M&P Law

 

GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR PROVISION OF SERVICES

December, 2015

 
Upon request, the Law Office Mihajloski & Popovska (hereinafter M&P) will give legal and attorney services and will help you achieve your business goals in the Republic of Macedonia in accordance with legal regulations of the Republic of Macedonia.
 
As to the M&P, also it is in the customer interest, M&P to give all legal and advisory services under clearly defined conditions. These General Conditions for Provision of Services (hereinafter: General Conditions) constitute the basis on which the M&P provides legal and attorney services and will apply to all future instructions that will give to the M&P. Your new or existing guidelines will be deemed to constitute acceptance of these General Conditions.
 
In addition to these General Conditions, the M&P may conclude a separate agreement for legal and attorney services, which can be in the form of written communication, electronic or other form or written authorization.
 
 

1. Jurisdiction

 
M&P provides legal and attorney services on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, to domestic and foreign natural persons and legal entities in accordance with legal regulations of the Republic of Macedonia.
 
 
2. Customer care
 
In order to provide the most appropriate care and fast and smooth communication between the client and the M&P, our system involves determining a contact partner with the client. Your contact partner does not necessarily have to be the same person who will represent you daily. If you have any questions and dilemmas that do not want to discuss with the partner, or the lawyer, or associate working on your case, you can address the client contact partner who is assigned for as liaison with you. The name of that person shall be clearly stated in the contract, or in other written or electronic communication. In case, for any reason you're not sure who is designated for your partner, as your primary contact, please contact any staff in the office, who as soon as possible will submit this information, together with relevant contact data.  
 
 
3. Guidelines (instructions)
 
By choosing M&P to represent you in certain legal matters, you authorize M&P to take all necessary actions in order to protect your interests in connection with a certain case or legal matter, unless you give us different instructions. The scope of activities for which you will hire us shall be determined by written power of attorney, or with contract for legal and attorney services, which can be defined in more detail in our written communication, in accordance with such agreement. In case you do not provide us with a signed copy of the written agreement, we will consider that you have accepted these General conditions if we receive from you operating instructions by e-mail, or by written communication.
 
M&P is in no way liable if you, or your authorized agent does not receive advice or comment on any issue that is not covered by your instructions.
 
Certain areas of law, or specific legal issues are not sufficiently regulated by legislation and / or there is not enough practice in the treatment by the authorities and institutions responsible for the implementation of regulations. In such cases, when your instructions apply to some of these areas, or legal issues, we can make a decision and give a legal opinion in good faith and always with reasonable assurance that you will benefit from it, in which case the service that you will get it's made in accordance with our best understanding of the legal status of the issue, taking into account it is regulated in the legal provisions.
 
 
4. Reimbursement
 
Unless otherwise agreed, the fee for providing particular service is determined based on the time spent to study your case and to undertake specific legal actions, or time spent on studying and preparing the required legal opinion, i.e. the hours spent on that issue from the person involved in the operation. The time spent on your case, or request for a legal opinion includes meetings with you, time spent traveling, reviewing, preparation and drafting of documents and acts, written, electronic and telephone communication. The hourly rates will be calculated in denars or euros, depending on how it will be agreed. If your instructions require increased workload or overtime (work outside of standard working hours stipulated by law), the M&P reserves the right to increase the amount of hourly rate. In such cases, M&P will notify you, without delay, of the amount of additional compensation.
 
In cases when fixed remuneration for the provision of a specific service (lump sum) is agreed in advance, an additional amount will not be charged, unless during the work and performance of the service occurs necessity of performing additional works that could not be known in advance, or if the work to be performed is of a different nature than previously determined in accordance with your instructions. In such cases, M&P will notify you, without delay, of the amount of additional compensation.
 
In certain cases, the M&P may request payment of the compensation, the hourly rate in advance, ie prior to the performance of the service. This is especially applies in cases where the service required causes significant expenses for M&P. If after receiving your instructions, M&P based on the above reasons prompted the service fee in advance, ie prior to its execution, and you don't pay the prescribed fee, M&P reserves the right not to accept to provide the service, or its continuation, or to cancel or not to take the job, or to disrupt the operation of the object.  
 
If compensation is defined with hourly rate, M&P will regularly inform you about the of incurred amount and of any changes of circumstances which affect the previous detailed information you have received about the compensation. If your instructions last longer than one month, M&P will deliver regular monthly invoices. If for any reason M&P cease to represent you, it will collect only the work done up to the termination of the representation. In case of advance fixed remuneration for the provision of a specific service (lump sum), and the case, or service is not brought to an end, for any reason M&P cease to represent you, you will be charged the workload, which can be determined based on the evidenced chargeable hours or proportionally, and any costs incurred in connection with the execution of the work, unless otherwise agreed.
 
 
5. Translation
 
If during the execution of works and provision of services a need for translation arises from foreign language into Macedonian and vice versa, M&P without delay will notify you. Translation costs are additional real cost which is not included in the charges for providing service.
 
