General terms

These General Terms and Conditions apply to all our recommendations and services in connection with any assignment you entrust to us. Any assignment based on which we provide services is an assignment within the meaning of these General Terms and Conditions.
The references to “Littler Belgium”, “Littler” “we”, “us” or “our” must be understood as Advocatenkantoor Littler Belgium BV (company number 1021.168.686).
All of the office’s lawyers whose names are included on our website (www.littler.be) are registered with the Bar of Brussels. They were granted the title of lawyer by Belgium.
The lawyers are subject to the deontological rules of their respective bar, which you can review at: https://www.advocaat.be/DipladWebsite/media/DipladMediaLibrary/Documenten/Codex-Deontologie.pdf or http://www.avocats.be/fr/deontologie.
You may contact your lawyer through his/her email address, structured as follows: [firstletterfirstname][surname]@littler.be or through the general email address info@littler.be, or by phone at 02/615.29.50.
The exact object of our assignment shall be determined at the time the assignment is given. Our advice is based on our understanding of the relevant laws, case law and practices which apply at the time the advice is given. Any later amendment in the laws or in practice may therefore impact earlier advice, and you are advised, if necessary, to have previous advice re-checked for accuracy.
In the course of our assignment, we may present you with drafts of documents for review. You may not invoke such drafts as long as their contents were not finalised and such was not confirmed to you in writing.
We are a member of Littler Global which is a group of law firms organized as a Swiss verein. All legal services are provided through independent members of Littler Global. We provide services in relation to Belgian law and other member firms provide services in relation to the jurisdictions in which they are qualified to practice. The terms “Littler” or “Littler Global” is the collective name for the international legal practice which operates through each of the member firms. Further details and a list of the member firms: www.littler.com/legal-notice. Littler Global is a service mark owned by Littler Mendelson, P.C., a California professional corporation.
If we believe it is necessary to use external legal advisers, we shall ensure that we are diligent in their selection and that we shall give them accurate instructions. Unless otherwise agreed, you will be directly responsible to pay their remuneration and expenses. We are not accountable for the actions, errors or omissions committed by such advisers.
Unless otherwise agreed, the fees for our professional services are determined based on an hourly rate, applied to the time which is spend on the assignment, including travel time.
You must reimburse us for the expenses we have incurred, as well as for the fees and expenses for external service providers who have provided a service for you at our behest.
Our invoices must be paid within 10 working days. We reserve the right to bill a fixed damage compensation of 10% as well as interest for default (calculated per day against the rate set out in the Law on combating late payment in commercial transactions, with a minimum of 10%) on the invoices that were not paid in a timely manner.
Unless you instruct us otherwise, we may communicate directly, in any manner we deem suitable and without consulting with you in advance, with other persons (your employees or your external advisers) if we believe it is necessary to contact them and we can reasonably expect that they are involved in the assignment.
Unless you instruct us otherwise, we assume that you accept that we communicate by email (or other electronic means) with you and other advisers (including for confidential information). However, please be aware that email correspondence (or any other electronic application) is not entirely secure or infallible, and we accept no liability in that regard.
We use software to reduce the risk of viruses entering our systems. Considering that there is a risk that lawful correspondence is blocked, you should not assume that every email is actually received. You should therefore always follow up on important correspondence by phone, or in some other manner, to ensure that we have indeed received the communication. We are not liable for any failure (or undesired behaviour) of the software we use, nor for any other events beyond our reasonable control.
Our Global Privacy Policy at www.littler.be describes how we process personal data.
If we are liable towards you for loss or damage (including interests and costs) which you have incurred in connection with our assignment and someone else (without prejudice to article 18) is also liable for the same loss or the same damage (or this person would be liable if he had entered into a contractual commitment with you to perform his obligations with the customary diligence that might be expected in light of the circumstances), then the damage compensation we owe you shall be reduced in view of the scope of the liability of the third party for the loss or the damage.
When determining the existence of the liability of such third parties for the loss or the damage within the meaning of article 17, the following shall not be taken into account: (i) agreements or conditions which limit the amount of the damage compensation that is owed, and (ii) actual or possible non-payment by such persons either by an amicable settlement, a limitation of the claim, a difficult in the enforcement or any other reason.
Littler is only liable if the advice is offered by a lawyer listed on its website and who has been a member of the Bar for at least 10 years. If the aforementioned lawyers sign documents on behalf of Littler, they shall always act in their capacity of managing director of their respective management companies, if any, even if this capacity is not expressly stated or confirmed. Littler is only liable for written advice signed by one of the aforementioned lawyers. Any advice offered by one of the aforementioned lawyers is deemed only to have been offered on behalf of Littler. This implies that neither the aforementioned lawyers, nor their management companies, if any, are in any way liable towards you or towards any other person.
Notwithstanding article 21, our liability - including any individual liability contained therein or arising therefrom — is in all cases limited to the actual compensation provided under the professional liability insurance policies we have taken out. The maximum coverage is therefore also always limited to the ceiling set out in those policies (currently EUR 5,000,000). For more information regarding the ceiling provided in these respective professional liability policies: please contact
1. Ethias (rue des Croisiers 24, 4000 Liège, T. 04 220 31 11 or info@ethias.be);
2. AIG Europe Limited - policy number BF33005756 (Pleinlaan 11, 1050 Brussels, T. 02 739 96 20 (Menu 1.1) or contact.be@aig.com);
3. Amlin Insurance SE (Koning Albert II-laan 37, 1030 Brussels, T. 02 218 14 80 or info@aci.amlin.com)
  For any uninsured claims, our liability is limited to the amounts of the fees charged for the services concerned.
For claims in respect of which our insurer(s) — for whatever reason — do not provide actual coverage, our liability, if established, shall in all cases be limited to the amount of our fees (excluding VAT) invoiced for the relevant services.
The execution of the assignment entrusted to us will only establish rights and obligations between yourself and us. No others can appeal to the advice we provide to you. Our engagements and services do not offer any protection to any person other than yourself. Furthermore, nobody but yourself may demand the execution of our engagements.
Our agreement is governed by Belgian law and any dispute shall be subject to the exclusive competence of the Brussels courts.
These General Terms and Conditions apply as of the first contact with the lawyer.
Any party may end the assignment of Littler at any time through simple notification. Naturally, the work performed prior to the cancellation notice will be billed.