Terms of Business – Advokatfelagið Í/F
Area of validity
The Terms of Business at Advokatfelagið Í/F (Advokatfelagið) are in force for all assignments, which we undertake, unless other written agreement has been made.
Advokatfelagið
Our office is situated at Lucas Debesar gøta 8, 100 Tórshavn, Faroe Islands.
Advokatfelagið is a partnership (reg. no. 5274), which has these limited liability companies as part-ners: Advokatsmápartafelagið Petur Even Djurhuus Advokatur (reg.no. 4160), Advoka-tsmápartafelagið Jógvan E. Ellefsen Advokatur (reg. no. 4161), Advokatsmápartafelagið Ingi Højgaard Advokatur (reg. no. 4190) og Advokatsmápartafelagið Gunn Ellefsen (reg. no. 5731).
Our V-number is 309265.
All lawyers who work at Advokatfelagið, are appointed by The Danish Ministry of Justice and are members of Advokatsamfundet (The Danish Bar and Law Society) and Advokatfelag Føroya (The Faroese Bar and Law Society).
Handling of assignments by Advokatfelagið
Advokatfelagið handles the assignment according to the requirements of conduct and ethics in the Administration of Justice Act and the legal ethic rules for Advokatsamfundet (The Danish Bar and law Society). Advokatfelagið handles the assignment until it is solved or until the client asks for the assignment to end. Advokatfelagið has the right to end the cooperation, if the client doesn’t pay deposit or debt to Advokatfelagið, or if the client is insolvent. Furthermore Advokatfelagið has the right to stop the cooperation, if we judge that we no longer can take responsibility for the case, or if we judge, that it is in the interest of the client, that the cooperation ends.
Payment and invoicing
Determination of remuneration is based on different parameters. The assessment is i.e. based on:
• what kind of work it is
• how extensive and complicated the case is
• the values that the case is about
• what the case means to the client
• the responsibility that goes with the case
• what the outcome is
• whether the case consists of specialist work
• whether the work has urgency or is outside of normal working hours
• time spent on the case.
We can demand that our client pays a deposit. In those situations, where there is a continuous advising is and the assignments take a long time, the cases will normally be invoiced continuously over time, often every month, unless no other agreement has been made
The client pays on top of the remuneration, outlays that we have had as part of the execution of the assignment, including i.e. taxes, charges, travelling- and residence expenses, and in some cases expenses to take copies and sending documents by post or other ways. All depending on the size of the amount, that is outlaid, we can decide to outlay for the client, or request the client for payment of the amount in advance.
The client can get an estimation of the remuneration, before we start an assignment, if the client wants it, and if it’s possible to make such an estimation of the assignment. In consumer relations we give the client information about the remuneration, before we start the assignment.
Late payment leads to, that there will be added interest on the invoiced amount. If the debt is not paid, it may result in us withdrawing from the case and other cases, that we are dealing with on behalf of the client.
Value added tax (VAT) is added to our fee in accordance with current legislation.
If the client in his homeland, is required to pay withholding tax from our fee, the fee itself will in-crease with the amount, which makes, that Advokatfelagið, according to the imposed withholding tax, receives the amount corresponding to the original invoice amount before withholding tax.
Confidentiality
All employees of Advokatfelagið have a duty of confidentiality. Any information from or concern-ing our client that we receive in relation to an assignment, will be treated confidentially.
Conflict of interest
In accordance with the rules of Advokatsamfundet (The Danish Bar and Law Society) we make sure, that there is no conflict of interest before we finally take on an assignment. If it later turns out that there is a conflict of interest problem, that leads to, that we have to cancel the contract, we can refer to other lawyers.
Insider rules
Employees of Advokatfelagið are bound by internal rules, that meet requirements set out in current legislation managing the use of insider knowledge about stock exchange registered companies and limitations on trade with stock exchange registered securities.
Data protection
Advokatfelagið deals with personal data as a data supervisor, when Advokatfelagið provides ser-vices for its clients. For further information about our processing of personal data, reference is made to our data protection information.
Money laundering
Advokatfelagið is included by the law of preventive measures against money laundering and the financing of terrorism (Money Laundering Act). Therefore we have, when demanded by law, an obligation to collect and preserve information about the identity of our clients.
