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Take the following into consideration

  1. Marlex is a cooperative company with unlimited liability (CUBA) incorporated under Belgian law and has its registered office at Dirk Martensstraat 23, 8200 Bruges, with company number BE 0543.374.105 below referred to as “Marlex”. All Marlex’ lawyers are member of the Bar of West Flanders.
  2. Unless otherwise agreed in writing these general terms and conditions are applicable to all services provided by Marlex, its partners, employees and staff.
  3. The client commits to provide all relevant data and information, substantiated by documents if necessary. The client warrants accurate, complete and reliable information and data, even if these are verifiable.
  4. Services provided by Marlex are exclusively for the benefit of the client. Third parties cannot derive any rights from the work performed and their results.
  5. The performance of services by Marlex or one of its employees is valid as proof that these services have been ordered and implies the client’s obligation to pay for such services.
  6. Services are provided by Marlex as per fee and cost structure set out below. All fees and costs are exclusive of any applicable VAT.
    • Fees: services are provided at the hourly rates applied by Marlex at the time of performance of services. Except the expenses listed below, this is an all-in fee. Marlex retains the right to modify the hourly rates on a regular basis, when there are objective reasons for it.
    • Specific office expenses: this item includes all amounts advanced by Marlex in the framework of the execution of the project, for example legal costs (court fees, bailiff’s charges, etc.) and translation costs. Expenses paid to third parties are charged separately. Travel expenses are charged at a current flat rate of 0,50 €/km.
  7. For clients subject to VAT who are not established in Belgium, the VAT can be shifted if Marlex is provided with a valid VAT number from the client for verification.
  8. The statement based on the hourly rates shall be made on an provisional basis and notwithstanding the right of Marlex to take into account the value of the case and/or the achieved result in the final settlement.
  9. Marlex has the right to, before the start as well as during the performance of services, ask the client for an advance by means of a commission invoice. The performance of services, will not be started or continued until the payment of the commission invoice. Also, costs will only be advanced if the stated commission is paid. A commission is a fixed amount that the client pats to Marlex, prior to an intermediate or final statement. In the statement of the costs and fees, the advances will be deducted from the total amount. New clients will be asked in advance for a commission, the amount of which depends on the services to be performed and/or costs to be advanced. Advances can always be requested if the nature of the case and/or the services to be performed require this, even if there is doubt about the client’s solvency and/or costs have to be advanced. Marlex can only be obliged to commence its services after the full payment of this advance.
  10. Unless explicitly agreed otherwise in writing, invoices (regarding fee statements, commission invoices and expense statements) are payable in cash. Any invoice, which is not paid on its due date, will automatically and without notice of default yield a conventional default interest equal to the default interest rate according tot the late payment law of 2 August 2002. In addition to and above this conventional default interest, the client will also pay for each, even partially, unpaid invoice, a compensation that is fixed at 10% of the invoice amount. In case of late payment on the part of the client, Marlex has the right to suspend the further execution of its services until full payment of the outstanding invoices.
  11. The client and Marlex can end the cooperation at any time without compensation. However, the services performed and expenses incurred have to be paid.
  12. Marlex shall pass on all amounts it receives on its third party account to the client as quickly as possible. In the event that the invoices issued by Marlex are not paid on time, the client expressly agrees that Marlex shall withhold the amounts it is owed from the amounts received on behalf of the client so as to settle the outstanding statements and that it may, as appropriate, offset these amounts received from third parties against such outstanding statements subject to prior notice.
  13. Any liability on the part of Marlex and/or its employees is limited to the amount paid out by the third-party liability insurance of Marlex. Clients shall solely submit any liability claim by means of a direct claim against Marlex’ third party liability insurer. The policy’s terms and conditions can be made available for consultation upon request. If, for whatever reason, no payment can be obtained from the insurer, the liability of Marlex and/or its employees shall collectively be limited to an amount of maximum EUR 200,000. In any case, the right to compensation shall expire 12 months after the event from which the damage directly or indirectly arose.
  14. Marlex processes clients’ personal details in accordance with her privacy policy which is, among other things, available on the website. The privacy policy describes in detail how Marlex, the controller, uses personal details as well as the rights of the client concerned with regard to their personal details.
  15. The preventive part of the anti-money laundering legislation, as amended from time to time, also applies to the legal profession. Ant-money laundering legislation aims to curb the various money laundering practices. Lawyers must report certain transactions and fulfil a number of administrative obligations in the context of the preventive part. Certain suspicious transactions must be reported to the chairman, who then passes the information on to the Financial Information Processing Unit. In principle, this notification obligation does not apply in the context of a (potential) legal dispute. Furthermore, the lawyer is obliged to check the identity of the client based on a statutory identification obligation. Marlex, as well as the attending lawyer, are prohibited from informing the client that information has been communicated and/or that an investigation is underway.
  16. Under no circumstances the client can derive any rights from the information available on the website or Marlex cannot be held responsible for any direct or indirect damages arising from using the website.
  17. Marlex has the right to modify these general terms and conditions at any time. In case of modifications, the client will be informed of the modified text. The general terms and conditions are held to be accepted by the client unless written protest is received within three weeks from the notification of the modified text.
  18. If one or more of these general terms should be invalid or void, it does not affect the validity and enforceability of the other terms. In this case, the invalid or void term will be replaced automatically by a valid and enforceable term which comes closest to the purpose of the original term.
  19. The agreement between Marlex and the client (and any non-contractual obligations which should arise or associate) is solely governed by the Belgian law and is according to the rules of deontology. All disputes fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts with jurisdiction over the registered office of Marlex.
  20. This English version is for information purposes only. The original Dutch version of the general terms and conditions will supersede this translation in case of any discrepancies between the two versions.