Claims against foreign debtors

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1 Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers does not work with subscriptions. By simply filing your claims via an instruction form (see enclosed or visit you instruct us to collect your claim from your. After receiving your instructions we work as follows: Working method 1. For all collection instructions received before 4.00 pm, we send the first demand letter on the same day (by fax, , and by post). 2. The demand letters state short payment terms of 3 5 working days and, within a short period of time, frequent written and telephone demands are made. 3. In the event of payment in full or in part, you will receive settlement or a payment with an accompanying letter within 5 working days. 4. The basic premise of any payment arrangement is that it may not exceed a maximum of 12 weeks. 5. In addition, it is our mission to recover all additional costs from the. This is the only way to improve the s payment behaviour. 6. A designated lawyer will be your contact person. 7. You will be able to follow the status of your claim via the internet 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Furthermore, you will be kept abreast in writing of relevant developments in each case. If you have not received a login code and manual yet, please do not hesitate to contact us. 8. Of course, legal measures will only be taken after we have obtained your consent. 9. Our debt recovery lawyers work in accordance with the guidelines of the Association of Debt Collection and Litigation Lawyers (VIA), as well as the Code of Ethics of the Netherlands Bar Association (NOvA), and the Code of Ethics of the International Association of Commercial Collectors (IACC). 10. In order to accelerate the settlement of your files, by handing over your debt recovery file, you also give us permission to apply money received and held on your behalf on the Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers Trust Account to pay fees and costs, as well as payment and settlement of (advance billing) invoices. Where necessary, our firm will forward interim (advance billing) invoices. 11. Our liability is limited to the amount paid by our professional liability insurance in each case concerned. Rates (This is a summary only. For more detailed information, please see read the following pages). The collection takes place on a No Win No Fee basis. In the event of successful collection the file will be settled in such a manner that after deduction of all costs you will receive between 85% and 100% of the principal amount. The exact percentage depends on whether and to what extent the additional costs can and may be recovered from the. In practice, 95% of the principal is paid out. If we do not recover anything at all, no fee will be charged other than the office expenses of , which includes the cost of a credit report. Please note: these rates do not apply if your claim was previously handled by another debt recovery intermediary. 1/4

2 Claims against foreign s Claims against foreign s often involve all kinds of other matters in comparison with claims against s in your own country. Not just the differences in language and culture, but in particular, differences in Statutory Regulations make international debt recovery more complex. However, because Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers has its own international lawyers from the 10 most important European economic countries and legal experts based at its own offices in Veghel and Amsterdam, as well as at its own offices abroad, cross border debt recovery via Bierens Incasso Advocaten is easy to set in motion. Bierens Incasso Advocaten can recover debts just as easily abroad as in can in the Netherlands. A. Extrajudicial collection: based on No Win, No Fee 1. The pays at least the principal amount The file will be settled in such a manner that after deducting our fee, you will receive at least 85% and a maximum of 100% of the principal. The exact percentage depends on whether and to what extent interest and collection costs are paid by the, and can or may be recovered from the. Regulations vary from country to country. Our mission is, whenever possible, to recover the costs from the. We generally collect the additional costs, so that on average 95% of the principal amount is paid out. In most West European countries 100% is plausible. 2. The pays less than the principal amount If you ultimately agree to your not paying the entire claim (for example due to a dispute, or if you do not permit us to collect interest and costs in order to preserve your relationship with the ) and in the event of insolvency, we will charge you a fee according to the staggered rates below (with a minimum of ). In addition, we will charge administrative costs, which include the costs of extracts, in-house translation costs, as well as the costs of a credit report. Amount actually collected on foreign claims after the case has been handed over for collection Fee as a percentage of the collected amount On the first % On the rest up to % On the rest up to % On the remainder 8% 2/4

3 3. Claim smaller than If the principal amount of a claim handed over for collection is less than , it will be settled in accordance with the above mentioned 1 and 2, on the understanding that an additional charge of is added to the costs of the file. The fixed costs of a file are such that otherwise small claims cannot yield a return. 4. The claim is not collected If we cannot collect, we will not charge a fee other than passing on office expenses in the sum of The credit report we obtain will often explain why the claim could not be collected, for example due to liquidation, or that proceedings are not advisable due to the risk of incurring costs as opposed to possible recovery. 5. Returned Goods In the event that, after the claim was handed over for collection, goods were returned and accepted, then 50% of the graduated scale over the value of the returned goods will be charged. B. Judicial collection: rates for a default judgment (no defence) If no payment follows after a default judgment is given in legal proceedings, then we will charge a previously indicated fee for conducting proceedings. For most of the accelerated proceedings, this will be a fixed amount of plus any third party costs (for example, bailiff costs, court fees, translations etc.). If payment follows after a default judgment, the file will still be dealt with as specified under A, extrajudicial collection, the only difference being that the costs related to the proceedings and charged to our firm by third parties will be passed on to you. In the event that a claim with a principal exceeding is collected in full, this usually means that after deduction of the costs, you will still receive between 85% and 100% of the principal amount. C. Disputed claims against foreign s 1. Partial or summary dispute If your claim is partially and/or summarily disputed (easily refutable), initially, we will still attempt to obtain full payment by way of written and telephone demands. If this intervention is successful, the case will be settled in the same way as an undisputed claim (see A). 2. Substantive dispute and/or adversarial proceedings The code of conduct for the legal profession prohibits continuing a case on a 'No Win, No Fee' basis in these two instances. If you request that we continue with the case, we will charge our loyal clients our reduced rate of per hour excluding VAT plus administrative costs for the activities performed by our foreign and/or domestic lawyers, with a minimum of the percentage on the collected amount referred to earlier. If the proceedings are successful, and the complies with the judgment, we expect to be able to settle the matter in such a manner that, after deduction of the costs, you will receive 85% to 100% of the principal amount. During the course of the procedure this percentage will not always be feasible for smaller claims of up to In all cases, we will first ask for your written consent prior to carrying out activities on an hourly rate basis. If a case is withdrawn by the client, we are entitled to apply 3/4

4 an hourly fee to the activities carried out thus far or charge an amount in accordance with the graduated scale of our policy over a potentially proposed payment against full and final settlement. ### 4/4

5 DEBT RECOVERY FORM Creditor Company name Name Mr Contact name Address Postal/Zip code City Telephone no. Bank account no.+ IBAN code Would you like to receive a log in code for online access to your cases? Mrs/Ms: Yes No Debtor Your reference Name Name Contact name Address Postal/Zip code City Country Telephone number Fax number VAT number Mr Mrs/Ms: Amount outstanding EUR USD other currency: Disputed Yes No Has previously been handed to Yes No another debt recovery intermediary Comments Total number of pages including this front cover Date: Signature: Fax: +31 (0) [email protected]