 
6. Expenses    
           
By electing M&P to represent you in a particular legal matter, you agree M&P to bear the costs and expenses that are necessary to perform the job. Such costs, unless otherwise agreed, are not included in the charges for providing the service and M&P is entitled to request their refund as soon as such costs incurred and in some cases before they occur, or in advance. These costs relate in particular to judicial and administrative fees, fees charged by state authorities and institutions for providing a specific service or issue certain documentation, fee for expert reports and expert assessments and appraisers and other fees required to perform the work and giving service. These costs, also, refer to travel expenses, calculated in accordance with Tariff of rewards and compensation for the work of lawyers, unless agreed travel expenses to be remunerated in their real value.
 
 
7. Invoices
 
Invoices or pro-invoices will be submitted monthly, unless otherwise agreed. Invoices will contain a specification for the work completed, including specific dates and description of work performed or actions taken. The amount in invoices and pro-invoices will be presented in denars, or euros, depending on the agreement.
 
Invoices mature within eight calendar days from the date of issue of the invoice, unless otherwise agreed. In the event of late payment, a legal penalty interest is calculated. In cases when the invoice is not paid within the payment deadline, and the invoiced amount is expressed in denars, and from the date of its maturity until the date of its payment the value of the denar against the euro decline by more than 5%, M&P has the right to calculate and charge the difference caused by the change of exchange rate movements.
 
In case of delayed payment of the invoice, M&P reserves the right to stop work performance, or to terminate the contract.
 
 
8. Value added tax (VAT)
 
The services rendered are with calculated VAT, at a tax rate in accordance with the law.
 
If, for any reason, after the invoice was issued you request the same invoice to be issued to another person, M&P reserves the right to refuse it. In case of accepting such request, together with your request to reissue the invoice you agree to submit all necessary documents in order to provide us with VAT refund calculated on the original invoice, in cases when VAT has been calculated. You will remain liable for paying our invoice even if we accept your request for reissue the invoice, up until the payment of all amounts owed to us.
 
 
9. Disputes
 
Whatever the outcome of the dispute, you will be obligated to pay our invoices. With the completion of the dispute, the court delivers a decision on reimbursement of expenses which the party who had won the dispute, had during the proceedings, whereas the side that lost the dispute is usually obligated to pay the full amount of the cost, or part of these costs. If the other party has free legal aid may be that you can not collect your costs, even if you won the dispute. If you win the dispute, even if the party who lost the dispute does not reimburse you for the costs of the proceedings, or part thereof, you have an obligation to fully pay our expenses.
 
During the court proceedings, at your request, we will provide you with information on our best knowledge, for the amount of your costs that are likely to charged to the other side if you win the dispute. However, the decision on costs is brought by the court, and the court may determine that certain costs will not be awarded, even if you win the dispute completely. In case you lose the dispute, the court may decide to indemnify the cost of the proceedings of the party that has won the dispute. That amount is paid along with our expenses.
 
If you want, we're ready to consider possibilities for a conditional agreement for the award which will be based on the success of the dispute.
 
 
10. Termination of providing services
 
We always assume that M&P will work on a certain case until its completion. If for any reason the provision of services by M&P stop, M&P will carry out the operations for another month, only if needed to prevent any damage that might arise at that time. The disruption of services is not usual to occure, unless it is in your interest, or if there is a conflict of interest, or if you do not pay our invoices on time, or if you do not meet our demands for payment of costs. If either party decides work to be stopped, you are obligated to pay all our hours worked and all costs incurred due to M&P due to your case until the date of termination.
 
 
11. Confidentiality and conflict of interest
 
All information regarding your operations shall be considered confidential and as such shall be kept at all times, unless you give instructions such information, or when their disclosure is our legal obligation (in the case of a crime and other cases when it is required by law).
 
During the handling of your case, may come into conflict of interest between your interests and the interests of other clients of M&P. In that case, we will review the situation and decide on further steps. In order to protect your interests and those of the other client, we may be forced to stop working on your case. In that case we will try to find, or to help you find another law office with appropriate reputation that will take over your case and will continue to represent you.
 
By accepting these General conditions, you give approval your name as a client of M&P to be used in our professional references. It will certainly not involve disclosure of any of your confidential information to any third parties.
 
 
12. Archiving documents
 
After the payment of our fees and expenses, at your request we will hand over all documents that we have gathered, or that you have provided in order to work on your case. M&P working papers, the overall written communication between you and M&P, as well as other documents that we prepare, remain the property of M&P. After the cessation of active work on the case, the documents will be archived, internally or with an independent entity that deals with archiving documents. The documents shall be kept with assumption that we have your authorization to destroy them five years after the creation, or receipt of those documents.
 
In case you provide us with instructions to review already archived documents, we reserve the right to charge you for time spent reviewing the archived documents and the time spent in preparation of written review of the documents, regardless of whether such documents were requested by you or by another person at your request and with your written consent. Also, we reserve the right to charge the costs of collecting the documents from an independent entity where we archive the documents.
 
