General conditions

General Terms and Conditions Notius Attorneys

Notius Attorneys, hereafter “Notius”, operates under the company Notius-Advocatenkantoor SRL / BV, with as goal the execution of the profession of attorney. The seat of the company is situated in Avenue des Arts 1 in 1210 Brussels, and the company is registered with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises under the number 821.862.192.The contact information of the various offices can be found on the website www.notius.eu on the “Contact” page.The Belgian attorneys active within Notius are authorized to execute the profession of attorney in Belgium. They are members of the bar of Brussels, Antwerp and / or Ghent under the title of ‘attorney’, and obtained their professional title at a Belgian university.
These general conditions apply to the services delivered by Notius, its associates, collaborators and interns – and this always for all the Notius offices (i.e. Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent).
The client engages himself to inform Notius in time regarding the procedural initiatives to be taken and to immediately transfer to Notius any deeds of which the client is informed and/or which are notified to the client within the framework of judicial procedures and/or contestations.
Notius will make all possible efforts in order to obtain the result desired by the client, without being able to offer any guarantees in this regard.
The execution of the given assignment is carried out solely for the benefit of the client. Thirds cannot derive any rights from the work executed and the results.The client is not permitted to transfer to thirds, copy, make public or use in any way, himself or with the help of thirds, the advices, memos, procedural documents, documents and all other intellectual work drawn up by Notius, irrespective of their form, without its prior written consent, other than within the framework of the assignment given to Notius.
Notius will periodically invoice its work, administration costs and advanced costs (usually every 2 months or as the work in a file advances) to the client by means of a statement of fees and expenses.All amounts / rates are always exclusive of VAT.Notius’s statements of fees are payable within 8 days after reception. If the client does not agree with the amount of the statement of fees, he is to protest it in writing within 8 days.As of the due date, interest will be due de jure and without notice of default, calculated at the legal interest rate. In case of late payment, an indemnity is also due for recovery costs, equal to 10% of the principal sum, with a minimum of 250 EUR.
If Notius promotes the interests of multiple clients in a case, all these clients are jointly and severally held to pay the statements of fees and expenses related to this case, and this regardless of to which client Notius addresses its statements of fees and expenses.

