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GTC

General Terms and Conditions of Business and Engagement of Ettrich Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaft mbB

Our work is based on the Federal Lawyers’ Act (BRAO), the Professional Code of Conduct for Lawyers (BORA), the Specialist Lawyers’ Act, the Lawyers’ Remuneration Act (RVG) and the Professional Rules of Conduct for Lawyers of the European Union.

The professional regulations to which lawyers are subject can be viewed at www.brak.de and are also available from the Frankfurt am Main Bar Association responsible for our company.

Subject to a deviating written agreement in individual cases or deviating mandatory statutory provisions, the following terms and conditions shall apply to all contracts or mandates between Ettrich Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaft mbB (hereinafter referred to as “Partnership”) and its clients (hereinafter referred to as “Clients”). The contractual partner of the client is always the partnership.

I. Scope and execution of the mandate
  1. The scope of the service to be provided by the Partnership shall be determined by the mandate issued in each individual case (hereinafter referred to as the “Mandate”). The mandate is carried out in accordance with the principles of proper professional practice. Unless otherwise agreed in individual cases, the partnership shall be responsible for appointing the person in charge of handling the mandate.
  2. The Partnership shall take the facts provided/mentioned by the client, in particular documents, figures and the like, as a basis for its activities. In the event of a subsequent change in the facts communicated, the client is obliged to inform the partnership immediately in writing. If inaccuracies in the information provided by the client are discovered in the course of the client relationship, the client has a duty of disclosure. The partnership will not use obviously incorrect information vis-à-vis third parties.
  3. The verification of the accuracy, completeness and correctness of the documents and/or figures provided shall only form part of the mandate if this is agreed separately in writing.
  4. The partnership is not obliged to review unorganized documents/volumes of documents and to check their legal relevance unless a separate written agreement has been made and the client has expressly pointed out the need for a review. This does not apply if the mandate also expressly refers to the inspection and review of documents provided from any legal point of view.
II Duty of confidentiality, vicarious agents
  1. In accordance with the law, the partnership is obliged to maintain confidentiality about all facts that come to its knowledge in connection with the performance of the mandate, unless and insofar as the client releases it in writing from its duty of confidentiality. This obligation shall continue to exist even after termination of the mandate.
  2. The duty of confidentiality also applies to the same extent to the professional and other employees of the partnership.
  3. If the disclosure of facts obtained within the scope of the mandate is necessary due to mandatory legal regulations or to protect the legitimate interests of the partnership or its employees, there is no obligation to maintain confidentiality in this respect.
  4. A release from the duty of confidentiality also exists to the extent that the partnership is obliged to provide information and cooperation under the terms and conditions of its professional indemnity insurance.
  5. The statutory rights to information and to refuse to testify, in particular pursuant to Sections 53 StPO and 383 ZPO, remain unaffected.
  6. The partnership is entitled to call on employees in the course of processing the mandate and to make use of suitable third parties, including data processing companies. The partnership is released from its duty of confidentiality in this context. However, it must expressly impose a confidentiality obligation on the expert third parties or service providers it commissions in accordance with Section II. 1.
III Remedy of defects
  1. The client is entitled to have any defects rectified. The Partnership shall be given the opportunity to remedy the defect within a reasonable period of time.
  2. Obvious errors can be corrected by the partnership at any time, also vis-à-vis third parties. The partnership is only entitled to correct other defects vis-à-vis third parties with the consent of the client. The aforementioned consent is not required if the legitimate interests of the partnership take precedence over those of the client.
IV. Liability, limitation of liability, statute of limitations
  1. Information provided by the partners and/or employees of the partnership by telephone is non-binding and is always subject to the necessity of an in-depth examination. If they are not expressly confirmed in writing, they shall remain non-binding.
  2. With regard to liability for a professional error, the statutory regulation applies, § 8 IV PartGG.
  3. The partnership has undertaken to maintain professional indemnity insurance at all times with cover of at least € 10,000,000.00 per year per individual case.
  4. The client’s claim against the partnership for compensation for damage caused by negligence is limited to € 10,000,000.00.
  5. If the client’s claim for damages is not subject to a shorter statutory limitation period, it shall become time-barred after three years from the date on which the claim arose.
V. Obligations of the client
  1. The client is obliged to provide truthful information and other cooperation with regard to the proper execution of the mandate. This also includes the timely and unsolicited delivery of the documents required for processing the mandate in a complete and orderly manner as well as informing the partnership of all circumstances that could be of significance for the execution of the mandate. If the partnership provides the client with written pleadings and/or documents prepared by it for information purposes, the client is obliged to check these for factual accuracy and completeness even without a separate request and to notify the partnership immediately of any errors/incorrectness.
  2. The client shall refrain from doing anything that could impair the independence of the lawyer or the vicarious agents of the partnership.
  3. The client shall only make the documents provided to him by the partnership, in particular expert opinions or written pleadings, accessible to third parties with the written consent of the partnership, unless the mandate already includes the disclosure to a specific third party. It should be noted that the work results of the partnership are subject to copyright protection.