Identity information we have collected about physical persons, as part of the responsibility of Ad-vokatfelagið according to money laundering rules, will only be used with regard to deterrence of money laundering and financing of terrorism. We do not process such identity information for other purposes. We have in accordance with money laundering rules in certain situations an obligation to report to The State Attorney for Special Economic and International Crime, if suspicion is of or a reasonable reason to think, that a transaction, a financial asset or other activity is or has been associ-ated with money laundering or financing of terrorism. In connection with such notice, identity information can be sent to Advokatsamfundet (The Danish Bar and Law Society) and The State Attorney for Special Economic and International Crime.
Identity information will be saved for at least 5 years, after the client relation has ended.
Responsibility, limitation of responsibility and insurance
Advokatfelagið is liable to pay damages according to the common Faroese rules on compensation for consequences of mistakes, that can happen in the work done by Advokatfelagið, this with the limitations mentioned below.
The total compensation in connection with one damage cannot exceed DKK 10 million and is al-ways also limited to, what will be paid by the liability insurance of Advokatfelagið.
The client can only make claim against Advokatfelagið and not against the individual partners, lawyers or staff.
The liability does not include indirect losses including i.e. loss of work, loss of time, loss of profit, loss of data, loss of goodwill and similar indirect losses, or losses because of a bank going bankrupt.
The liability does not include the work of other advisers, who we, in agreement with the client, have let done parts of the assignment, or if the client has made cooperation agreement with him on our reference.
Advokatfelagið advises only about relations regarding Faroese law, and our consultancy is only given in relation to Faroese law. If the lawyer assignment requires counselling on legislation abroad and foreign law, we advise, that the client contacts with lawyers on site. We are happy to advise on foreign lawyers, if the client so wishes. Our work in such parts of the assignment is not to be understood as advice on legal matters abroad.
All attorneys and legal assistants at Advokatfelagið are included in the liability insurance and guar-antee system, which is subscribed with the insurance company HDI GLOBAL SPECIALTY DANMARK, Dansk filial af HDI Global Specialty SE, Germany.
Use of advise
Our advise is tailored to specific cases and can therefore not be used for other purposes or by others without our prior consent. Advokatfelagið can only be held liable for the specific advise that has been given.
The client gets the necessary rights to use the written material that Advokatfelagið gives the client as part of the legal advise, but Advokatfelagið preserves all copyrights and other intellectual property rights to the material.
Client accounts
Advokatfelagið administrates money on client account according to current regulation. The money is put into special client accounts. Interests (both positive and negative and in addition handling fees), which are attributed, fall to or are charged upon the client.
Avokatfelagið has client accounts in Føroya Banka, Betri Banka, Norðoya Sparikassa and Suðu-royar Sparikassa. If not otherwise agreed or mentioned by us, the money will be put into one of the mentioned banks.
Advokatfelagið is not liable for loss of money on the client account, if the bank, where the money is placed, goes bankrupt.
If a bank goes bankrupt the depositors are secured by "lov om en garantifond for indskydere og investorer" up to a maximum of 100.000 euros. The maximum amount covers the total deposits in the bank, even if the money is placed in different accounts, including client accounts and own accounts.
Special rules apply to deposits in relation to real estate, if the real estate is used for, or mostly used for, non-commercial purposes. Here the security is up to 10 million euros for 12 months after the amount was deposited, and without regard to, whether the deposit is on a special account.
More information about the security system which is called “Garantiformuen”, can be found on “Fi-nansiel Stabilitets” website www.fs.dk.
Disputes, choice of law, court of jurisdiction and complaints
All disputes between the client and Advokatfelagið are to be decided by Faroese law and the juris-diction is exclusively the usual courts in the Faroe Islands.
The lawyers at Advokatfelagið are under the supervision of Advokatsamfundet (The Danish Bar and Law Society) and are, in accordance with section 164 of the Judicial Administration Act, cov-ered by rules on good legal practice. In addition to this, the ethics rules for lawyers apply. The rules that apply in particular to the practice of law, can be found on Advokatsamfundet (The Danish Bar and Law Society) website, www.advokatsamfundet.dk.
If there is a dispute about fee, or if a client is dissatisfied with a lawyer's behaviour at Advo-katfelagið, the client can complain about the amount of the fee or about the lawyer's behaviour to Advokatnævnet, Kronprinsessegade 28, 1306 København K, www.advokatnævnet.dk.