 
13. Prevention of Money Laundering
 
If the regulations pertaining to the prevention of money laundering and financing terrorism require it, we shall comply and the competent authorities shall be submitted your data, required to fulfill legal obligations. This submission is not considered as disclosing confidential information (in accordance with section 11 of these General Conditions).
 
 
14. Problems and complaints
 
If after introduction with these terms and conditions you have any doubts about the issues to which they relate, or if you are not satisfied with any aspect of our service, please first talk to your partner, or a lawyer, or associate who handles your case. If you want to discuss this issue further, it will for the best to address a partner responsible for liaison with you (point 2 of these General Conditions). In any case, the important thing is to share with us any doubt that you may have, so we will be able to review them as soon as possible and respond to all your needs.
 
 
15. Notes concerning invoices
 
Before you receive an invoice from us, there is a posibility to recive pro-invoice with a detailed description of the work preformed included. Within eight calendar days from the date of issuance of the invoice (or pro-invoice) you will have an opportunity to provide us with comments or observations, in writing, on the received invoice. Your remarks or comments should be submitted to the contact partner who is our liaison with you. After the deadline of eight days after the issuance of the invoice or pro-invoice, we shall consider that you accept to pay the full amount (in case of being pro-invoice, after the deadline of eight days we can decide to issue an invoice that will replace the pro-invoice, and will consider that you accept to pay the full amount of the invoice at the time of issuance).
 
 
16. Copyright and other intellectual property rights
 
M&P retains copyright on all documents that will be submitted to you. You will have non-exclusive license to use those documents for the purpose for which they were created, but not for other purposes without our prior consent.
 
 
17. Limitation of liability
 
Unless otherwise specified in a written agreement, we restrict our monetary liability to you in respect of any claims related to negligence, breach of confidentiality (fiduciary) duties, or breach of contract to an amount that is less than the following alternative amounts: 1) the maximum amount of coverage of our liability insurance applicable at that point and 2) an amount equal to five-times the amount all our fees charged for the work on the case arising from your claim. This amount includes any damages, costs and interest that will be established against us. The procedure for determining our responsibility can be initiated within three years from the date of execution of the work that you consider is grounds for the alleged responsibility, and after this period, our responsibility ceases. We will not be obligated to pay any amount which is caused by the fault of another person.
 
We believe that limiting our liability provided in this paragraph is reasonable. Nevertheless, we will be glad to review this limitation with you, if you believe that the amount is not sufficient for your needs and will consider the possibility of providing additional coverage. This limitation of our liability, stated in this section, shall apply to the work that will be executed on these General Terms and any additional work, unless expressly, in writing, we agree different terms.
 
 
18. Members and staff of the M&P
 
In order to limit professional liability and exposure to litigation of partners, lawyers, employees, associates, and representatives of M&P, a basic requirement for our engagement (in accordance with any statutory provision which limits our ability to do it) is for you not to have any claim or submit any lawsuit regarding any damage directly against our partners, lawyers, employees, associates, and representatives, personally.
 
 
19. Regulations
 
The Law on Attorneys and the Code of professional ethics of lawyers, legal associates and legal interns of the Bar Association of the Republic of Macedoniaapply to the work of M&P, i.e. to the lawyers and the legal associates.
 
 
20. Communication via the Internet
 
Whenever possible, our practice is to use the Internet and e-mail for sending documents, but we can not guarantee the security and confidentiality of material sent over the Internet.
 
 
21. Disclaimer
 
Our use of one, or more rights contained in these General conditions, at any time or at any period, under any circumstances shall not be construed as a waiver of that right or rights.
 
 
22. Exclusive benefits
 
In order to avoid any doubt, by accepting these General Conditions, you agree none of these General Conditions, or any other related agreement not to be intended and can not be considered to be enforceable by any third party, or any person who is not a party to such agreements and conditions.
 
By accepting these General Conditions, you agree not to make our work available to third parties without our prior written consent. We undertake no liability to third parties in connection with any aspect of our professional services, or work, which will be made available.
 
 
23. Nullity
 
Nullity or non-performance of any provision of these General conditions will not affect the remaining provisions which shall remain binding on both parties.
 
 
24. Entirety of the agreement
 
These General Conditions, the agreement for legal and attorney services and other written communications between the parties define the conditions that are negotiated regarding the work we perform for you. In the event of any discrepancy between the General Conditions and the contract for legal and attorney services, the agreement for legal and attorney services shall prevail.
 
 
25. Competent Law and Jurisdiction
 
These General Conditions shall be construed in accordance with the regulations of the Republic of Macedonia and to resolve any disputes arising from their application, if not previously addressed extrajudicial, competent court will be Primary Court Skopje II Skopje.
 
 
26. Changes and Amendments
 
These General Conditions may occasionally be amended and/or supplemented, with notification of one month in advance, or by posting the amended and/or supplemented General Conditions on our official website www.mplaw.mk.