ARTICLE 0 DEFINITIONS
0.1 Van der Toorn Personenschade: the partnership Van der Toorn Personenschade, Van der Toorn Personenschade BV, F. de Bruin Letselschade BV or their legal predecessors, as well as the employees/directors of the above-mentioned.
0.2 Client: any natural person and/or legal entity who enters into a claims settlement agreement with Van der Toorn Personenschade.
0.3 Counterparty: any natural and/or legal person who is or can be held liable for an event as a result of which the client suffers and/or will suffer damage.
ARTICLE 1 APPLICABILITY
1.1. These terms and conditions apply to every agreement concluded between Van der Toorn Personenschade and its client to which Van der Toorn Personenschade has declared these terms and conditions applicable, insofar as the parties have not expressly deviated from these terms and conditions in writing.
1.2. The agreement is concluded in the event of a declaration of intent by the client, either in writing, orally, or by tacit acceptance with regard to work commenced by Van der Toorn Personenschade and known to the client, aimed at recovering damages from the client against the other party.
1.3 Van der Toorn Personal Injury reserves the right to refuse assistance requested by the client.
1.4 These terms and conditions also apply to all agreements with Van der Toorn Personenschade, for the execution of which third parties must be involved.
1.5 If one or more provisions of these terms and conditions are void or annulled, the remaining provisions of these terms and conditions will remain fully applicable. Van der Toorn Personal Injury and the client will consult with each other to agree on new provisions to replace the void or annulled provisions, whereby, where possible, the purpose and intent of the original provisions will be observed.
ARTICLE 2 EXECUTION OF THE AGREEMENT
2.1 Van der Toorn Personal Injury will perform the agreement to the best of its knowledge and ability and in accordance with the requirements of good workmanship. This is based on the state of the art at the time. However, the relationship with the client will never be considered anything more than a best efforts obligation. Although Van der Toorn Personal Injury will always attempt to provide the client with a realistic picture of the claims process and the results, this can never lead to any form of guarantee of an expected result. Van der Toorn Personal Injury is therefore not liable for any compensation if the client is disappointed in their expectations or believes they have been harmed in any way or form. Van der Toorn Personal Injury disclaims all liability in advance, except for liability arising from gross negligence or an intentional detrimental act by Van der Toorn Personal Injury as stated in Article 8 of these terms and conditions.
2.2 The client shall ensure that all information that Van der Toorn Personenschade indicates is necessary, or that the client reasonably should understand is necessary for the performance of the agreement, is provided to Van der Toorn Personenschade in a timely manner. If the information required for the performance of the agreement is not provided to Van der Toorn Personenschade in a timely manner, Van der Toorn Personenschade shall have the right to suspend the agreement and/or charge the client for the additional costs resulting from the delay at the agreed rate.
2.3 Van der Toorn Personenschade is not liable for damage of any nature whatsoever resulting from its use of incorrect and/or incomplete information provided by the client, unless Van der Toorn Personenschade should have been aware of this inaccuracy or incompleteness.
2.4 Client indemnifies Van der Toorn Personal Injury against any claims by third parties who suffer damage in connection with the performance of the agreement that is attributable to client.
2.5 The content of the assistance requested by the client will be determined by Van der Toorn Personal Injury in consultation with the client. Van der Toorn Personal Injury is authorized in advance to perform any legal acts it deems desirable or necessary on behalf of the client within the framework of the assistance to be provided or already provided.
2.6 The Client agrees that the medical and other information to be collected, whether confidential or not, will be available to the personal injury specialists at Van der Toorn Personal Injury and will be made available to all others involved in the performance of this agreement. Furthermore, the Client agrees that Van der Toorn Personal Injury will pass on said information, insofar as it deems it relevant to the claims settlement, to the other party, with the knowledge and/or approval of Van der Toorn Personal Injury, including through the third parties engaged.
2.7 Van der Toorn Personal Injury reserves the right to commission third parties to provide assistance to the client. The associated costs are part of the assistance provided by Van der Toorn Personal Injury and will be charged to the client as such, subject to the provisions of Article 3.
2.8 The Client is not permitted to involve third parties in (the execution of) the assignment given to Van der Toorn Personenschade, except in the case of prior agreement reached in this regard with Van der Toorn Personenschade. If a third party is involved in (the execution of) the assignment without the permission of Van der Toorn Personenschade, the assistance engaged shall be terminated immediately and the costs of the assistance provided up to that point shall be charged to the Client.
ARTICLE 3 FEES
3.1 Under this agreement, the Client shall owe Van der Toorn Personenschade legal assistance costs, including advances and office costs, in accordance with the rate and percentage of office costs agreed upon at the time this agreement was concluded.
