GENERAL TERMS & CONDITIONS
- Hoeve & Rogers is a public partnership of private limited liability companies. A list of partners can be obtained upon request.
- All services for the provision of legal services given to any lawyer (including the partners of Hoeve & Rogers) or attorney or legal assistant(s) working at the law firm or any and all persons engaged and employed by Hoeve & Rogers, shall exclusively lead and constitute, upon acceptance of these and by excluding the provisions of Section 404 and Section 407, subsection 2 and Section 409 of Book 7, Sint Maarten Civil Code (BW), to an obligation between the client/ commissioning party and Hoeve & Rogers. The partners of Hoeve & Rogers as well as the persons employed or engaged by Hoeve & Rogers are not severally bound nor liable. Acceptance is evidenced by a confirmation of the services to be rendered which has been provided to the client/commissioning party. All assignments and all works and services commissioned by client/commissioning party are deemed to have been exclusively given to and accepted by Hoeve & Rogers and shall be deemed to be handled, carried out and/or executed by Hoeve & Rogers.
- The obligation of Hoeve & Rogers ensuing from the instruction to provide legal services consists of performing to the best of one’s ability, based on the information supplied by the client/ commissioning party and the nature of the services to be rendered. If the client/commissioning party wishes limitations regarding the performance of the provision of legal services, it is the client/commissioning party’s duty to point out these limitations in writing.
- In order to comply with the obligation as statutory imposed on the lawyer, the client/commissioning party is obliged to provide proof of identity by means of a valid identity document upon giving the instruction of execution of services or immediately afterwards at first request.
- The client/commissioning party shall indemnify and holds Hoeve & Rogers harmless from and against any and all third party claims, actions or demands – including expenses to be incurred by Hoeve & Rogers in connection therewith – arising from or relating in any way to the works or services carried out for the client/commissioning party by Hoeve & Rogers unless this result from gross negligence or willful misconduct by Hoeve & Rogers.
- Unless explicitly agreed otherwise, Hoeve & Rogers is free to determine which lawyer or legal assistant shall execute the legal services. Hoeve & Rogers may engage the services of third parties for the execution of its services – with or without consultation of the client/commissioning party. Hoeve & Rogers is not liable for shortcomings by these third parties and is entitled to accept a possible limitation of liability on the part of that third party without prior consultation with the client/commissioning party. Claims against that third party shall be transferred to the client/commissioning party at his request, if and insofar as legally valid transfer is reasonably possible.
- The personal liability of any lawyer, legal assistant, employee or partner/shareholder – including the partner/shareholder’s practice company- working at the law firm of Hoeve & Rogers is excluded explicitly. Any and all liability of Hoeve & Rogers shall be limited to the amount of Naf 25.000,00 or the amount that is the result of the addition of (A) the amount, which is (successfully) claimable and (actually) recovered under our professional liability insurance and (B) the applicable deductible (amount of own risk) for Hoeve & Rogers under mentioned insurance policy.
- The client/commissioning party is obliged to pay a fee for the services and work performed by Hoeve & Rogers which shall be calculated on the basis of the time spent on the provision of legal services at the hourly rates applicable at the time of the provision of services by the lawyer or legal assistant concerned, unless a special rate or fee has been agreed upon for the provision of services. An hourly rate agreed upon with or determined by Hoeve & Rogers may be unilaterally modified within reason each year by Hoeve & Rogers. The hourly fee shall vary between US$ 225.00 – US$ 350.00 per hour. Hoeve & Rogers has the right to increase the hourly fee with a factor to reflect the complexity, the urgency or importance of the matter. A factor can also be applied in case work and services are to be rendered in the weekend and / or in the evening and / or on official holidays and/or during vacation of the lawyer.
- If the commissioning party and the client are not the same party, the client and the commissioning party shall be jointly and severally liable for what is owed to Hoeve & Rogers regarding the services or work performed for the client, unless one or the other has been discharged explicitly from this joint and several liability.
- In addition to the fee, the client/commissioning party shall owe a fixed amount for office and filing expenses (administrative costs) equal to 6% of the fee due in this respect. The client/commissioning party is also pay to Hoeve & Rogers all other costs and disbursements incurred by Hoeve & Rogers in the execution of its services for the benefit of the client/commissioning party.
