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Monday to Friday

Email Us:

enquiries@legrangeinc.co.za

Call Us:

012 003 2908

your business and trademark Attorneys

Understanding a Commercial Loan Agreement: A Guide for Business Owners

A business entity ties into a legally enforceable document with a financial institution to obtain funds for commercial operations. The financial contract defines all terms that establish the borrowing conditions for business funding. Business operations require commercial agreements in South Africa, as businesses need them to obtain finance and increase ventures while maintaining their cash […]

Why Trademark Registration is Essential for Business Owners

Why Trademark Registration is Essential for Business Owners Maintaining your business brand is crucial in today’s competitive corporate landscape. Trademark registration is one of the best strategies to keep the integrity of your company. Preserving the distinctiveness of your business, a registered trademark grants the exclusive right to use a given name, logo, or phrase. […]

We take data privacy seriously at Le Grange & Associates Attorneys (“LGAI”). We acknowledge and understand the value placed on us by providing us with your personal data. We are committed to protecting and safeguarding the personal data we collect from visitors.

Before we start, by supplying your personal data to us (whether via one of our websites, by email, in person or over the phone), you agree to the processing thereof as set out in this Privacy Notice. In addition, further notices highlighting specific uses we wish to make of your personal data and the ability to opt-in or out of selected uses may also be provided to you when we collect personal data.

Please note: This Privacy Notice does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, any third-party websites which may be accessible through links from this website. If you follow a link to any of these third-party websites, they will have their privacy policies, and you will need to check these policies before you submit any personal data to such third-party websites.

This Privacy Notice aims to help you understand our personal data collection, usage and disclosure practices by explaining the following:

WHAT PERSONAL DATA DO WE COLLECT:

Personal details (Full name and surname etc.)

Contact data (cell phone number and email address etc.)

Financial data (payment information and bank account details etc.)

Demographic data (address etc.)

Website usage data (details of visits to our website etc.)

Background verification data (IDs, Passports etc.)

HOW WE OBTAIN YOUR PERSONAL DATA:

Provided by you directly to us, be that by way of email, website forms or direct interactions; and

Credit Bureaus;

During litigation proceedings; and

Sources available to the public;

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA:

We will only use your personal data insofar as the law permits us to do.

We require your personal data to provide legal services to you;

We require your personal data for FICA purposes, the protection of a party’s legitimate interests and legislation.

To provide you with information regarding our current and new services offered;

To schedule appointments with us, be they in-office or online;

To collect outstanding monies due to us;

WITH WHOM WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA:

Legal Counsel;

Our insurance company;

Our IT company;

The Legal Practice Counsel;

The Financial Intelligence Centre;

The financial institutions where we bank and invest;

Third-party advisors appointed whilst providing legal services;

Where necessary, your personal data might be shared with third parties in countries that subscribe to similar data protection laws. Where your personal data is shared with third parties who do not subscribe to similar data protection laws, we will enter into an agreement with such entity in terms whereof such entity will be liable to the protection of the Client’s Personal Information;

FOR HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR PERSONAL DATA:

LGAI will retain your personal data for as long as it should be necessary to fulfil the purpose for which the data was collected.

LGAI will not use your personal data once the purpose for which it was collected has expired.

THE PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA:

Although we implement security protocols to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee that our systems will not be intruded on or hacked.

We protect your personal data with Microsoft-accredited software, which continuously scans for, amongst other things, malware and cyber threats.

WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS:

Upon your request, we will:

Provide you with a copy of your information in our possession;

Update inaccuracies in your information;

To withdraw the consent if the processing thereof is based on consent;

Request that we restrict how we use your personal data;

Request that we refrain from using your information for marketing purposes;

We will delete your personal data when we no longer have lawful grounds for processing it.

THE USE OF COOKIES:

When you visit our website, we use cookies to improve our website to enhance our services to our clients; our Cookie Policy is available on our website at www.legrangeinc.co.za.

CONTACT PERSON AT LGAI:

If you have any questions or complaints, please contact:

Information Officer

Jaco Le Grange

Email: enquiries@legrangeinc.co.za

These Terms of Use (“ToU”) will apply to the relationship between you and us, in general, during our engagement by you and each specific matter. Accordingly, we may vary these ToU from time to time and will notify you in writing when we do so.

GENERAL TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT

Scope of Engagement. You and we will agree on the scope of our engagement for each matter when necessary.

