Sharing knowledge is important to Bierens and one of the ways of doing this is via the news letter. Recently, we also launched an international website where we will share our knowledge about international debt recovery. Via the website, you can find valuable information about the various judicial systems in Europe. In particular, you can find information about various rules and regulations relevant to credit management and the recovery of claims in various EU countries. A number of articles are already available to download and in future weeks we will expand the information further, continually updating and replenishing the website on a regular basis. If you want to keep up to date with the most important information about debt recovery in Europe, then be sure to frequently visit our website at: www.collectionsineurope.com.

Bierens is pleased to announce the arrival of Maria Stafyla, a qualified Greek Lawyer, and one of the latest additions to the International team in Amsterdam. Maria’s arrival signifies Bierens continued ambition to play a greater role in EU business to business debt collection. Maria joined Bierens in July and is based at our Amsterdam office.

Maria completed her main studies in Law in Komotini (Greece) and after completing the essential preparation for sitting the Bar Association exams, she moved to the Netherlands in order to further enrich her knowledge. Maria studied her master’s degree at the faculty of Law at the University of Amsterdam and, more specifically, Maria’s LLM degree focused on International and European Law with a further specialization in European Competition Law and Regulation. Since September 2011, Maria qualified as a Greek lawyer and a postgraduate student of the UvA.

Maria will be the first to tell you Greece is a country which has a rich, ancient history and a trading tradition that goes back thousands of years. Greek companies have always done business on the basis of mutual trust and respect. Undoubtedly, the current financial situation in Greece is precarious, but in order to put an end to this situation it is paramount that foreign companies continue trading with Greece and visa versa.

With the above in mind, Maria is perfectly placed to advise companies on how to protect your rights when doing business with Greek companies; how to agree contractual trading terms; how to maintain a positive relationship under difficult circumstances; and many other aspects. Although trading with Greece may require more caution and patience, Greek debtors will eventually appreciate your perseverance for obtaining payment, and by doing so, the two companies are working together to build a healthy trading relationship.

Naturally, handling debt collection cases under these harsh financial conditions is not the easiest task. But our aim at Bierens and Maria’s personal goal is to safeguard your rights when trading with Greek companies and to facilitate a safe environment for doing business in Greece. Being a native always makes a difference. Although Maria was born and raised in Greece, she currently lives in the Netherlands. She is aware of cultural differences between the two countries and can act accordingly. On the one hand, this enables her to maintain personal contact with you, and on the other hand, it allows her to apply the utmost pressure on your Greek business partner.

“If you have any questions about trading with Greek companies and protecting your company’s rights, then please do not hesitate to contact me at Bierens”: Maria Stafyla.

Over the last few years, China has rapidly developed into one of the largest trading partners in the world. Wherever you go, you will find products that were “made in China”.

Growing export
Although you may not consider it at first, it is not just China’s export market that has experienced explosive growth. As a result of major production, China imports large quantities of raw materials and equipment from all over the world. The Netherlands benefits in particular from the transit of goods from China, but also exports chemicals, machinery, materials, transport equipment, waste material and knowledge for the benefit of production in China. The export of goods and services from the Netherlands and other countries to China continues to increase year on year. Between 1999 and 2011, Germany saw its export to China increase tenfold and Belgium increased its export eightfold. On average, the value of European exports increased 6.5 times between 1999 and 2011. The largest exporters to China are Germany, Japan, South-Korea and the United States.

Therefore, China’s essential role in the world economy cannot be ignored. It will not come as a surprise that, as a result of this growth in trading, the number of claims on and by Chinese companies have also increased. Subsequently, there are a growing number of unpaid claims.

How does the collection process work in China?
Trade with China often involves large amounts of goods and, therefore, high claims. Debt collection in China has always been problematic and the demand for assistance in the collection of unpaid invoices has grown tremendously in recent years. This demand has contributed to Bierens’ decision to open a new office in China, so that we can be of better service to our clients regarding questions about doing business with China and collecting debts in China.

This mailing is a first step toward outlining the course of action in the event that your invoices remain unpaid.

Extrajudicial process
Claims on Chinese debtors can be submitted to Bierens for an initial extrajudicial process in the same way as you would submit any other claim. The process is as follows:

1. If you want to hand over the collection of your unpaid invoices, you should firstly provide us with all relevant information, documentation and correspondence. You can do so via email, fax or post, as well as through the debt recovery form on our website.

2. We carefully review each submitted claim. Should we require additional information, then we will contact you. The first demand letter is sent to your debtor as soon as possible.

3. During the extrajudicial phase, we will investigate your debtor further to determine the company’s legal identity. Who are the owners? Is the company connected to the government? We will obtain up to date credit information to find out more about your debtor’s creditworthiness and the chance that they will be able to comply with a possible judgment in the future.

4. Our next step is to determine whether or not your debtor is able and willing to repay your claim. This is a crucial phase of the extrajudicial process. In the event of high claims, the lawyer will visit your debtor in person. We maintain pressure on your debtor at all times. Payment of a claim in China is more a matter of honor than of respecting the contractual provisions. This explains why we perform extensive debtor background checks: we want to make the debtor feel that they are responsible to pay. You will also be updated on a regular basis, in order to keep you informed of developments regarding the collection and to provide you with the results of visits to your debtor. This might result in the arrangement of a settlement, but most cases are settled during the extrajudicial phase.