Notius reserves itself the right to modify its rates for fees and expenses annually.
If the client appeals to a legal aid insurer, the client will always be held to pay to Notius the part of the statements of fees that is not covered by the legal aid insurance.
The liability of Notius, its associates, collaborators and interns is limited to the amount of the professional liability insurance policy subscribed to by Notius via the Order of Flemish Bars and is limited to the amounts insured. The amount insured currently amounts to 7,500,000 EUR.Moreover, within the framework of the execution of the mandate of judicial mandatary and voluntary liquidator, Notius has an additional professional liability policy with Allianz Belgium SA, Rue de Laeken 35, 1000 Brussels. The amount insured currently amounts to 1.250.000 EUR.In any case, any claim for compensation expires if it is not brought before the competent judge within a year after the facts on which the claim is based were known by the client or could reasonably have been known.
Except for explicit stipulations to the contrary, Notius is not responsible for the performances delivered by thirds to which it appeals.
Sums received by Notius from the client or a third and that Notius is to detain for the client, will be placed on a third-party account with a financial institution chosen by Notius. Notius is not liable vis-à-vis the client nor any other person for a bankruptcy or any other juridical act or default from a financial institution with which Notius detains sums or through which sums are transferred.
Notius makes reasonable efforts to protect e-mails and attachments against viruses and other failures that may lead to damage of a computer or IT system. It is, however, the responsibility of the client to take all measures necessary in order to protect and safeguard his computer or IT system.Notius accepts no liability or responsibility for any loss or damage that may result from the reception or non-reception or the use or non-use of electronic communication or documents from Notius.
Upon termination of each assignment, Notius files the file and then stores it for a minimum period of 5 years.Upon the conclusion of the file, original documents can be returned to the client upon his request and be stored by him if need be.After the five-year period mentioned above, the file may be permanently destroyed.
Notius, as well as all the persons involved in the execution of an assignment of a client, may appeal to these general conditions, inclusive of former collaborators (inclusive of their heirs), if they are held liable after having left Notius.
The client is aware of and accepts that Notius, according to the Law of 11 January 1993 for the prevention of the use of the financial system for money laundering and financing of terrorism, is required to respect the obligations described in that Law, regarding amongst others client research and reporting of suspicions of money laundering or financing of terrorism to the authorities established to this effect.The client is also aware that Notius may be obliged to identify its client according to this Law. The client always needs to render his complete assistance in the way prescribed by the Law by means of the necessary compliance formalities.
For the purpose of this article regarding data processing and personal data protection, “Personal Data” shall mean any personal data as defined in EU Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (i.e. any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual), as well as any applicable national implementing or additional legislation (collectively the “Data Protection Legislation”).The terms “Data Controller”, “Data Processor”, “Data Subject”, “Personal Data Breach” and “Processing” shall have the meaning set forth in the Data Protection Legislation.The client acknowledges that where Data Protection Legislation applies, the following provisions of this Article shall apply.
1. When calling upon the services of Notius, the client (if it is an individual) or any contact person/interlocutor within the client (if it is a legal entity, de facto partnership or any other form of association) interacting with Notius in the framework of the performance of Notius’s services (the “Individual”) accepts to provide Notius with certain Personal Data relating to him/her, such as the first and last names, email address, telephone number, choice of language, the company to which he/she may belong, information on the legal issue/request for which Notius’s services are requested,… (the “Individual’s Personal Data”).The Individual acknowledges and where necessary, agrees that the Individual’s Personal Data may be collected and processed by Notius as Data Controller for the purposes of creating the (electronic) client file, identifying the client and verifying such identification (including but not limited to the mandatory verification set forth in article 14), managing the contractual relationship with the client, complying with the legal and deontological obligations to which Notius is subject and, more generally, for the purpose of providing the services. Notius will not use the Individual’s Personal Data for other purposes.Without limiting the foregoing, the Individual’s Personal Data may include Personal Data relating to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures. The Individual acknowledges, and where necessary, agrees that Notius processes such special categories of Personal Data, in its capacity of attorney, for the purpose of defending the Individual’s interests and to the extent necessary for such defense.
2. In addition to the general purposes specified in article 15.1, Notius may process the Individual’s Personal Data for the purpose of inviting the Individual, or the associated client, to events organized by Notius, or for the purpose of sending legal, regulatory or administrative news that Notius deems relevant for the Individual or the associated client.
3. The Individual acknowledges, and where necessary, agrees that Notius may disclose the Individual’s Personal Data to competent courts, governmental body and/or other public authorities, as well as its subcontractors and service providers for the purposes described in articles 15.1 and 15.2, both inside and outside the European Economic Area. The Individual acknowledges, and where necessary, agrees that this may involve transfers of the Individual’s Personal Data to countries that do not provide an adequate level of protection. In any case, appropriate contractual measures will be taken to ensure the security of the Individual’s Personal Data in compliance with the Data Protection Legislation.
4. Steps will be taken to ensure that the Individual’s Personal Data are accurate, kept up to date and not kept for longer than is necessary. More particularly, in accordance with article 12 and the legal retention period applicable to attorneys’ files, the Individual’s Personal Data will be stored for a minimum period of five years from the termination of the corresponding assignment. Notius ensures that measures are taken to safeguard against Personal Data Breach (i.e. unauthorized or unlawful Processing and accidental loss or destruction or damage to the Personal Data).
5. The Individual is entitled to access the Personal Data relating to him/her, as collected and processed by Notius as Data Controller, and request the modification or suppression of the Individual’s Personal Data if it is incorrect or unnecessary for the purposes mentioned above. The Individual may exercise these rights by sending an email to Notius at hello@notius.eu, together with a copy of his/her identity card or other identification document proving that the Individual is the data subject of the Personal Data. In addition, the Individual may object to the processing of his/her Personal Data for direct marketing purposes at any time, free of charge and without having to provide a justification by following the procedure mentioned above.In general, the Individual is entitled to withdraw his/her consent to any Processing based on the latter’s consent (if any) at any time. This withdrawal of consent does not compromise the legality of the Processing based on consent made prior to such withdrawal.In the event that the Individual considers that the Processing of his/her Personal Data infringes the Data Protection Legislation, the Individual has the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of the European Union of his/her usual place of residence, place of work or the place where the infringement occurred. The Belgian supervisory authority is the Commission for the protection of privacy ( https://www.dataprotectionauthority.be/ ).
If one or more stipulations of these general conditions is null, invalid or unenforceable, this will not affect the validity and enforceability of the other stipulations of these general conditions..Parties commit themselves to immediately replace any such null or unenforceable stipulation by mutual agreement with a stipulation that approximates as closely as possible the purport of the original stipulation.In case of conflict between the different language versions of the present general conditions, the Dutch text will prevail.
Belgian law is exclusively applicable to the legal relations between clients and Notius. Parties will aim to settle their possible disputes amicably. Only the courts of the district under which the Notius office resorts where the file of the client is held are competent, notwithstanding the right of Notius to take legal steps before the courts of the jurisdiction of the client.