Our advice to you. The engagement only creates rights and obligations between you and us. No other person may rely on the advice we give you, is intended to be protected by our advice or other Services and other obligations, or may enforce any term of your engagement with us through any applicable law.

Taking instructions and duty of care. We will treat only you as our Client for professional purposes. However, you agree that we may take instructions from you and any other person we reasonably believe you have authorised to instruct us. Our duty of care is only to you as our Client. Unless we agree otherwise in writing, it does not extend to your holding company, subsidiaries, affiliated companies or other third parties.

Time frames. We will take reasonable steps to complete our mandate and give you any deliverables in the timeframes agreed with you or as soon as is reasonably possible in the circumstances.

Updating advice. We will give you advice based on our understanding of the relevant statutes, case law and practice at the time we provide the advice. Subsequent changes in law and practice may affect the advice, but we are not obliged to update advice in line with these changes unless we have expressly agreed with you to do so in writing.

FEES & CHARGES

Fee. We will agree to our fees for any matter with you at the appropriate time.

Fee estimate. Any fee estimate we give you for a matter is based on our knowledge of the matter and our assessment when we estimate the amount of work needed to fulfil our instructions. If any of those assumptions, or our assessment, proves incorrect or you alter our instructions, the estimate may not be accurate. Therefore, an estimate is not definitive nor an upper limit for our fees.

Reimbursements. You must reimburse us for costs and charges for printing and copying (or similar services) and of counsel, experts and accountants (or similar service providers) we undertake or engage on your behalf and disbursements (third-party expenses, such as external search fees) and business travel (or similar) expenses which we incur.

Travel time. Our fees may include time spent travelling, on your instructions, for the matter.

VAT. Where we are required to charge VAT, we will charge VAT in addition to any of the above amounts. Any specific arrangement in an engagement letter or similar document about the applicable VAT rate (zero rates or the standard rate); is expressly incorporated into these ToU.

BILLING AND PAYMENT TERMS

Billing. We will bill at times arranged with you or otherwise at appropriate intervals.

Payment and interest. You must settle your account within 14 days. We may charge interest on amounts outstanding up to the legally allowed rate or exercise a lien over any documents or monies we possess regarding bills not paid within that time.

Withholding or similar tax. You must pay all sums free of any withholding tax or other relevant deduction (a ‘Withholding’) except as required by law. If the law requires a Withholding, you must pay us such an amount as will leave us with the same amount we would have received in the absence of a requirement to make a Withholding.

Ending the engagement for a matter. If you inform us that you have decided not to proceed with the matter (at all or for the foreseeable future), we may submit our bill to you for all work undertaken.

YOUR MONEY

Funds held on your behalf. If we hold your funds on deposit, or if we have collected or received funds on your behalf, we will apply them to settle any outstanding accounts you owe us.

Funds held in our trust account. You will not earn any interest on funds in our trust account because we must pay any interest to the Legal Practitioners’ Fidelity Fund established under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (‘Fidelity Fund’).

Section 86(4) investment. If you specifically request us to invest funds that we hold on your behalf for a matter, you must complete our standard investment mandate. We will then invest those funds in an interest-bearing call account. You will then benefit from the interest earned after deducting such percentage of the interest as accrues to the Fidelity Fund in terms of section 86(5)(b) of the Legal Practice Act (currently 5%). The Fidelity Fund will not cover these funds invested in terms of section 86(4) if the payment is not made to invest such money on a temporary or interim basis only pending the conclusion or implementation of a matter or transaction which already exists or is about to start at the time the investment is made; and we do not exercise exclusive control over the account as trustee, agent, stakeholder or in any other fiduciary capacity.

Liability. As far as the law allows, we will not be liable for any loss you may suffer arising from any act or omission of the banking institution concerned regarding any account; any inability, delay or failure of the banking institution to repay the funds on demand; the identity or choice of banking institution; or any interest or exchange rate fluctuation.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL RESOURCES

Appropriate resources. We will involve our employees (including partners) and other third parties working for or with us whom we consider suitable for our engagement with you. Our policy is to involve persons of an appropriate level of seniority to perform your mandate regarding the nature of the work.

External resources. Sometimes we must instruct advisers on your behalf (for example, local counsel in another jurisdiction). We do not accept liability for these advisers’ or service providers’ acts, errors, omissions, or fees.

INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATION

Relevant and accurate information. We will perform our mandate based on the information you give us, and you agree to ensure that we receive all the information that may affect our mandate, including any information about a change in circumstances that may influence the position; we are not obliged to determine if the information you give us is accurate or complete; and unless you ask us, and we agree in writing, we will not perform any audit, due diligence or other procedure to verify the information we receive.