Judicial phase
5. In the event that legal proceedings are necessary, these will only be commenced upon receipt of your instructions. In China, the threat of commencing proceedings alone can be enough to achieve payment, as a lawsuit against one’s company can be perceived to harm a person’s honor. Therefore, it will come as no surprise that during this phase, in which the threat has been made, many cases are completed successfully as well.

6. The commencement of legal proceedings involves drafting a Statement of Claim, which shows the basis and the amount of the claim. This is then filed at the competent Court. Once the Court has acknowledged the matter, a Writ of Summons is sent to your debtor. This process takes approximately one week.

Roughly a month after submitting the claim to the Court, a first hearing will be planned. In general, you will not be required to attend the hearing in China. We will need to arrange a Power of Attorney so that our local colleagues are authorized to make decisions on your behalf. During the hearing, the Court will make one final attempt to amicably settle the matter. If the Court’s mediation during this hearing is successful, then the terms of settlement will be transposed into a judgment. If the parties cannot reach an agreement, the lawsuit will continue and several other hearings (in most cases) will be arranged, during which the parties can exchange evidence. Eventually, a judgment will be pronounced by the Court. Depending on the complexity of the case, this process can take anywhere between 6 and 9 months.

7. Once a judgment is obtained, it can be executed by, for example, seizing the debtor’s bank accounts, seizure of property or transfer of rights.

8. If the claim is in Chinese currency, we will need to obtain approval from the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) for the repatriation of funds to the foreign party. Our office will handle this as well.

9. After successfully concluding your case, we will close our file, and you will receive a written confirmation shortly thereafter. Naturally, we will also inform you in the event that the execution is unsuccessful.

As you can see, the procedures are similar to those in Europe. However, the course of events can be entirely different depending on the case. Thanks to our back office in Shanghai and our local partner attorneys, we can be of excellent service to you when it comes to doing business in China. Please feel free to contact us, if you would like to receive further information.

Overdue invoices are an unpleasant phenomenon that most companies will have to deal with at some point. But what if invoices remain unpaid for several years? Can such claims still be collected, or has the limitation period expired? This is a question that many companies would like to see answered. Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers explains.

Example
Imagine, you have delivered products to company X in the Netherlands on several occasions in 2007. On 1st June 2007 and 3rd December 2007 you have billed these products, with a 30 day payment term. Since then you have not received payment, nor have you taken steps yourself to ensure that you do get payment. Can these claims be recovered? The answer is: partly. The limitation period of the invoices in the Netherlands is 5 years. The law states that this period commences “after the commencement of the day following that on which the claim became due”. In other words: the limitation period of the invoice dated 1st June 2007 starts on 1st July 2007. Therefore, the limitation period expired on 2nd July 2012, unless this has been interrupted. The invoice dated 3rd December 2007 will expire on 3rd January 2013.

Interrupting the limitation period
It is, of course, a complete waste of money to let the limitation period expire. You can prevent this from happening by timely handing claims over to us for collection. If the limitation period is likely to expire, then we will ensure that this is interrupted and that a new period commences. In the Netherlands, there are several options to do so, such as sending a written demand letter and writ of summons to the debtor. You will have to prove that the debtor received such a letter. Which of these tools would be most effective, depends on the amount of the claim and the number of days that the claim is overdue. Furthermore, the limitation period could be more or less than 5 years, depending on what you have agreed with your client. For example, transport law often has a limitation period of just 9 months or a year and, therefore, taking action on time is even more important.

Rules abroad
Foreign countries can often use different limitation periods. Are you doing business across the border? Then keep a close eye on your foreign claims at all times. Not just because of the limitation periods, but also because the process of interrupting this period can be different in the country of your client. In the schedule below you can find an overview of limitation periods of invoices and judgments in various European countries, and you can see whether or not it is possible to interrupt the limitation period extrajudicially, or that this has to be done by commencing legal proceedings. Please note that the table does not cover our entire working field. If you have a specific question regarding (the interruption of) limitation periods in another country, or if we can be of service to you in order to collect your claim, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

* These are general limitation periods.
** These possibilities depend on what is agreed between the parties.

For more information, please contact our offices.

You might have noticed that recovering your claim in the south of Europe has recently become more and more difficult due to the financial crisis. Obtaining credit with the bank is now a lot more complicated, causing companies to hang on to their own funds for much longer. Especially foreign business partners draw the short end of the stick, as debtors might feel that there is a safe distance from your company. Fortunately for you, this is far from the truth.

At Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers, we continue to look for better ways to efficiently recover your claim, despite any difficult economic circumstances. In Spain, there is now a new possibility which enables us to apply more pressure on your debtor during the extrajudicial phase.

Registers for debtors in business to business trading have been available in Spain for a while now. These were created by financial institutions and telecom companies in order for them to exchange information about their debtors and improve their credit management policies. All this is within the rules of the law. In fact, these registers are already quite common and well known among debtors in Spain.

