General Conditions

You will find hereafter the general conditions of Cadanz BV ("Cadanz").  These general conditions apply to all services rendered by the partners, lawyers, employees and/or appointees of Cadanz within the scope of its normal activities.

  • Cadanz is the exclusive contracting party for all services performed by its lawyers, employees and/or appointees.  Cadanz is a company incorporated and existing under Belgian law, having its registered office at Bischoffsheimlaan 33 in 1000 Brussels, Belgium, registered with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises with the number 0807929727.
  • Unless explicitly agreed otherwise, the invoices of Cadanz to its clients are computed on the basis of hourly fee rates (multiplied with the number of hours worked by the persons involved on that matter by Cadanz).  These fees are increased with a fixed office charge of 4% (and effectively incurred specific costs, if any) and VAT where applicable. 
  • Upon request, and insofar reasonably possible taking into account the specific nature of the matter, Cadanz can provide you with a fee estimate before it starts rendering its services.   However, such a fee estimate remains an estimate only, and is subject to the qualifications made in the fee estimate and/or subject to reasonably unforeseeable issues when making the fee estimate. 
  • Invoices sent by Cadanz to clients have to be paid immediately upon receipt of the invoice.  In case email correspondence is a common tool of communication between Cadanz and its clients, Cadanz can send the invoice (solely) by email to the email address normal used by the client.  Upon request, Cadanz shall send a hard copy of the invoice to the client.  Cadanz is not responsible for invoice fraud schemes set up by third parties.
  • If the invoice is not paid in time, Cadanz is authorized to charge, in addition to the principal amount, the statutory interest and an additional fixed payment of 10% of the principal amount to cover the administrative costs.
  • The legal relationship between Cadanz and its clients is governed by Belgian law. In case of a dispute, which has not been amicably settled, solely the courts of Brussels shall have jurisdiction.

Our clients are informed that in case they are confronted with a dispute, many alternatives exist under Belgian law to resolve such a dispute, other than a litigation before the courts.  An overview of such alternatives can be found here. 

 

Professional liability

  • The total liability of Cadanz and its lawyers with respect to the services provided by Cadanz and its lawyers towards clients of Cadanz is always limited to the cover under its professional liability Insurance policies, in effect from time to time. 
  • All lawyers of Cadanz enrolled with the Flemish Bar Association ("Orde van Vlaamse Balies") benefit from a cover of up to EUR 2,500,000 per incident.  All lawyers of Cadanz enrolled with the French Bar Association ("Ordre des barreaux francophones") benefit from a cover of up to EUR 1,250,000 per incident. 
  • In addition, Cadanz has taken out a supplementary insurance policy for a substantial amount on top of the cover under the policy offered by the bar association(s).  Upon request, our clients can obtain additional information on the total amounts covered by our professional insurance policy.  

 

General Disclaimer

This site is not aimed at providing legal or any other advice. Cadanz cannot be held liable for any damage which would be incurred by using information provided on this website.  If you would like to receive legal advice, please contact a qualified lawyer who will advise you on the basis of your personal situation. 
Cadanz has the exclusive copyright to this website, its design and its complete content. Any use of this website, or parts thereof, in any form whatsoever, is prohibited without Cadanz’s prior written consent.

 

Privacy disclaimer

Cadanz is committed to safeguarding the privacy of visitors to its website.  Any information will only be used to contact you and to provide you with the requested information, if possible.  Your personal information will not be shared with any third parties, except as required by law. In general, use of the Cadanz website does not require providing any personal information, although information via "cookies" can be gathered.

In addition, Cadanz processes the personal data transmitted to it in accordance with the legislation in force, and, in particular, Regulation 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data, applicable from 25 May 2018 (hereinafter the "General Data Protection Regulation").  Our entire privacy policy, governing the rules applicable to data we may assemble, can be found here.

Access to the website www.cadanz-law.com (and similar websites of Cadanz) implies the visitor's full and unreserved acceptance of this privacy policy, as well as its general terms of use.

 

Anti-Money Laundering

Depending on the nature of the services that Cadanz and its lawyers are required to provide to its clients, Cadanz and/or its lawyers may be required to strictly comply with legislation and bar regulations regarding anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing.

In such event, the lawyers of Cadanz are primarily bound by an identification and vigilance duty with respect to their clients. In that context, the lawyers of Cadanz are obliged to keep information about the identification, the characteristics of the client and the purpose and nature of the transaction/services provided for a period of 10 years.

In view of this requirement, the lawyers of Cadanz may carry out checks using external electronic databases. The clients of Cadanz must be aware, and accept, the extensive identification obligations imposed by the applicable preventive anti-money laundering legislation and accepts that the corresponding costs and fees will be charged.

This procedure also requires the cooperation of the client and obliges clients who work in the form of a legal entity or other legal constructions to inform the lawyers of Cadanz on the ultimate beneficiary or beneficiaries of such legal entity or construction. 

The clients of Cadanz have an obligation to inform their lawyer at Cadanz of any change that may affect his or her status. The client undertakes to provide the information requested by the lawyers of Cadanz upon first request.

If a client refuses to provide such information, Cadanz and its lawyers will not be able to enter into a business relationship and/or may be under an obligation to terminate an ongoing client relationship, including any further interventions. 

In addition, anti-money laundering legislation obliges lawyers in general in certain circumstances to report possible suspicions of money laundering or terrorist financing in which the client may be involved to the President of his/her bar.  Lawyers of Cadanz acting accordingly can in no circumstances be liable to their clients for the consequences of any reporting made in good faith to the President of his/her bar.

The President of the bar can subsequently pass on such information to the CTIF-CFI, which is the independent administrative authority for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in Belgium.