These General Terms apply to all activities and assignments, including subsequent assignments, which the Law Firm performs and/or all activities and/or assignments which the Law Firm causes to be performed by a third(s). The applicability of any (general) terms and conditions of the commissioning party (or principal, however named) is expressly rejected.
Our Role
Our objective is to define and attain the objectives of the clients we work for. We shall achieve the best results if you provide us with all the available information when you give us the assignment. Please keep us informed in due course of all changes in your intentions or in the circumstances of the case you have assigned to us.
Assignment
All cases assigned to a lawyer of our Firm will be deemed to have been assigned to the Firm. It will be the Firm to do the work and all costs and legal fees are payable to the accounts of the Firm. An assignment is made when you contact us for advice, opinion or specific action even without giving it in writing. The Law Firm reserves its right not to accept a specific assignment, although it may have been given in writing. The client will be duly informed in such cases.
Problems or Complaints
Please let us know if you are dissatisfied with our work. You are kindly advised to approach the lawyer who is working on your specific case. He will resolve the problem together with you.
You are also free to approach any of the partners as well. Our Law Firm has insured its professional responsibility.
Confidentiality
We shall keep all the information related to your case strictly confidential. Pursuant to the Bar Act, all papers of attorneys-at-law, dossiers, the correspondence with clients, electronic documents, computer equipment and other information carriers are inviolable and may not be subject to review, copying, inspection or seizure. The opinions we have given to you and the documents we have prepared are for your use only and may not be copied or used by third parties without our consent given in writing.
Documents
After the case is over, we shall return your documents and papers at your request. The Firm keeps files for five years and then destroys them. You may require a longer keeping of copies of documents under your cases and files.
Fees and Costs
Our hourly rates are based on the professional experience and competence and reflect the time used by the lawyers to work on the case.
Fees cover our professional time. They do not include the legal costs incurred in litigation and other proceedings, which are due in addition to our fees. These costs cover the costs for court and state charges, revenue stamps, photocopying, fax messages, telephone bills, postal and courier services, business trips, etc.
We are fully prepared to keep you informed on the amount of fees and costs at your request at any time. We may negotiate a total budget for the fees and costs. Fees and costs are payable even when the court adjudicates that the other litigant will pay them or a third party has agreed to do so. We shall discuss with you whether you have an insurance policy for costs related to legal assistance or a third party may be obligated to pay them.
Costs and fees are paid on the basis of account for the lawyer’s fees. The account will specify all amounts payable on your part in the form of costs, charges and fees and will be accompanied with a comprehensive report on the hours spent on your case and the lawyers having performed the services provided. All accounts are payable within fourteen days of their submission. We shall issue an invoice for the fees due and paid.
We reserve our right to discontinue our work on a case in the event of non-payment within the agreed time limits and payment is due for the work done until that time. When a client gives up an assignment without any reasonable argument, the remuneration will not be refunded. Subject to refunding in such cases are the amounts which the client has paid for costs that have not been incurred yet.
When a case is not completed for reasons beyond our control, we shall ask for payment of fees and costs only for the work done until that moment.
Litigation and Costs
As a rule, the court will adjudge costs to be paid by the party losing the case but the following considerations should also be taken into account:
- if the claim is partially granted, the payment of charges, costs and lawyer’s fees is adjudicated on a pro rata basis;
- the litigant who has lost the case may have insufficient resources to pay all or part of the adjudicated costs and fees;
- the adjudicated fee is deemed to be the fee of one attorney-at-law; – in the event of an agreement in court, the costs remain at the expense of the parties as they have incurred them, unless agreed otherwise.
In the case of out-of-court settlement or agreement in court, the lawyer’s fees paid are not refundable.
Client Account
All the money received in your name other than our fees will be kept in our client account. These funds will be spent strictly in accordance with your instructions and for the payment of charges and costs due. We shall provide a report, at your request, on the available balance and the movement of funds.
