Internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure

Information on our internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure is provided below.

Article 1 Definitions

In the internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure the following terms are defined as follows:
Client: a natural person or a legal person (under private law or public law) who makes use of or has made use of the lawyers' service pursuant to the formation of an agreement for the provision of services with Koch Advocaten;
Complaint, plural: Complaints: each written expression of dissatisfaction by or on behalf of the Client against the lawyer or the individuals working under that lawyer's responsibility on the formation and performance of an agreement for the provision of lawyers' services, the quality of those services or the amount of the invoice charged for the lawyers' services, and which is not a complaint within the meaning of Chapter 4 of the Dutch Advocates Act;
Complainant: the Client or its representative by whom the Complaint is filed;

Complaints Officer: the lawyer charged with handling the Complaint.

Article 2 Scope of application

The internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure applies to each agreement for the provision of lawyers' services entered into by Koch Advocaten as the contractor and a Client as the principal, unless Koch Advocaten and the Client have expressly deviated from this internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure in the agreement for the provision of services or by means of another document in writing.

Article 3 Objects

The objects of this internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure are:
a. to lay down a procedure to handle a Complaint within a reasonable period of time in a constructive fashion;
b. to lay down a procedure to determine what caused the Complaint;
c. to maintain and improve existing relationships by means of an appropriate handling of the Complaint;
d. to improve the quality of the service provision by the way in which the Complaint is handled and analysed.

Article 4 Information at the start of the service provision

1. Before entering into the agreement for the provision of services, the lawyer referred to in Article 6.28 of the Legal Profession Bye-law (Verordening op de Advocatuur) points out to the Client that Koch Advocaten has an internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure in place, which has been published on the website www.kochadvocaten.nl, and that this procedure applies to the provision of their lawyers' services.
2. With reference to Article 9 of the General Terms and Conditions of Koch Advocaten a complaint which has not been solved after handling that complaint in accordance with the internal complaints procedure as referred to in Article 5 of the internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure will be exclusively referred to the competent court in the Netherlands for the purposes of a binding decision.

Article 5 Procedure

1. The Complaint that is presented by a client to Koch Advocaten, by means of the email address mulderink@kochadvocaten.nl or otherwise, is forwarded to Koch Advocaten's board member who is charged with the execution of this internal complaints procedure, who is also a lawyer, and acts as the Complaints Officer in that capacity.
2. The person to whom the Complaint relates will be notified of the filed Complaint by the Complaints Officer or by a person designated by the Complaints Officer to that end.
3. The Complaints Officer or a person designated by the Complaints Officer to that end will give the Complainant and the person to whom the Complaint relates an opportunity to give a (further) explanation of the Complaint.
4. The Complaints Officer or a person designated by the Complaints Officer to that end will attempt to reach a solution with the Complainant, possibly in cooperation with the person to whom the Complaint relates.
5. The Complaints Officer or a person designated by the Complaints Officer to that end will deal with the Complaint within one month after having received the Complaint, or will inform the Complainant that this term cannot be observed, stating the reasons for such deviation and the term within which an opinion on the Complaint will be expressed instead.
6. The Complaints Officer or a person designated by the Complaints Officer to that end will notify the Complainant and the person to whom the Complaint relates in writing whether or not the Complaint is well-founded, possibly accompanied by recommendations.

Article 6 Secrecy and complaint handling free of charge

1. The Complaints Officer, the person designated by the Complaints Officer as referred to in Article 5 van de internal complaints and dispute settlement procedure and the person to whom the Complaint relates will observe secrecy during the handling of the Complaint.
2. No payment is due by the Complainant for the costs of handling the Complaint.

Article 7 Responsibilities and complaints registration

1. The Complaints Officer is responsible for a timely handling of the Complaint.
2. The Complaints Officer or a person designated by the Complaints Officer to that end will keep the Complainant informed on the handling of the Complaint.
3. The Complaints Officer or a person designated by the Complaints Officer to that end will keep an overview of all Complaints received, stating the issue of the Complaint. A complaint may refer to various issues. The designated Complaints Office at our firm is E. Mulderink LL.M., who is available at telephone number 076 5226470 or by email at mulderink@kochadvocaten.nl.

Article 8 External difficulties

The client may also file a complaint with the court or the dean of the Zeeland-West-Brabant Bar Association.