Legal information

Limitation of professional liability

Shareholders, directors, lawyers, employees and/or trainees are not personally bound by the company's commitments. The company must insure itself at all times for each shareholder, director, lawyer, employee and/or trainee and the professional liability insurance subscribed must be in reasonable proportion to the nature of the practice of the insured lawyer, employees and/or trainees. The professional liability of the company, as well as its shareholders, its directors, its lawyers, its employees and/or trainees, shall, in accordance with the provisions of the Codex Deontology for Lawyers and the own regulations of the competent Bar Association with respect to clients, be limited to the amount for which the company, its shareholders, its directors, its lawyers, its employees and/or trainees are insured per claim within the framework of its professional liability and shall be paid out, which amount may never be lower than the guarantee provided by the professional liability insurance organised by the competent Bar Association collectively. Neither the company nor its shareholders, directors, lawyers, employees and/or trainees can be held liable for the excess.

Duty to identify

In application of a European directive adopted at the end of 2001, the Belgian statute on the prevention of use of the financial system for laundering money and financing terrorism, the duty to identify and to report unusual transactions has been extended to the legal profession since February 2004.
Since that time lawyers are, in certain circumstances, legally required to identify their clients and to retain proof of their clients' identity. This obligation applies equally to clients who are private persons, legal entities and their representatives.