General conditions
RRA Advocaten
Article 1 - Definitions and scope of application
- In these general conditions the following definitions shall apply:
The company:
The public limited company RRA N.V., trading as RRA Advocaten
Client:
The natural or legal person instructing the company to carry out work.
The fee:
The financial compensation for carrying out the assignment, excluding disbursements and office costs, agreed in writing by the company with the client.
Disbursements:
The costs incurred by the company in order to carry out the assignment, such as for example, but not limited to the following, where applicable:
a. court registry charges
b. witnesses and experts
c. extracts from public registers
d. debt recovery investigation work, attachment and bankruptcy/winding-up petitions
​e. bailiffs, litigators and court representatives
​f. postage and telephone calls
Office costs:
A mark-up on the fee determined by the company as reasonable compensation for the costs of its office facilities.
Commercial agreement:
An agreement for consideration obliging one or more of the parties to give or do something, arising between one or more persons, whether natural persons acting in the course of a profession or business, or legal persons.
- All legal relations between the company (including the associated lawyers) and the client shall be exclusively subject to the present general conditions. The client's general conditions shall only apply in full or in part if it is expressly agreed in writing before the assignment is granted that those conditions shall apply to the agreement between the parties to the exclusion of the present conditions.
Article 2 - Fees: setting and changing rates
- If the rates for fees have not been agreed in writing between the company and the client, the fees shall be calculated in accordance with the Calculation Table for Lawyers' Fees in force until 1 January 1997, as laid down at that time by the General Council of the Netherlands Bar Association, except that the hourly rate charged shall be equal to the basic hourly rate under Article 9.2.a of the Guidelines for insolvencies and suspensions of payment drawn up by the insolvency working group of the Dutch Association for the Judiciary (Recofa), as in force in the relevant year.
- If carrying out the assignment takes longer than one calendar year, the company shall be entitled to increase the agreed price or the agreed hourly rate if one or more of the following circumstances occur after the agreement is entered into: an increase in the basic hourly rate referred to in Article 9.2.a of the Recofa Guidelines, an increase in the cost of services to be provided by the company which are needed in order to carry out the agreement, an increase in costs of carriage, wages, employer social security contributions, costs relating to other conditions of employment, the introduction of new (or an increase in existing) government levies on energy or residues or generally circumstances comparable to these.
- All prices and rates stated are exclusive of turnover tax (VAT) and other levies imposed by government, unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing.
Article 3: Agreements and cancellation
- In entering into an agreement granting an assignment, the company may only be validly represented by a lawyer associated with the company.
- Each assignment shall be accepted and carried out exclusively by the company, to the exclusion of Article 7:404 of the Netherlands Civil Code. This means that the client agrees that the company may have the assignment carried out under its responsibility by a lawyer associated with the company.
- If, where appropriate, the company has issued an order confirmation to complete the agreement, this shall be deemed to reflect the agreement between the parties correctly and completely, unless the company receives an explicit statement to the contrary within five working days.
- The company shall be entitled to have all or part of the work forming part of the agreement carried out by third parties. Insofar as it is necessary to engage a third party in order to carry out the assignment, the client shall be consulted on this if possible, except in the case of assistance by bailiffs or litigators. In engaging a third party, the company shall take all necessary care.
- Assignments granted shall be carried out exclusively for the benefit of the client. Third parties may not derive any rights from the content of the work carried out.
- The client shall be entitled to cancel an agreement before the company has begun to carry it out, provided that it compensates the company for the losses incurred by it.
- In the event of an assignment granted jointly, the clients shall be jointly and severally liable for the payment of the amounts stated in the company’s invoices, to the extent that the work has been carried out for the benefit of the joint clients.
Article 4 - Carrying out the assignment: quality and time
- The company shall determine how and by which lawyer the assignment granted shall be carried out, subject to the Code of Conduct for Lawyers in force, as laid down by the Netherlands Bar Association.
- A time period stated by the company shall only be indicative unless it is expressly stated in writing that it is a deadline. Even where a deadline has been agreed, the company shall not be in default until the client has served it with a notice of default.
