Terms of engagement

Valid from 1 January 2023

General

Law firm Kim Hakala offers legal services to its clients in compliance with the general terms of enga­ge­ment explained here. These terms and condi­tions apply to all assign­ments received by Lakia­siain­toi­misto Kim Hakala, unless otherwise agreed in writing with the client in some respects.

Law on licensed legal assistants

The licensed legal assis­tants of our office are subject to the super­vi­sion of the Super­vi­sory Board of the Associa­tion of Lawyers and the Board of Legal Assis­tants. In addi­tion to them, the staff of our office as a whole is obliged to comply with laws, confi­den­tia­lity regu­la­tions and ethical guide­lines, such as the guide­lines on good legal prac­tice issued by the Finnish Bar Associa­tion. Before accep­ting the assign­ment, we check possible situa­tions of obstruc­tion. In these situa­tions, we may have to reject the assignment.

Custo­mer’s obligations

Our customer must promote the smooth­ness of our coope­ra­tion in particular

a) by urgently respon­ding to our requests for addi­tional infor­ma­tion and instruc­tions regar­ding the assign­ment,
b) by provi­ding compre­hen­sive and accu­rate infor­ma­tion about the assign­ment, both at the begin­ning of the assign­ment and later when we perform the assign­ment,
c) by submit­ting complete background infor­ma­tion related to the matter and circums­tances and all other neces­sary docu­ments before star­ting the assign­ment and
d) by promptly repor­ting all changes in circums­tances related to the assignment.

In addi­tion, our custo­mers must present their possible comments about the services we offer within one (1) month of recei­ving the service and in any case no later than six (6) months after the action that is the subject of the comment.

Elect­ronic and oral communication

Our office protects its e‑mail and Internet connec­tions accor­ding to up-to-date requi­re­ments. However, sending infor­ma­tion and docu­ments by e‑mail involves risks. For example, outside parties can get their hands on unpro­tected infor­ma­tion and messages may be accom­pa­nied by malware.

Our customer must notify us of the assign­ment in advance in writing if he does not accept commu­nica­tion in elect­ronic form. Our office is not liable for damages related to elect­ronic commu­nica­tion, unless the cause of the damage is an inten­tional or grossly neglige

Charge bases

The fee we charge for an assign­ment is based on the nature and urgency of the matter, the amount of work and the amount of inte­rest in the matter, the neces­sary special exper­tise and the time required to complete the assign­ment, where the smal­lest time unit to be charged is 15 minutes.

The total fee esti­mates we give are indica­tive only, unless we have agreed otherwise with our client. Our office can sepa­ra­tely agree on the use of fixed prices or other arran­ge­ments regar­ding remuneration.

Expenses and other special charges, such as travel costs, expert opinions and official fees, as well as minor copying costs, will be charged separately.

The value added tax in force at any given time is added to the fees and other fees charged.

Billing

We usually invoice our custo­mers monthly in arrears, unless speci­fically agreed otherwise.

We reserve the right at any time to request a reaso­nable advance from our client for fees and expenses.

Invoiced amounts are due in full on the due date indicated on the invoice, unless otherwise agreed. If the invoice is not paid by the due date, the invoice will also be charged late payment inte­rest in accor­dance with the Inte­rest Act from the due date of the invoice.

The customer invoices the Law Firm Kim Hakala directly even in situa­tions where the customer has legal protec­tion insu­rance, unless otherwise agreed. If the insu­rance company lowers the amount of premium to be reim­bursed from the insu­rance or the court lowers the amount to be paid by the other party, Law Office Kim Hakala has the right to bill the customer for the agreed price.

Aban­do­ning the assignment

In addi­tion to what is presc­ribed in the Good Legal Prac­tice Guide­lines, we reserve the right, at our disc­re­tion, to decide to suspend or termi­nate our work for our client if our client does not pay our invoice despite our notice.

Respon­si­bi­lity of our office

Our office’s liabi­lity for the legal services provided by our office, based on the assign­ment agree­ment concluded with the client, is in all cases limited to damage caused by profes­sional error and to a maximum amount of two hundred thousand euros (€200,000), or to an amount that corres­ponds to twice the amount that our office has billed the client for the assign­ment in ques­tion, and which the customer has completed, depen­ding on which of these is greater in amount. We are not respon­sible for direct or indi­rect damages or losses, nor for claims by third parties.

Our office has liabi­lity insu­rance with the Mutual Insu­rance Company Fennia.

Law and venue

Finnish law applies to our commis­sion rela­tions­hips, exclu­ding its conflict of law rules. Disagree­ments are resolved using the proce­dures provided by the Finnish Bar Associa­tion or in the Helsinki District Court as the first instance. However, the parties have the right to bring the matter of the overdue claim before the general court.