Terms and Conditions

1. The Boshouwers Schellekens Spoormans Family Law partnership (hereinafter: BSS) is a public partnership constituted under  Dutch law with CCB Boshouwers, MJPM Schellekens and AAC Spoormans as its partners. The partnership is listed in the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce Trade Register under number 58618775. Wherever BSS is used hereafter, it shall be taken to mean the partnership and/or each of the individual partners.
2. All cases shall only be taken up and executed by the very partner who has accepted the case. Therefore, accepting a case is only binding for the accepting partner and not for the partnership, nor for any other members of the partnership. As such, any act or failure to act by one of the partners can only result in liability of this one partner and not in liability of the partnership or of any other members of the partnership.
3. BSS may at its sole discretion and responsibility leave the execution of granted cases to the (other) members of the partnership and/or to other BSS employees, including third parties when applicable.
4. BSS is authorized to accept, on behalf of the client, any conditions imposed by the third party. BSS cannot be held liable for any faults of any third party, except in the case of an intentional act or omission by BSS or of gross negligence on the part of BSS.
5. BSS will show the proper care expected of a commissionee in performing all work and in selecting third parties for a case.
6. The client indemnifies BSS against all third-party claims in any way related to the work performed for the client, as well as against all costs BSS may incur in connection with such claims.
7. The liability of BSS and of all those who work for or on behalf of BSS is limited to the amount covered by its professional liability insurance increased by the deductible excess specified by that insurance.
8. If and insofar as no payment is granted by the insurance, all liability shall be limited to the amount billed and received by BSS for the case in question, up to a maximum of €15.000,-.
9. BSS accepts no liability for incorrect or incomplete transmission of the contents of sent emails or other electronic messages, nor for timely receipt thereof.
10. Unless otherwise agreed, the client owes BSS a fee which is calculated by multiplying the number of hours spent on the case by the agreed hourly rate. In addition to this fee, the client owes BSS the disbursements paid by BSS on behalf of the client (this includes mandatory fees such as court registry fees, bailiff’s expenses, translation rates, certificate costs, etc.). General office expenses (such as postage, phone, fax and photocopying costs, etc.) may additionally be billed. All amounts due will be increased with the applicable amount of sales tax (VAT). Unless otherwise agreed, BSS shall bill the client every calendar month. BSS may require an advance payment before starting the work, and an additional advance payment in the course of the work. Only after receiving the (additional) advance, BSS is held to start or continue the work. Advance payments will be deducted from the total amount due on the final settlement.

11. Bills sent by BSS shall be paid within eight days, without any appeal from the client for a discount, suspension and/or settlement. If the payment period is exceeded, the client is in default by law and statutory interest is due. Any collection charges shall be borne by the client.
12. BSS reserves the right, in the absence of payment of the advance mentioned under 10, or in the absence of timely payment of the bills mentioned under 11, not to start work, or to suspend or terminate work.
13. BSS reserves the right to change its hourly rate annually.
14. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 6:89 of the Civil Code, all claims of the client against BSS or against persons who work or worked for BSS expire or have expired if the claim is not submitted to court within one year after the claim has arisen. In any case, all claims will expire twelve months after the file is closed.
15. BSS reserves the right to, without advance notice, remove from the archives and destroy files and all documents contained therein, including documents belonging to the client and/or third parties, if 7 years or more have expired after the conclusion of a case handled by BSS.
16. These Terms and Conditions have been compiled for the benefit of the individual members of the partnership as well as of those who work for or have worked for BSS as its employee or otherwise, all of whom are at all times entitled to call upon the provisions of these Terms and Conditions.
17. If these Terms and Conditions are drawn up in a language other than Dutch, the Dutch text shall be considered binding in the event of a dispute about the contents or purport of these Terms and Conditions.
18. The legal relationship between BSS and the client is governed by Dutch law. Services are subject to the BSS Complaints Procedure. Disputes will be settled by the competent court in Amsterdam, subject to mandatory legal provisions.

These Terms and Conditions are also listed on the BSS website: www.bssfamilierecht.nl.