The register shows the number of unpaid claims, the total balance due by the debtor, and the date of the last unpaid claim.

To be able to register your claim, it has to meet a few criteria:

• A registered claim must be proven, existing, overdue and payable
• Invoices that are not yet overdue cannot be registered in the claim
• Invoices cannot be over 6 years old
• The debtor has to have been summoned to voluntarily pay the claim extrajudicially prior to the registration
• Debtors must receive a written warning (in the contract and/or demand letter) which states that the claim will be registered in the event of non payment
• The claim has to be at least 3 months old
• Privacy laws dictate that the debtor has to be notified of the registration within 30 days, so that they are enabled to exercise their rights

Registration has to be done very accurately and must be supported by evidence, as it is closely connected to Spanish legislation regarding both privacy and liability. The consequences of a wrongful registration can, therefore, be very serious.

Once the registration is completed, it is important that the register’s administrator is immediately notified of (partial) payments, so that the register continues to be up to date. This is legally obligated.

Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers now has an agreement with ASNEF which enables us to register your debtor on their list. The threat alone of such registration can be used as the ultimate leverage, because banks and other financial authorities consult these registers before providing credit. Your debtor knows this as well and knows, therefore, that a registration could seriously harm their future business.

Obviously, we will only register your debtor on the ASNEF list after obtaining your express and written permission. Furthermore, sufficient evidence in support of your claim must be available. If these conditions are met, then we are able to register your debtor on the ASNEF list, the largest and most well known register for debtors in Spain.

We expect, however, that in the majority of cases, simply threatening to add companies to the ASNEF register, will have the desired effect.

The costs of an ASNEF registration are low: we charge an amount of just €75.00 excluding VAT for each registration, and another €75.00 to remove your debtor from the register once you claim has been paid. If you would like to know more about the ASNEF registration, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Veghel/Antwerp, October 2012 – Recently, Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers opened an office in Antwerp. The new office will allow this law firm, with its unique international proposition and which, meanwhile, has two Dutch and five international offices, to serve its Belgian clientele even better. In addition to business-to-business debt recovery, this law firm provides legal assistance with procuring international trade and is, therefore, entirely at the right place in Antwerp.

60 years experience
Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers not only celebrates its sixtieth anniversary this year but also the opening of the new office in Antwerp. In addition to two offices in the Netherlands, this law firm also has branches in Germany, Spain, the United States, and China. Meanwhile, the office is fully active and is, for the time being, manned by account manager Thierry Liberman and Vivy Kamsteeg. Both are the contact persons for the Belgian relations. The team handles Belgian cases, as well as cases in other countries. What’s more, the team in Antwerp can rely on its international colleagues from ten different countries who are based in the Netherlands and at the other branch locations.

Reciprocity
The Belgian branch is a logical next step, according to Sander Bierens. It is a fact that the European economy is not doing well, and Belgium also struggles with an increasing number of liquidations. The Statistics Belgium website shows that the number of liquidations has increased compared to last year. The result of the economic slump is that the number of unpaid invoices increases. The firm noticed in the past that there is an increased demand for assistance with collecting Belgian invoices from foreign parties and vice versa. By also opening an office in Antwerp, it is only a small step for the Belgian entrepreneur to actually take action against the defaulting customer abroad. Furthermore, this new office also brings knowledge of the Belgian market closer, in order to assist companies across the border to collect their claims against Belgian companies. If this cannot be accomplished by extrajudicial means, then the lawyer will confer with the client and will exert every possible effort to collect by judicial means.
This way, the law firm, known for its firm approach when dealing with defaulters, hopes to contribute to an improvement of payment morale in Belgium and also to assist Belgian entrepreneurs with collecting claims against foreign debtors.

Practical and accessible
The office is located in a beautiful old section of Antwerp, at the Kleine Koraalberg. The appearance of the premises is typical for the neighbourhood and it boasts an extremely varied history. Visitors may park at any of the several parking facilities in the area, so the office is easily accessible. To attend a court hearing, the lawyer is only fifteen minutes away from the Court House of Antwerp.

In Antwerp, Bierens trades under the name Bierens Advocaten bvba and is based at Kleine Koraalberg 3, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium. For further information, please go to www.bierensgroup.com. You may also contact us at telephone number +31 413 38 09 80.

About Bierens
Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers is a leading law firm in the field of national and international B2B debt recovery and all related areas of law pertaining to conducting business internationally. Quality and obtaining a maximum result are considered of paramount importance by Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers. Bierens employs well over 100 members of staff, thirty of whom are (inter)national lawyers and paralegals. Bierens Debt Recovery Lawyers is active internationally and in addition to offices in Veghel and Amsterdam, it has offices in for instance Antwerp, Barcelona, Düsseldorf, New York, and Shanghai. Besides Dutch lawyers, Bierens employs German, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Greek, and Belgian lawyers and paralegals. Professionals, who have an excellent command of the debtors’ language and are perfectly familiar with the laws, rules and culture of the country concerned.