRM Advocaten operating company and its directors and the persons employed or engaged by the HRM Advocaten operating company against any claims by third parties that are in any way connected with the activities to be performed for the client and against the costs of legal assistance incurred by the persons referred to above in connection with such claims, unless said claims should result from gross negligence or intentional misconduct of those persons.
9. These General Terms and Conditions may be invoked not only by the HRM Advocaten operating company but also by all persons engaged to perform instructions given by the client. This will also apply to former employees, including any heirs they may have, if they are held liable following the termination of their employment at the HRM Advocaten operating company. The present provisions in these General Terms and Conditions have also been drafted to apply to the managing directors of the private limited liability companies referred to in Article of these General Terms and Conditions.
10. Unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing, the HRM Advocaten operating company will charge the activities it has performed by multiplying the number of hours the activities have been performed by the hourly fee rates set by the HRM Advocaten operating company on an annual basis, plus BTW (Netherlands VAT). The fee charged on a time-spent basis and to be paid by the client will be invoiced and specified in six-minute units, thereby charging each commencement and/or part of such unit as a full six-minute unit. Parts of a time unit that have not been used will not be accumulated to form new time units, regardless of whether these parts are related to the performance of the same client instruction or the continuation of that instruction.
11. Disbursements paid by the HRM Advocaten operating company on behalf of the client will be invoiced in addition to the fee. A percentage of the fee to be determined by the HRM Advocaten operating company on an annual basis, plus BTW (Netherlands VAT), will be charged in order to cover general office costs.
12. The amounts payable by the client for services rendered will be invoiced by the HRM Advocaten operating company on a monthly basis. Any costs not charged on that monthly basis will be invoiced upon completion of the instruction. Unless stated otherwise in the invoice, payment is due within fourteen (14) days following the invoice date. If payment is not made in time, the HRM Advocaten operating company will be entitled to charge statutory interest and any extrajudicial costs incurred by debt collection as of the first day of late payment, without a reminder or notice of default having to be served. In the event another person than the client, the debtor, should perform the activities to be carried out by the client, the client will remain fully responsible for that debtor. The HRM Advocaten operating company is also entitled to set off the invoices, even if these are not due and payable yet, against any amounts that the HRM Advocaten operating company has in its possession on behalf of the client, even if these amounts are held by the Stichting Beheer Derdengelden HRM Advocaten (Association third parties' accounts) or by other third parties. The HRM Advocaten operating company will be entitled, at any time and on behalf of the client, to stipulate that any amounts due to the client will be paid into the third parties' account referred to above. By entering into the instruction agreement with the HRM Advocaten operating company, the client authorizes the HRM Advocaten operating company, the Association mentioned above or other third parties to cooperate in setting off and payments of said amounts. The HRM Advocaten operating company will be entitled - at any time - to require security for payment of its services, disbursements and/or extra costs and to suspend its activities if this security is not furnished.
13. The client guarantees performance of any instructions by and contacts with persons engaged by the client or third parties.
14. These General Terms and Conditions also apply to additional and further instructions by clients. The client agrees now for then and without reservation to all future amendments of the General Terms and Conditions applied by the HRM Advocaten operating company.
15. General Terms and Conditions applied by the client do not apply and are explicitly not accepted by the HRM Advocaten operating company.
16. These standard conditions have been drawn up in Dutch, German and English. In the event of any differences in their content or tenor, the Dutch text will be binding.
17. The agreement between the client and the HRM Advocaten operating company is subject to the law of the Netherlands. Any dispute arising from the agreement will be exclusively submitted to the competent court in Amsterdam.
Deposited at the Registry of the Court in Amsterdam on April the 28th 2008.