  4. The partnership must be informed immediately in writing of any change of address or change in the person of the client’s legal representative. If the client fails to do so, service to the address or legal representative notified when the mandate was granted shall be deemed to have been effectively effected.
  5. The client shall provide the partnership with the costs, including advances, requested within a reasonable period of time.
VI. Consequences of failure to cooperate, default of acceptance by the client
  1. If the client fails to perform an act of cooperation incumbent upon him or if he defaults in accepting the service offered to him by the partnership, the partnership may set him a reasonable grace period with the declaration that it will refuse to continue the mandate after expiry of the grace period.
  2. If the deadline expires without result, the partnership is authorized to terminate the mandate without notice.
  3. The Partnership’s claim to compensation for the additional expenses incurred as a result of the Client’s failure to cooperate or default as well as the damage caused shall remain unaffected and shall continue to exist even if the right of termination without notice is not exercised.
VII Remuneration
  1. The remuneration of the partnership is based on the provisions of the German Lawyers’ Fees Act (RVG) and/or a fee agreement concluded with the client, otherwise on the usual remuneration (Sections 612 II, 632 II BGB).
  2. Offsetting against a claim for remuneration of the partnership is only permitted with legally established or undisputed claims.
  3. The partnership is entitled to an appropriate advance on fees in accordance with the general principles of the RVG. It is entitled to make the execution of the mandate dependent on the payment of such advances.
  4. If a mandate ends before it has been fully executed, the partnership’s claim to remuneration shall be based on the agreed remuneration or, if no fee agreement has been reached, on the statutory provisions. A deviating regulation in individual cases requires a written agreement, which must be drawn up separately and handed over to the client together with these General Terms and Conditions of Engagement upon conclusion of the contract. It is expressly pointed out that a large number of fee types stipulate that the fee is payable in full upon commencement of the respective activity.
VIII. Termination of mandate
  1. A mandate ends exclusively upon fulfillment of the agreed services, upon expiry of the agreed term or upon termination.
  2. If a mandate runs for an indefinite period, it can be terminated by either contracting party in accordance with the principles for the termination of continuing obligations, unless otherwise agreed in writing in the individual case when the mandate was granted.
  3. If the partnership terminates the mandate, any actions that are reasonable and cannot be delayed (e.g. requesting an extension of the deadline if the deadline is about to expire) must be taken in order to avoid the client losing rights. If, in the event of termination, the client is specifically informed of current deadlines and necessary actions as well as the possible necessity of engaging another lawyer, the partnership shall not be subject to any further duties to act. This shall not apply if the client is unable to take over the mandate elsewhere without delay and declares this in writing without delay.
  4. Any notice of termination must be given in writing.
IX. Retention obligations, right to surrender and right of retention of work results and documents
  1. The partnership must retain the files for a period of seven years after the end of the mandate. The aforementioned obligation expires before the deadline if the partnership has requested the client in writing to take receipt of the files and the client has not complied with this request within six weeks of receipt. The reference file comprises all documents that the partnership has received from or for the client in connection with the handling of the mandate. The obligation to retain and, where applicable, surrender documents does not extend to documents which the client has already received in original or copy form or to correspondence between the partnership and the client. The same applies to working papers prepared for internal purposes by the attorney in charge and/or other professional employees and vicarious agents of the partnership.
  2. At the client’s request, the partnership shall return the documents provided by the client to the client within a reasonable period of time. The partnership is authorized to make copies of these documents and to retain them.
  3. The partnership shall be entitled to refuse to hand over the case file, the documents pursuant to Section IX. 2. or the work results until the fees and expenses relating to the mandate have been settled, unless such withholding would constitute a breach of the principle of good faith.
X. Applicable law, place of performance
  1. Unless otherwise agreed in writing when the mandate is issued, the mandate, its execution and any claims arising therefrom shall be governed exclusively by German law.
  2. The place of performance is the location of the law firm.
  3. The place of jurisdiction for fee and liability disputes is the registered office of the law firm. The registered office of the law firm is also expressly agreed as the place of jurisdiction for all other legal disputes, provided that the client is a merchant or does not have his general place of jurisdiction within the meaning of the German Code of Civil Procedure in Germany. The aforementioned provision shall apply accordingly if the client moves his domicile or habitual residence outside the area of application of the Code of Civil Procedure after conclusion of the contract or if the client’s domicile and habitual residence are not known at the time the action is brought.
XI Other
  1. Should one of the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions of Engagement be or become invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The invalid provision shall then be replaced by a legally permissible provision that comes as close as possible to the economic sense and purpose of the invalid provision.
  2. The client’s general terms and conditions or terms and conditions of purchase and payment or those of other third parties are irrelevant and have no effect within the scope of the client relationship. The above provision shall apply mutatis mutandis to deviating jurisdiction regulations. Third-party GTC defense clauses are invalid.

You can also download our General Terms and Conditions of Business and Mandate as a document:

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