Draft documents. We may send you drafts of documents we produce, such as letters of advice or reports, for your review while working on a matter. However, you cannot rely on a draft until we finalise its contents and confirm this in writing.

Conflict between finalised documents. Multiple copies and versions of finalised documents may exist in different media. If there is any discrepancy, the signed hard copy version will prevail.

CONFLICTS OF INTERESTS

Conflict of interest procedures. We have procedures designed to prevent us from acting for one Client in a matter where there is, or there is a significant risk of, a conflict of interests with another client (‘Conflict’). If you are aware of a possible Conflict, please inform the director responsible immediately.

Unrelated matters. We are a full-service law firm representing many clients, nationally and internationally, over a wide range of industries and businesses and in various matters. For this reason, we may represent other Clients whose interests may differ from yours or any of your affiliates on matters not substantially related to your matters (an ‘Unrelated matter’).

No disqualification. If we represent you or any of your affiliates, this does not disqualify us from representing other Clients in any Unrelated matter. Us acting in Unrelated matters does not breach any duty we owe you or your affiliates if we abide by the applicable laws.

Decision to act. If a Conflict arises, we may decide to act for you, the Other Client, or both or neither. We will decide this based on applicable laws, best practices and your and the Other Client’s interests and wishes.

Your affiliates. You agree that each of your group companies (whether parent, subsidiary, affiliate or holding company) shall be considered a separate entity for Conflicts purposes. Accordingly, our duties related to Conflicts only extend to the group companies we agreed to represent.

Acting for multiple clients. In some instances, we may have more than one Client actually or potentially interested in the same subject matter or transaction or competing for the same asset. In such cases, we can act for more than one Client per the relevant laws.

Fulfilling different roles. If the matter does not proceed, we will protect your Confidential Information, but we may take on other roles concerning the matter under the relevant rules of confidentiality.

COMMUNICATIONS

Communicating with you. Unless you specify otherwise, we may communicate directly with your employees or other advisers as appropriate and who we reasonably believe are involved in the matter and can assist us with providing the Services to you.

Email communication. We will communicate with you and your advisers about the matter (including Confidential Information) by email unless you instruct us otherwise.

Follow up. Email communications are not secure or error-free. We use filtering software to reduce spam and harmful viruses entering our systems. As there is a risk of filtering out legitimate correspondence, you should not assume we receive every email. Please follow up on important communications by phone, post or fax.

Liability for viruses. We are not liable if our filtering software or other virus or electronic protection does not function and your systems are infected by any email or other form of delivery of information (such as CD, DVD, memory stick or via the internet) from us.

Monitoring. As far as the law allows, you agree that we may monitor electronic communications to ensure compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations and internal policies.

PROPORTIONALITY

Proportionate liability. If we are liable to you for any loss (including interest and costs) in respect of any breach by us of our engagement or mandate, and another person or entity is also liable to you for the same loss, any compensation we have to pay you will be reduced in proportion to the responsibility of the other person for the same loss.

Extent of responsibility. In determining the existence and extent of the responsibility of the other person or entity for the loss, no account will be taken of any agreement limiting the number of damages that person or entity is liable for or any actual or potential shortfall in recovery of this amount (whether this is due to settling or limiting claims, or any other reason).

LIMITS TO OUR LIABILITY

Limits to our liability. As far as the law allows, our aggregate (total) liability (of any nature) to you or any third party will not exceed the proceeds of any professional indemnity cover we receive or that our insurers pay you. However, suppose there is no professional indemnity cover or no proceeds from such professional indemnity cover are received by us or paid to you. In that case, our aggregate liability will be limited to three times the amount of our fees on the relevant matter.

Liability of our individual employees. The aggregate liability (of any nature) to you or any third party (as set out above) also applies to the liability of our individual partners, directors, employees, consultants, agents or other persons acting for or controlled by us or for whom we are legally responsible.

Application as far as the law allows. Nothing in these ToU excludes or restricts any liability to the extent that it may not be excluded or restricted by applicable law, regulation or rules.