3.2 To the extent required by law, the client will be charged sales tax.
3.3 Unless Van der Toorn Personal Injury and the client have agreed to work on a "no cure no pay" basis, all legal assistance costs incurred by Van der Toorn Personal Injury will initially be submitted to the other party for reimbursement.
3.4 The costs of legal assistance reimbursed by the Counterparty pursuant to Art. 6:96 of the Dutch Civil Code, or advances thereon, shall be deducted from the costs referred to in Article 3.1. Any remaining costs shall then be set off against the Counterparty's next (advance) payment, provided that this set-off ultimately amounts to at most 20% (excluding VAT) of the total payments for material and immaterial damage .
3.5 If Van der Toorn Personal Injury and the client have agreed on a “no cure no pay” basis,
If agreed, the costs of the assistance provided by Van der Toorn Personal Injury to the client will amount to 15% of the total payments for material and immaterial damages, plus the applicable VAT. If expressly agreed in writing, these costs will be charged to the other party as a damages component to the greatest extent possible. Van der Toorn Personal Injury will deduct its fee, as stated above, from the advances to be provided by the other party directly and immediately after payment of the advance.
3.6 Van der Toorn Personal Injury may increase its fee as stated above during the term of this agreement, if and to the extent reasonable.
ARTICLE 4 TERM OF THE AGREEMENT
4.1 The agreement is entered into for an indefinite period, unless the parties expressly agree otherwise in writing.
4.2 If a different term than that specified in 4.1 has been agreed upon as the term of the agreement, this different term is never a final deadline. If the performance period is exceeded, the client must therefore notify Van der Toorn Personal Injury in writing of the default.
ARTICLE 5 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
5.1 Van der Toorn Personenschade reserves the rights and powers to which it is entitled under the Copyright Act.
5.2 Van der Toorn Personal Injury also reserves the right to use the knowledge acquired through the performance of the work for other purposes, provided that no confidential information is disclosed to third parties.
ARTICLE 6 PAYMENT AND COLLECTION
6.1 Unless Van der Toorn Personal Injury and the client have agreed to work on a "no cure, no pay" basis, payment of the client's invoiced costs must be made within 14 days of the invoice date. If the client fails to pay within the 14-day period, the client is legally in default. The client will then owe interest of 1% per month, unless the statutory interest rate is higher, in which case the statutory interest rate applies. The interest on the amount due will be calculated from the moment the client is in default until the moment of payment of the full amount. Furthermore, legal collection measures may be taken without further notice. All reasonable costs incurred in obtaining payment, both in and out of court, shall be borne by the client.
6.2 Payments made by the client always serve to settle, firstly, all interest and costs due, and secondly, the oldest outstanding invoices, even if the client states that the payment relates to a later invoice.
6.3 In the event of liquidation, bankruptcy, or suspension of payments by the Client, the claims of Van der Toorn Personenschade and the obligations of the Client towards Van der Toorn Personenschade become immediately due and payable.
6.5 Van der Toorn Personal Injury's claims against its client are also immediately due and payable in the following cases:
– if, after the conclusion of the agreement, Van der Toorn Personenschade becomes aware of circumstances that give Van der Toorn Personenschade good reason to fear that the client will not meet his obligations;
– if Van der Toorn Personenschade has asked the client to provide security for the performance of this agreement upon concluding the agreement and this security is not provided or is insufficient.
In the aforementioned cases, Van der Toorn Personenschade is entitled to suspend further performance of the agreement or to terminate the agreement, without prejudice to the right of Van der Toorn Personenschade to claim damages.
ARTICLE 7 COMPLAINTS
7.1 Complaints about the work performed must be submitted in writing to Van der Toorn Personenschade by the client within 8 days of discovery, but no later than 14 days after completion of the work in question. If a complaint is justified, Van der Toorn Personenschade will still perform the work as agreed, unless this has demonstrably become pointless for the client. In the latter case, the client must make this known in writing.
7.2 If it is no longer possible or meaningful to provide the agreed services, Van der Toorn Personenschade will only be liable within the limits of Article 8.
ARTICLE 8 LIABILITY
8.1 If Van der Toorn Personal Injury is liable, then that liability is limited as follows:
1. The liability of Van der Toorn Personal Injury, to the extent covered by its liability insurance, is limited to the amount paid out by the insurer.
2. If in any case the insurer does not make a payment or the damage is not covered by the insurance,
Van der Toorn Personal Injury's liability is limited to twice the invoice value of the assignment, or at least that part of the assignment to which the liability relates.
3. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 2 of this article, in the case of an assignment with a duration of more than six months, liability will be further limited to the portion of the fee owed for the last six months.
4. The limitations of liability contained in these terms and conditions do not apply if the damage is due to intent or gross negligence on the part of Van der Toorn Personenschade.
