Terms and Conditions
This is a courtesy translation for our English speaking clients. The terms and conditions in German apply.
The following mandate conditions apply to contracts between us (law firm) and our clients:
I. Scope of the Mandate
1. Subject of performance
The subject of the mandate is the agreed service. A specific success is not owed.
2. Power range
The legal advice and representation relates exclusively to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. If the legal matter affects foreign law, the law firm will inform the client of this in good time.
II. Duties of the Firm
1. Legal Review
The law firm is obliged to diligent management of the mandate. It informs the client appropriately to the extent commissioned in each case about the result of the processing.
2. Confidentiality
The lawyers of the law firm are professionally bound to secrecy. This obligation relates to everything that is entrusted to them by the client or otherwise known to them within the scope of the mandate. In this respect, they have the right to refuse to testify. They may only comment on the existence of a mandate and information in connection with the mandate to third parties, in particular authorities, if the client has previously released them from their duty of confidentiality.
3. Safekeeping of Funds
The law firm will hold monies received for the client in trust and pay them out immediately in text form to the account specified by the client upon request.
4. Privacy
The law firm will take all proportionate and reasonable precautions against loss of and access by unauthorized third parties to the client’s data and will continuously adapt it to the current state of the art.
II. Client’s Obligations
1. Obligation to pay
The client is obliged to pay appropriate advance payments upon request and at the latest after the end of the mandate to pay the full remuneration. This also applies if there are claims for reimbursement of costs against legal expenses insurance, the opposite party or third parties.
2. Assignment and Set-off
The client assigns all claims for reimbursement of costs by the opposite party, legal protection insurance or other third parties in the amount of the fee claim to the law firm. The law firm accepts the assignment. She is entitled to offset incoming payments against open fee claims, also from other matters. The client can only offset against a claim of the law firm or assert a right of retention if the client’s claim is recognized or legally established.
IV. Obligations of the client
Obligations are rules that should be observed in your own interest to avoid legal disadvantages.
1. Provision of Information
The law firm assumes that the client will inform them comprehensively and truthfully about all facts related to the mandate and that they will transmit all information related to the mandate (information, documents and data) in an orderly manner. Checking the accuracy and completeness of the information is not part of the law firm’s mandate. The client transmits the information in good time so that there is a reasonable time for processing.
2. Notification of Changes and Availability
The client informs the law firm immediately about changes to his address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address, etc. The same applies to long-term absence or other circumstances that justify temporary unavailability.
3. Appointment Cancellations
If the client is unable to keep an agreed appointment (also via the online booking), he must notify us at least 24 hours in advance.
4. Contact with stakeholders
During the term of the mandate, the client only makes contact with courts, authorities, the opposite party or other parties in consultation with the law firm.
5. Due diligence on letters
The client will immediately and carefully check the letters and pleadings sent by the law firm, which were sent to him in advance as a draft, to ensure that the information contained therein on the facts of the case is correct and complete. He will inform the law firm immediately whether the letters and pleadings in the version presented can be sent to third parties.
6. Breach of Obligations
If the client violates his obligations, the law firm is entitled to terminate the client relationship after a reasonable period of time has elapsed to make up for the cooperation or to refrain from the infringing action. The right to termination for good cause remains unaffected for both parties. If the law firm incurs damage or additional expenses as a result of a breach of duty by the client, the client must compensate for these. If an appointment is not canceled or is not canceled in good time, the compensation for damages or additional expenses is the fee agreed for the appointment. The client reserves the right to prove lower damage or lower additional expenses.
V. Handling of mandate-related data
1. Storage and processing of your data
The law firm is entitled to use data processing systems to record, store and process data entrusted to it within the scope of the mandate.
2. Legal protection insurance
If the client commissions the law firm to conduct correspondence with the legal protection insurance, the law firm and its lawyers are expressly released from the obligation of confidentiality in relation to the legal protection insurance. In this case, the client assures that the insurance contract with the legal protection insurance continues to exist, that there are no arrears in premiums and that no other lawyers have been commissioned in the same matter.
3. Notification by Email
If the client has provided the law firm with an e-mail address, he consents to the law firm sending him mandate-related information by e-mail without restrictions. The client is aware that only limited confidentiality is guaranteed for unencrypted e-mails. Insofar as he has the technical requirements for the use of signature processes and encryption processes and wishes to use them, the client shall notify this.
4. Third party involvement
The client agrees that expert third parties (e.g. lawyers, tax consultants, auditors) may be consulted to process the mandate. The law firm coordinates the resulting additional costs with the client in good time.
5. Withdrawal of Consent
The client can revoke the consent given under this section for the handling of client-related data at any time. In this case, however, the law firm may not be able to process the mandate further.
VI. Fee Notice
Pursuant to Section 49 (5) BRAO, the client is informed that the lawyer’s fees incurred are calculated according to the value of the item, unless a remuneration agreement has been made in accordance with Section 4 RVG. It is also pointed out that in labor court disputes out of court and in the first instance there is no right to reimbursement of lawyers‘ fees or other costs. In such proceedings, each party bears its own costs, regardless of the outcome. This also applies in principle to costs in non-contentious proceedings.
VII. Final Provisions
The legal ineffectiveness of a provision does not affect the legal effectiveness of the other parts of the contract. The contractual partners undertake to replace an ineffective provision with an effective provision that comes closest to the economic result and best corresponds to the purpose of the contract.