The amounts which have not been used will be refunded to you after the assignment is completed and the related fees and costs have been paid.
Personal Data
The assignor acts as data controller with regard to the personal data, which are provided to or gathered by the Law Firm in relation to the performance of the assigned work. The Assignor determines the purposes of the personal data processing and the terms for performing of the said processing. The Law Firm is acting as data processor with regard to the said personal data and guarantees that under no circumstance the data shall not be processed for purposes different from the ones determined by the Assignor.
The Assignor and the Law Firm are obliged while performing their obligations and exercising their rights to observe the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation and all other provisions for personal data protection, including the special rules of the Bulgarian Bar Act. In that regard the Assignor guarantees that the personal data provided to the Law Firm have been gathered and being processed in compliance with the said normative acts. The Law Firm in turn guarantees that it observes the requirements of the said normative acts when gathering personal data under assignment by the Assignor, as well as in relation to all processed personal data.
The Law Firm shall observe the negotiated terms for data processing and shall execute the instructions of the Assignor with regard to the performance of the data processing activities assigned by the latter. The Assignor is obliged to send instructions in writing, including via e-mail, in accordance with the agreed upon procedure for exchange of information with the Law Firm, whereas at least a 7-day term shall be provided for their execution. The Law Firm shall confirm the receipt of the specific instruction by a mark on the information carrier containing the instruction or in the same way the instruction was received. If due to a security risk for the processed data urgent actions are required, the Assignor shall indicate this circumstance, and the Law Firm shall be obliged to undertake the respective actions without delay within the frame of its working hours.
The Law Firm is reserving the right to not execute instructions with regard to the assigned by the Assignor personal data processing activities, when these instructions threaten the security of the personal data or other confidential information available to the Law Firm, or require actions that are not proportional to the risk for the processed personal data. The Law Firm shall notify the Assignor if the instructions contradict the requirements for the protection of personal data. If the instructions of the Assignor are impossible to execute, require effort on behalf of the Law Firm which is not proportional or threaten the security of the personal data or other confidential for the Law Firm information, the Law Firm can terminate the contract with a 1-month’s notice.
The Law Firm guarantees that all of its employees and lawyers working on the assigned work have the respective obligations in accordance with the contracts signed by them to protect the confidentiality of the information provided to them. The Law Firm also guarantees that the said employees and lawyers are familiar with and are strictly observing the standards for personal data protection, they are instructed regularly with regard to identifying and preventing the threats to the security of the personal data, and there are assigned employees who are responsible for immediate action in case of risk of or breach of the security of the processed personal data.
The organizational and technical measures undertaken by the Law Firm to guarantee the protection of the data provided by the Assignor include measures for limiting the physical access to the data carriers, measures for preventing unauthorized access and securing the premises where the data processing takes place, measures for establishing unauthorized access and the data the latter has affected. The organizational and technical measures applied by the Law Firm allow also the tracing of authorized access to data and the actions carried within its frame. Upon concluding the contract and accepting the current general terms of services, it is assumed that the Assignor is aware of the organizational and technical measures, provided by the Law Firm when performing its obligations for storage and protection of data, and considers them sufficient and adequate.
The Assignor and the employee responsible for data protection in specific shall be authorized to undertake all actions, necessary for monitoring. The monitoring shall be carried out in accord with the Law Firm, which shall provide the necessary cooperation. The Assignor has the right to access the whole information about the personal data processing carried by the Law Firm in accordance with the assigned work, with the exception of information which might put the personal data at risk or would result in disclosure before the Assignor of information, which is confidential for the Law Firm.
The Law Firm shall engage third parties – data processors only insofar the Assignor has given consent in writing or has acquiesced with a separate consent in writing. The Law Firm shall guarantee the compliance with the provisions for data protection and shall observe the right of the Assignor to instruct and inspect every subcontractor. The Assignor hereby consents to the engaging of companies that provide accounting services and software supports as subcontractors to the Law Firm.