5. Van der Toorn Personal Injury is never liable for consequential damage.
ARTICLE 9 FORCE MAJEURE
9.1 In these terms and conditions, force majeure is understood to mean, in addition to its definition in law and case law, all external causes, whether foreseen or unforeseen, over which Van der Toorn Personenschade has no control but which prevent Van der Toorn Personenschade from fulfilling its obligations. This includes strikes at Van der Toorn Personenschade.
9.2 Van der Toorn Personenschade also has the right to invoke force majeure if the circumstance preventing (further) performance occurs after Van der Toorn Personenschade should have fulfilled its obligation.
9.3 During force majeure, Van der Toorn Personal Injury's obligations are suspended. If the period during which Van der Toorn Personal Injury's obligations cannot be fulfilled due to force majeure exceeds four months, either party is entitled to terminate the agreement without any obligation to pay damages.
9.4 If, upon the occurrence of force majeure, the client has already partially fulfilled its obligations or can only partially fulfill its obligations, the client is entitled to invoice separately for the part already performed or still to be performed, and the client is obligated to pay this invoice as if it were a separate contract. This does not apply, however, if the part already performed or still to be performed has no independent value.
ARTICLE 10 RESERVATION OF OWNERSHIP
10.1 All information provided by the client, as well as the contents of the physical damage file relating to the client and/or all information present on other data carriers relating to the client's damage file, remain the property of Van der Toorn Personenschade until the client has fulfilled all obligations arising from this agreement.
10.2 The Client is not authorised to encumber the items subject to the retention of title as referred to in 10.1.
10.3 All documents provided by Van der Toorn Personenschade, such as reports, advice, agreements, software and other relevant information and correspondence may not be reproduced, made public or brought to the attention of third parties without the prior consent of Van der Toorn Personenschade, unless the nature of the documents provided dictates otherwise.
ARTICLE 11 TERMINATION
11.1 Either party may terminate the agreement at any time in writing.
11.2 If the client terminates the agreement prematurely, any outstanding legal assistance costs, including advances and office costs, are immediately due and payable and will be charged in accordance with the provisions of Article 6.
11.3 If Van der Toorn Personal Injury and the client have agreed to work on a "no cure, no pay" basis, Van der Toorn Personal Injury is entitled to compensation upon termination for the expected loss of fees, unless the termination is based on facts and circumstances attributable to Van der Toorn Personal Injury. In that case, the client is obligated to pay as stated in Article 11.2.
11.4 If the agreement is terminated by Van der Toorn Personal Injury, Van der Toorn Personal Injury will immediately transfer the file to the client, unless the termination is based on facts and circumstances attributable to the client and/or the outstanding legal costs have not yet been paid by the client. If transferring the file incurs additional costs for Van der Toorn Personal Injury, these will be charged to the client.
ARTICLE 12 SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION
12.1 Van der Toorn Personal Injury is authorized to suspend the fulfillment of the obligations under this agreement or to terminate the agreement if:
– the client fails to comply with the obligations under the agreement or fails to comply fully with them,
– Van der Toorn Personal Injury becomes aware of circumstances after the agreement has been concluded that are good
give reason to fear that the client will not fulfil his obligations. If there is good reason to fear that
If the client will only partially or not properly comply, the suspension is only permitted to the extent that the
shortcoming justifies her.
– the client was asked to provide security for the payment of his debts when concluding the agreement
obligations under the agreement and this security is lacking or insufficient.
12.2 Furthermore, Van der Toorn Personal Injury is entitled to terminate the agreement if
circumstances arise which are of such a nature that fulfilment of the agreement is impossible or undesirable
standards of reasonableness and fairness can no longer be required or if otherwise
circumstances arise which are of such a nature that the unaltered maintenance of the agreement is impossible
reasonableness can no longer be expected.
12.3 If the agreement is terminated, Van der Toorn Personal Injury's claims against the client will be in accordance with
Article 6 of these terms and conditions immediately due and payable. If Van der Toorn Personal Injury fails to comply with the
If Van der Toorn Personal Injury suspends its obligations, it retains its claims under the Law and the agreement.
12.4 Van der Toorn Personal Injury always reserves the right to claim damages.
ARTICLE 13 CONFIDENTIALITY
13.1 If, on the basis of a statutory provision or court order, Van der Toorn Personenschade is obliged to provide confidential information to third parties designated by law or a competent court and Van der Toorn Personenschade cannot invoke a statutory right of non-disclosure or a right recognised or permitted by the competent court, then Van der Toorn Personenschade shall not be obliged to pay damages or compensation and the client shall not be entitled to terminate the agreement on the grounds of any damage arising as a result.
ARTICLE 14 APPLICABLE LAW
14.1 All disputes, including those arising from these general terms and conditions and collection conditions, will be submitted exclusively to the court, which will judge in accordance with Dutch law.
These terms and conditions have been filed at the office of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in The Hague.
The most recently filed version or the version applicable at the time the current assignment was concluded shall always apply.
