Terms and conditions

Article 1

Salomons Beelaerts Advocaten, hereinafter referred to as: "Salomons Beelaerts”, is a professional partnership of natural persons or private limited companies (professional companies), or both. All the terms in these general conditions have been stipulated for the partners of Salomons Beelaerts as well as the direct or indirect directors of these partners, anyone employed by the partnership and all lawyers who have entered into an association with Salomons Beelaerts with their professional companies and for that reason also present themselves under the name of Salomons Beelaerts Advocaten.

Article 2

These general conditions apply to all assignments awarded to Salomons Beelaerts by or on behalf of clients, as well as to all assignments Salomons Beelaerts commissions from third parties in connection with these assignments.

These general conditions also apply to all additional and subsequent assignments.

Article 3

All assignments will be regarded as contracts for services awarded to Salomons Beelaerts and will be carried out under its responsibility. The applicability of Articles 7:404; 7:407 (2); and 7:409 Dutch Civil Code is excluded.

Article 4

Instructions to Salomons Beelaerts are regarded to have been accepted only if one of the lawyers confirmed acceptance to the client in writing or demonstrably performed the services.

Article 5

The services Salomons Beelaerts provides in accordance with the instructions received are performed exclusively for the benefit of the client. Third parties cannot derive any rights from the work. The client indemnifies Salomons Beelaerts against all third-party claims related to the execution of the work in any way, and will reimburse the reasonable expenses incurred by Salomons Beelaerts in connection with such claims.

Article 6

The client agrees that Salomons Beelaerts has the assignment executed by one of its lawyers or, if necessary, by a third party. Salomons Beelaerts will exercise due care when engaging third parties, and will consult the client in advance as much as reasonably possible about its choice of these third parties, except when engaging a local counsel or bailiff. The costs of engaging third parties are always payable by the client. Salomons Beelaerts is never liable for breaches by third parties whose services it engaged, intent or wilful recklessness included. The client authorizes Salomons Beelaerts to accept limitations of liability by third parties on the client’s behalf.

Article 7

For the performance of the work, the client will pay a fee (to be invoiced monthly and calculated on the basis of the hours worked times the agreed hourly rate, unless otherwise agreed) plus disbursements  - including any third-party costs and travelling expenses -  and VAT. Work performed may also be billed by interim invoices. Salomons Beelaerts is entitled to ask the client for an advance before the provision of services is commenced or continued. Salomons Beelaerts is entitled to apply an advance that is paid to settle outstanding invoices issued to the client in question, whether they are outstanding for work in connection with which the advance was paid or for work performed in another case on behalf of this client.

The agreed rates may be adjusted annually.

Article 8

Payment of invoices and advances must always be made within the specified terms. If a client does not fulfil its payment obligations in (due) time, Salomons Beelaerts is entitled to suspend or cease the work and charge the client the statutory interest rate.

Article 9

If in the performance of the assignment an event occurs which leads to liability of Salomons Beelaerts, this liability will always be limited to the amount or amounts that is or are paid under the applicable professional liability insurance taken out by Salomons Beelaerts.

The client is only entitled to claim damages from Salomons Beelaerts for this limited amount. Any claims for damages from employees, lawyers or directors of the professional companies in which certain lawyers perform their services are excluded. This third-party clause is stipulated for the benefit of the said persons, who can invoke this clause at any time.

Article 10

Once files opened by Salomons Beelaerts for the benefit of a client are closed they will be kept for five years, after which period they will be shredded.

Article 11

Salomons Beelaerts participates in the Complaints and Dispute Settlement Scheme for the Legal Profession, which is applicable to all assignments it is awarded. The complaints handling scheme is available for inspection at our offices and describes the internal complaints procedure. If the internal complaints handling scheme does not lead to a solution in a dispute between Salomons Beelaerts and the client, the client can submit the complaint to the Disputes Committee for the Legal Profession. All disputes related to the formation of the contract for services or the execution of the services, or both, and all disputes about invoices will be arbitrated by this Committee in accordance with its regulations, which are also available for inspection at our offices.

Disputes that do not lend themselves to handling in accordance with the Complaints and Dispute Settlement Scheme for the Legal Profession will exclusively be settled by the competent court of The Hague. Without prejudice to the above, Salomons Beelaerts is always free to submit disputes about the collection of outstanding invoices to the competent court of The Hague.