- Insofar as applicable, turnover tax is due regarding the fee and the expenses and disbursements owed by the client/ commissioning party.
- Hoeve & Rogers is at all times entitled to charge the client/commissioning party one or more advance payments (deposit) on the fee to be charged and/or the costs to be incurred or the disbursements to be paid by the client/commissioning party. As long as an advance payment has been charged to the client/commissioning party and the latter has not paid its invoices, Hoeve & Rogers is entitled to defer or suspend its services until this payment has been made in full.
- Payments of invoices shall be made without deduction or compensation in United States Dollars or Netherlands Antilles Guilder or Euro’s currency at the offices of Hoeve & Rogers either by cash or (certified) check or by wire transfer into a bank account designated by Hoeve & Rogers.
- Hoeve & Rogers is authorized to set off monies received on behalf of the client/commissioning party against outstanding fees, disbursements and outstanding invoices. Any invoice of Hoeve & Rogers must be paid without suspension or set-off within 14 days of the invoice date and an advance payment must be paid immediately. Notwithstanding all other rights of Hoeve & Rogers, all unpaid invoices are subject to interest of 1,5% per month and reasonable collection fees, including but not limited to reasonable attorney fees.
- All collection costs of Hoeve & Rogers made with regards to the enforcement of payment of outstanding invoices, including out of court collection costs ex art. 6: 96 sub 2c of the Civil Code of Sint Maarten will be for the account of the client/commissioning party. Parties hereby agree that these costs amount to at least 15% of the outstanding (principal) amounts. Hoeve & Rogers reserves the right to claim more than 15% if the real collection costs are higher.
- If there are any questions regarding the invoice, the client /commissioning party is entitled to request Hoeve & Rogers to provide a further explanation or specification which may not result in a higher invoice amount than the original amount. The client/commissioning party is entitled to challenge the correctness of an invoice received by the client/commissioning party in writing and with sufficient reasoning within four weeks after the invoice was sent. An invoice that has not been challenged by the client/commissioning party within the aforesaid four-week period is considered to be correct by Hoeve & Rogers and the client/commissioning party, and acknowledged by the client/commissioning party as being payable. Any challenge of the invoice (which also includes conducting an estimation procedure) does not affect the payment obligation of the client/commissioning party.
- Both Hoeve & Rogers and the client/commissioning party are at liberty to terminate the execution of (legal) services unilaterally without reason and without notice required. Should this occur, the work undertaken up to the time of termination must be paid in full by the client/commissioning party.
- Upon termination of the services, all documents submitted by the client/commissioning party and, at his request, other documents which form part of the file shall be made available, whether in copied form or not, to the client/commissioning party, provided that what is owed by the client/commissioning party regarding services executed have been paid. Hoeve & Rogers has an obligation to store a file and/or the documents belonging to the file for a period of five years after expiry of the termination of the services and/or the date the last invoice was sent.
- The legal relationship between Hoeve & Rogers and the client/commissioning party shall be governed only and exclusively by the laws of Sint Maarten. Disputes concerning the performance of the provision of legal services and/or payment of the invoice shall be submitted exclusively to the judgment of the competent Court on Sint Maarten, unless the dispute is about the estimation / assessment of the fees (and disbursements) charged by Hoeve & Rogers, in which case the Supervisory Council (Raad van Toezicht) will be the competent authority.
- Communication between the client/commissioning party and Hoeve & Rogers can take place via letter or by electronic form, including e-mail, facsimile, and internet. A message shall only be deemed to have reached Hoeve & Rogers the moment the person who renders the service towards the client/commissioning party on behalf of Hoeve & Rogers have confirmed receipt of the communique in writing. The client/commissioning party is obliged to verify whether the message actually reached the person it was addressed to.
- These general terms and conditions are applicable to all services rendered as of July 1, 2015. These general terms and conditions have been filed with the Chamber of Commerce under number 23435 and have been registered at the Court of First Instance on Sint Maarten
- These General Terms & Conditions shall be applicable to any and all offers and agreements under which Hoeve & Rogers provides its services. Deviations from these General Terms & Conditions shall only be valid, if explicitly agreed upon in writing.