- While the company is carrying out the assignment, the client shall be under an obligation to do everything reasonably necessary or desirable in order to make timely delivery by the company possible, in particular by answering questions from the company without delay and preventing shortcomings in the supply of information and documents.
- If the client fails to comply with the provisions of paragraph 3 of this Article, an agreed deadline shall no longer be binding and the client shall be in default without any requirement for the company to serve a written notice of default. The company shall then be entitled, without prejudice to its rights under the law, to suspend performance of the agreement until the client has remedied this default. Thereafter the company shall carry out the assignment within a further reasonable period.
Article 5 - Invoices
- In return for carrying out an assignment, the client is liable to pay the company the fee plus disbursements, office costs and turnover tax.
- If carrying out the assignment takes longer than one month, interim invoices may be issued for work done.
- The client shall be under an obligation at all times and regardless of the agreed terms of payment, to pay the company an advance sum on account of the sums payable to the company pursuant to the assignment, at the company’s first request. Advance sums received shall be set off against the final invoice for the assignment.
Article 6 - Payment
- Unless otherwise agreed, the client must pay the company's invoices within 14 days of the invoice date and it shall not be entitled to rely on any discount, set-off or suspension. If the client fails to make payment on time it shall be in default without any requirement for a notice of default from the company.
- Payments must be made into a bank account named on the invoice, unless otherwise indicated.
- If the time for payment referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article is exceeded, the client shall be liable to pay the company the statutory interest on the principal sum stated on the invoice.
- If the client is a business owner and the invoice is addressed to the client’s business organisation, the assignment shall be deemed to constitute a commercial agreement. If the time for payment referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article is exceeded, the client shall be liable to pay compensation for delay in performing its obligations to the company. This compensation shall consist of the refinancing interest fixed by the European Central Bank for its most recent main refinancing operation, plus seven percentage points. The interest rate shall be adjusted every six months. The compensation shall be payable with effect from the day when the agreed time for payment agreed in paragraph 1 expires, up to and including the day when the client pays the sum.
- The client shall be liable to reimburse the company for judicial and extrajudicial collection costs actually incurred by the company in collecting the amount due by following the debt collection procedure mentioned above. The client shall be further obliged to reimburse the company for disbursements paid by it, such as the costs of information from the civil register/commercial register.
- The company shall calculate the amount of the extrajudicial costs referred to in paragraph 5 above in accordance with the “statutory scale for extrajudicial collection costs (BIK)”.
The company shall be at liberty to assert and if necessary to prove in legal proceedings that the extrajudicial costs actually incurred by it are greater than the fixed amounts referred to above, and that the costs incurred by it are reasonable.
Article 7 - Force majeure and liability
- The company (including the associated lawyers) shall be insured against professional liability risks in accordance with the Regulation on professional liability laid down by the Netherlands Bar Association. Any liability of the company (including the associated lawyers) arising out of the agreement with the client is expressly limited to the amount paid out in the relevant case under the professional liability insurance arranged by the company, including the excess under the relevant policy.
- This limitation on liability shall also apply if the company (including the associated lawyers) is liable for mistakes by third parties engaged by the office or for any malfunctioning of equipment, software, databases, registers or other items used by the office in carrying out the agreement.
- Any liability of the company (including the associated lawyers) in carrying out an assignment where personal injury or damage to property is caused, shall be limited to the amount paid out in the relevant case under the General Liability Insurance (AVB) arranged by the company, including the excess under the relevant policy.
Article 8 - Disputes
- The company has an internal office complaints procedure that can be consulted at www.rra.nl.
- Any disputes arising in relation to the coming into existence and/or implementation of our service provision relationship, including all disputes relating to invoices (which have not been resolved after internal processing), will be settled exclusively by the Court of Limburg, Netherlands at first instance.
Article 9 - Final provisions
- These general conditions shall apply with effect from January 1st 2024; they are available for inspection at the offices of the company and may be downloaded from the website www.rra.nl. They will also be given to the client together with the order confirmation, or if this is not reasonably practicable they will be sent to the client free of charge at the latter’s first request.
- Dutch law shall apply exclusively to the legal relationship between the company (including the associated lawyers) and a client.
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