The Law Firm guarantees the performance of the instructions of the Assignor with regard to providing access to the data subject to data, which concerns them, correction, data erasure, limitation of processing and providing the data in accordance with the right of transfer. The Assignor is obliged to provide at least a 10-day term for performance of such instructions, whereas the Law Firm shall be obliged to confirm receipt of the instruction and indicate whether the instruction can be performed within the said term. When the Law Firm is gathering personal data on behalf of the client, the former shall be obliged to provide information to the data subjects in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, insofar there is no applicable exception to that exception.
Insofar the Law Firm does not carry out automated personal data processing on behalf of the Assignor, the former shall not be obliged to assist the latter with review of objections against automated data processing.
The Law Firm is obliged to forward to the Assignor any requests by persons, whose data is processed, with regard to the previous two points.
The Law Firm and the Assignor shall immediately inform one another for breaches and irregularities, related to data protection. The Law firm shall inform the Assignor about a data breach immediately after becoming aware of it. In that event, the Law Firm shall provide information for the nature of the data breach, and the persons, whose data has been affected, the possible consequences of the breach, the measures undertaken to limit these consequences and to deal with the data breach. The Law Firm can delay the information only if there are grounds for that, whereas the former shall be obliged to notify the Assignor about these grounds. The information for the data breach can be provided to the Assignor in several separate notifications for the purpose of guaranteeing that the information is provided in the shortest terms possible.
The Assignor shall be obliged to notify the data protection authority and the persons affected by the breach, whereas the Law Firm shall provide all necessary assistance in that regard.
The Law Firm assists the Assignor with regard to the performance of obligations of the latter with regard to the security of the personal data, whereas advice and opinions can be provided on the applied measures for data protection, which are known to the Law Firm, as well as concerning the means for access to the data carriers stored with the Law Firm, used by the Assignor. During an impact assessment carried out by the Assignor, the Law Firm shall provide information concerning the applied technical and organizational measures for data protection and shall give statements concerning the risk, related to the data processed in accordance with the contract with the Law Firm.
After conclusion of the contract, the data carriers shall be returned to the Assignor, whereas copies from them shall be kept and stored in accordance with the requirements of the Bulgarian Bar Act and the internal rules of the Law Firm.
In case of violation of the data protection rules, the Assignor shall be obliged to compensate the Law Firm for any and all damages suffered by the latter due to unlawful personal data processing, when this unlawfulness is due to untrue declaration of the Assignor, unlawful instructions by the Assignor or any other reason, for which the Assignor is responsible. The compensation shall include all compensations for third parties, paid by the Law Firm, as well as property sanctions, fines and all other damages, regardless whether representing losses or missed benefits.
In the event of payment of compensation to a third party, in the relations between Assignor and Law Firm each party is responsible for the paid compensation to an amount, respective to their fault for the data processing, which resulted in a violation and from which damages were suffered by third parties.
Governing Law
The Bulgarian substantive law shall apply to these General Terms and conditions. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with them will be heard and resolved by the competent Bulgarian court.
There may be versions of these General terms and Conditions in other languages. In case of any discrepancy between the Bulgarian version and the version in another language, the Bulgarian version prevails.
If there is any lack of clarity concerning the interpretation of one or more stipulations in these general terms and conditions, or if a situation arises which is not arranged for in these general terms and conditions, then the interpretation is to be carried out ‘in the spirit’ of these stipulations.
If one or more stipulations in these general terms and conditions appears to be void or voidable then this does not have any effect on the validity of the other stipulations. If one or more stipulations in these general terms and conditions is void then the Law Firm will replace the invalid stipulation(s) with new stipulations which are of a similar purport so that they represent the stipulations which are declared to be void as much as possible.
The Law Firm is entitled to change (the contents of) these general terms and conditions unilaterally. If you have any questions with regard to the general terms and conditions of the Law Firm, you can send your questions to officelf@www.legaldl.com.
