1. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. is a limited liability company engaged in legal practice (the legal profession). A list of persons who hold shares in Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. through their companies will be provided on request. They will be referred to as “Partners”, in accordance with prevailing custom in the legal profession.
2. These General Terms and Conditions shall apply to all assignments, follow-up assignments, changed assignments and/or subsequent assignments given to Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., its Partners and/or persons working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and to all legal relationships arising from or relating to these assignments. In these General Terms and Conditions, a reference to a “person (or persons) working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V.” means every current or former, direct or indirect subordinate or non-subordinate (“ondergeschikte” or “niet-ondergeschikte”), employee, whether or not on secondment, shareholder and/or Partner of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., Stichting Beheer Derdengelden Kneppelhout & Korthals or their legal successors. The term “person” includes natural persons and legal persons.
3. All assignments are only deemed to have been accepted and performed by Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., even if it is/was the express or tacit intention that the assignment be performed by a specific individual. The applicability of Articles 7:404 and 7:407(2) of the Dutch Civil Code is expressly excluded.
4. In the event that an assignment is provided by several clients, all clients bear joint and several liability for the obligations arising from, and/or connected with, that assignment.
5. The client shall indemnify Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and all persons working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and hold Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and all persons working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. harmless against any claims by third parties that may arise from or are connected with the assignment given, follow-up assignments, changed assignments and/or subsequent assignments or work performed in connection therewith.
6. Any liability of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., and of persons working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., and all persons involved in carrying out the assignment or who, in connection therewith, may bear liability in any way, shall be limited to the amount paid out under the professional liability policy/policies concluded by Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. for the matter concerned, to which shall be added the applicable own risk under those professional liability policy/policies. The terms and conditions of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V.’s professional liability policy are available upon request. If for whatever reason no compensation is paid under these professional liability policy/policies, any liability shall be limited to at most EUR 100,000 per claim or, if this is lower, the total amount of the invoices (excluding VAT) submitted for the assignment in question.
7. The right to compensation for loss shall in any case lapse 12 months after the event from which arose, whether directly or indirectly, the loss for which Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. is liable under law, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 6:89 of the Dutch Civil Code.
8. If the assignment is carried out for multiple clients, the limitation of liability as set out in these General Terms and Conditions shall apply to all these clients jointly and not to each client separately. In the event of liability, it shall be for the clients to share out between themselves the sum paid.
9. Third parties to be engaged by Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. shall, if possible, be selected in consultation with the client and shall be performed with due care. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and persons working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. shall not be liable for any failure or default by any such third party. The client authorises Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. to accept, on behalf of the client, any limitation of liability stipulated by third parties.
10. Assignments shall be performed exclusively on behalf of the client. Third parties cannot derive any rights with regard to the contents of the activities carried out.
11. Except in the case of a justified complaint pertaining thereto, each invoice is to be paid within fourteen days after the invoice date. If the invoice is not paid within thirty days, the client is in default without requiring a notice of default and the legal (commercial) interest charge as set out in Article 6:119a of the Dutch Civil Code shall be due.
12. In the event of default, all costs such as administration costs, judicial and extrajudicial costs, including the costs for a winding-up petition, will be payable by the client. The extrajudicial collection costs are due the moment Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. has outsourced the collection claim and they amount to at least 15% of the balance, subject to an absolute minimum of EUR 250.
13. In the event that the client does not provide the information requested, the client does not fulfil payment obligations or any other obligation towards Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., if the client prevents Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. from carrying out the activities, or if there is a good reason to believe that the client will not fulfil its payment obligations, Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. is authorized to suspend its activities immediately.
14. The fee charged by Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. is to be a reflection of the value provided to the client. In principle the fee is calculated on the basis of the number of hours spent on a file. The level of the hourly rates applying to Partners and to persons working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. is in principle notified at the beginning of a matter; but, even where this has been omitted, these may at all times be requested. In very complicated or urgent matters, in matters of a significant scale, financial or otherwise, there may be cause, whether on the basis of the result achieved in a matter or on the basis of the nature and the longevity of the relationship with the client, to revise the fee, whether upwards or downwards, such to be subject to the reasonable discretion of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V.
15. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. reserves the right to revise the rates it charges to bring them in line with (a) market circumstances that, in the opinion of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., warrant a general modification to the rates or (b) the fact that the persons working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. have transferred to a higher rate class as a consequence of more extended working experience and/or an increase in his/her/their expertise or experience or by having acquired a new position within Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V.
16. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and the client (“the parties”) prefer communications to be in writing. The parties may use electronic means to communicate with each other. Electronic means include email that ranks as a written means of communication. The parties acknowledge the risks associated with these means, including but not limited to interception, manipulation, virus infection, errors in transmission or forwarding, including by viruses and spam filters, delays and mutilation. The parties hereby declare that they shall not hold each other liable for any damage or loss incurred by either of them as a result of the use of these means of communications. This also applies to communications with third parties. Where the client acts in the exercise of a profession or a business, the applicability of Articles 6:227b(1) and 6:227c of the Dutch Civil Code is expressly excluded. These provisions concern the provision of information and e-commerce transactions and the way in which e-commerce transactions are concluded.
17. In the performance of the assignment, Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and Stichting Beheer Derdengelden Kneppelhout & Korthals Advocaten may receive monies from clients or third parties. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and Stichting Beheer Derdengelden Kneppelhout & Korthals Advocaten shall deposit such monies with a bank chosen by Stichting Beheer Derdengelden Kneppelhout & Korthals Advocaten. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and Stichting Beheer Derdengelden Kneppelhout & Korthals Advocaten shall not be liable if the bank chosen fails to fulfil its obligations.
18. Prevailing legislation (including the Act on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van terrorisme) stipulates that, prior to commencing its activities, Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. is obliged to verify the identity of its clients and to report unusual transactions to the authorities. By giving the assignment to Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. the client confirms that he/she/it is aware of these rules and he fulfils all compliance requirements stipulated and/or to be stipulated by Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. within the framework of these rules.
19. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. processes personal data of its clients and its employees in order to optimise the service provision and to comply with statutory obligations. For more information, visit https://www.kneppelhout.com/privacy-statement.
20. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. attaches great importance to the experiences of its clients in order to improve the service it supplies. After the assignment is finished, the client may be requested to participate in a client satisfaction survey.
21. Upon completion of a matter, irrespective of the reason, the matter will remain stored for 7 (seven) years in the archives of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. When notification is made that a matter has been concluded (and/or archived) all original documents will be returned by registered mail to the most recent known address of the client set out in the file. This means that in these archives no original documents such as notarial documents, judgments and awards, decisions, etc. will be stored. Conservation of these items is entirely the responsibility of the client and not of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. Archiving will also be restricted to that which Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. deems to be relevant correspondence and trial documents and will never include notes, directions, sketches, digital files etc. When the archive period ends the documents in the archive will be destroyed. The client receives no notification thereof.
22. The terms and conditions set out in these General Terms and Conditions, including the limitations of liability, have been made and stipulated for the benefit of the director and shareholders of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., the directors of those shareholders, Stichting Beheer Derdengelden Kneppelhout & Korthals Advocaten and all persons working for or acting on behalf of Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V., whether as Partner (in the sense of article 1 of these General Terms and Conditions), employee, advisor, third party contractor, or in any other quality. This provision in this article and all other provisions in these General Terms and Conditions which purport to create rights for third parties referred to in the first sentence of this article also serve as irrevocable third party stipulations made against them without any consideration (“onherroepelijk derdenbeding om niet”) as referred to in Article 6:253(4) of the Dutch Civil Code.
23. Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V.’s complaints procedure applies to every agreement of assignment between Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and the client. For more information, visit: http://www.kneppelhout.com/disputes.
24. Dutch law applies to the legal relationship between Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and the client. The District Court of Rotterdam shall have exclusive competence to hear disputes between Kneppelhout & Korthals N.V. and the client.
25. The wording in Dutch of these General Terms and Conditions prevails over the wording in English and/or in any other language.
Rotterdam, 26 October 2021
