CALCULATION METHOD FOR COSTS & FEES

Except for other specific agreements (amongst others value tariff or fixed amount), to be agreed upon for every separate file, the cost and fees of the lawyer’s office Lens, Mertens & De Smet (LM&DS lawyer association) are determined as follows:

1.
Performances of LM&DS’s lawyers are charged on the one hand as costs, on the other hand as fees. The costs comprise the specific costs linked to a particular file as well as the fixed and variable office costs that are not specifically linked to a file and that are divided over all files in an objective way.

2.
The following costs are charged:

  • opening and keeping a file (fixed compensation of € 50.00/file)
  • correspondence (€ 10.00 per page - € 6.00 per page for double headings)
  • typewriting procedure (for procedural documents – conclusion, writ of summons, inventory, appeal, … - € 12.00 per page)
  • registered letters (€ 17.00)
  • Xerox (€ 0.10 per page, except for specific photocopies by third persons at the real price)
  • Mails, notes... (€ 6.00 per page)
  • Claiming a trade report (€ 25.00)
  • Consultation state register (€ 15.00)
  • Financial operation (€ 1.50)
  • Legal costs and similar costs (like an amount effectively paid or owed by LM&DS)
  • Mileage allowance (€ 0.50/kilometer) in principle charged at the quickest routing plan
  • Attendance (waiting time at the session or elsewhere, relocation time, … - € 50.00/hour)
  • Not specifically charged costs (spreading office costs over the cases: f.eg. office costs and infrastructure, utilities, banking costs, library, subscription to on-line service, … at 7.5% of the fee with a minimum of € 25.00 per instance.)

3.
The fees are charged per registered time unit of the person(s) in charge and/or of the file administrator. The base fee varies between € 85.00 and € 125.00 and depends amongst others of the qualification the person in charge has. The fees can be adjusted applying a multiplication of the coefficients themselves or the of the coefficients and the hourly rate in view of the result, the urgency, the importance of the case, its specificity, … The fees (as well as the costs (see above)) can always be adapted by LM&DS amongst others as a consequence of the market prices or alterations on the market.

4.
The fixed minimum fee for a file in which the lawyer has to represent the client in a lawsuit in front of a commission or an instance amounts to € 250.00.

5.
Between times LM&DS lawyers charge their costs and fees by claiming provisions. Should these not be charged the costs and fees will be charged completely and without reduction at the end of the intervention.

6.
The state of all provisions and fees is to be paid within a fortnight after sending. After the expiry date they are increased with the legal interest and with a compensation for damages as mentioned in the law on fighting arrears of payments in business transactions.

7.
Possible remarks about het state of costs and fees are to be presented within a fortnight in lack whereof they will no longer be taken into account.

8.
The courts and the justices of the peace in Mechelen/Malines (Belgium) are competent as to the demand of payment of the state of the costs and fees or in case of a dispute hereof. This without prejudice to the possibility – in case of a mutual agreement to be given at the moment itself – to introduce the case for arbitration at the assessment commission of the Bar in Mechelen/Malines (Belgium).

9.
LM&DS lawyers’ liability is limited to the covering and the ceiling of the insurance policy entered into through the Bar by its lawyers.

10.
Should one of the provisions above not be applied or should it be rendered inoperative, the other ones remain valid and the provision itself will then be interpreted so it supports the original content as much as possible.