General Data Protection Regulation

Following the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as ‘GDPR’), we would be grateful if you could take note of the following information.
Your case will be assigned to the lawyer of your choice. This lawyer is responsible for your personal data.

When you give your file to the service provider, he or she must collect a certain amount of information about you, such as your surname, first name, telephone number, geographical and e-mail addresses, gender, date of birth, marital status, and information about your personal and professional life, as well as your financial and banking situation. This information is collected directly from you and/or is collected through public databases (e.g. the national register).

Without this essential information, your lawyer will not be able to carry out her tasks of advice, defence and representation in court.

Your data will be processed on the basis of Article 6, paragraph 1 (b) of the RGPD, i.e. in order to execute a contract to which you are a party, i.e. in order to enable your lawyer to carry out the task of advising, defending and representing you in court, as well as for the purpose of invoicing the costs and fees.

They will also be processed on the basis of Article 9, paragraph 2 (f) of the GDPR, for sensitive data, because the use of such data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Your data will not be used for any other purpose, except for purposes closely related to these first reasons.

Your data may be communicated to the collaborating lawyers of the counsel you have chosen, to the bailiffs mandated by them, to the opposing party, to the lawyers mandated by the opposing party, to the bailiffs, to the experts mandated by the parties, to the judicial experts, to the jurisdictions or magistrates seized, arbitrators or mediators appointed by the parties or designated by the court, public bodies and the firm’s accountant, to the extent strictly necessary to process your case, to invoice the services provided and to comply with the accounting, tax and ethical obligations of your counsel.

Your data is stored in the form of a paper file and in an electronic file, under the responsibility of your lawyer, who takes all the necessary organisational and technical measures to ensure its security.

It is stored for a period of time in accordance with the relevant legal provisions and in any event for a period limited to the fulfilment of your lawyer’s duties and obligations in terms of liability and money laundering (or for a period of 10 years from the end of your lawyer’s services in your case).

Your rights

Under the applicable data protection legislation, you may exercise the following rights, where justified, throughout the processing of your personal data:

1. The right to withdraw your consent, where your personal data has been processed on this basis.
2. The right of access to your data, i.e. the right to know whether your personal data is being processed, and the right to have access to it, where justified.
3. The right of rectification and the right to erasure, which means the right to obtain the rectification of inaccurate and/or incomplete data and the erasure of your personal data, where this request is legitimate and without prejudice to other interests or contravening legal requirements.
4. The right to restrict processing, i.e. the suspension of processing, where this request is legitimate. Once you limit the processing of your data, it will no longer be used. However, some information will continue to be used, for example when it has been used to bring a legal action or to defend your rights. You should also be aware that exercising this right will make it difficult, if not impossible, for your lawyer to carry out her task.
5. The right to portability of your data, i.e. to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, as well as the transfer of such data to other data controllers (such as other lawyers).
6. The right to object to the processing of your personal data, where such a request is legitimate, including where your data is used for prospecting or profiling purposes.
7. The right to lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority (www.autoriteprotectiondonnees.be), in case of unlawful processing of your personal data.

You can exercise your rights (except point 7) by sending an email to your lawyer. Your request will be processed without delay and in all cases within 30 days of receipt, except in complex cases or in the event of a surge of requests. In the latter two cases, the response time may be extended by a further two months.

Ethical rules

Lawyers are also subject to a code of ethics which you can find on the internet via the following link: click here.

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