No individual liability. You agree that regarding the Services we provide you, your only contractual relationship related to any matter or Service is with us (not our directors, employees, consultants or agents); as far as the law allows, no individual who is a director, employee or agent of, or consultant to us accepts or assumes responsibility to you or to anyone else for Services we provided to you. This applies even if you granted them a direct power of attorney (for example, to represent you in litigation); you will not bring any claim in connection with the Services we provide you whether based on contract, delict (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise directly, against any of our directors or any of our employees, agents or consultants; and this will not limit or exclude our liability for the acts or omissions of directors, employees, agents or consultants.

INDEMNITY

As far as the law allows, you indemnify us against any claim made against us by any of your subsidiaries, associates, affiliates or shareholders who may not have signed an engagement letter on these ToU or substantially similar ToU and for whom we perform a mandate; or any third party to whom you disclose our advice unless we provide our written agreement for that third party to be able to rely on our advice to you.

CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT

Suppose these ToU or any goods or services provided under these ToU are regulated by the Consumer Protection Act. In that case, all the provisions in these ToU must be treated as qualified, to the extent necessary, to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act.

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND SANCTIONS

Legal requirements. Various laws and regulations on anti-money laundering and terrorism apply to us. When we ask you to give us relevant information to perform know your Client (KYC) or customer due diligence (CDD) checks (for example, verification of identity or evidence of source of funds), you must give us this information promptly.

Reporting. We may have to report any suspicious activity to the relevant authorities and obtain their consent before continuing to act. They may also prohibit us from informing you that we have made such a report.

Sanctions. We are also subject to various sanctions regimes specific to certain jurisdictions, entities or individuals. These sanctions may be arms embargoes, other trade restrictions or financial restrictions. You must notify us as soon as possible if you become aware that a matter may lead to a breach of any sanction.

Cessation of matter or termination. Where we believe that our work on the matter may involve a breach of anti-money laundering or terrorism law or regulation or any applicable sanction, we may cease working on the matter immediately and terminate our mandate.

No liability. We will not be liable to you for any loss, damage, or delay you may suffer as a result of our ceasing to act on your behalf; or fulfilling our statutory obligations (or in acting as we may reasonably believe we are required to do so), so long as we have acted in good faith.

DATA PROTECTION AND MARKETING

Data subjects. In providing Services, we may process personal information about you, your owners, officers or employees, sub-contractors, consultants, or other similar parties (each a ‘Data Subject’).

Processing personal information. Processing may include transferring information to our offices, third parties who process information for us, and law enforcement agencies. We agree to comply with all relevant data protection laws and regulations in processing personal information. We agree to ensure that third parties who process personal information for us treat personal information as confidential, implement appropriate measures to ensure the protection of personal information and that they agree to comply with all relevant data protection laws and regulations.

Contacting Data Subjects. Where we are permitted, we may contact a Data Subject (including by email) with marketing communications which we believe may be of interest, on our own or in conjunction with another firm with which we have entered into a joint venture, alliance or collaboration arrangement.

Ceasing communication. Any Data Subject who does not wish to receive marketing information can immediately request that such communications cease by emailing us at dataprotection@webberwentzel.com. Marketing communications will not be sent to a Data Subject who has asked not to receive marketing communication.

Consent. When you give personal information to us about any Data Subject to process for purposes of a matter, you confirm that you have obtained the necessary consent from the Data Subject to share such information and for us to process, including personal transfer information. On certain occasions, in providing Services to you, you may provide us with personal information of parties such as your clients or customers as necessary for purposes of the Services, in such situations, you confirm that you have obtained their consent or have the authority to share their information with us and for us to process the information. You undertake to comply with all relevant data protection laws and regulations.

Disclosures. You agree that we may disclose that we are acting for you in our marketing and similar materials and, if in the public domain, the matter we have acted on or are acting on for you. However, suppose the matter is not in the public domain. In that case, we may only disclose the matter for marketing purposes in generic form (and without reference to you) unless otherwise agreed between you and us.

TERMINATION

Termination by you. You instruct us separately about each matter. You do not engage us permanently, but you may terminate our engagement in any, some or all matters at any time.

Termination by us. We will stop acting on a matter only with good reason per the relevant rules. We may do this, for example, if you do not pay an interim bill, you become insolvent, a Conflict arises, or our continuing to work on the matter may harm our reputation.

Automatic termination. Unless terminated earlier, our engagement on each matter will terminate 30 days after the dispatch of our final bill. As far as the law and relevant rules allow, we will consider that the matter has not proceeded, and our engagement will be terminated once you inform us that the matter will no longer proceed; our engagement is otherwise terminated under these ToU, or we have had no instructions from you concerning the matter for 60 days.

In each case, you remain responsible for our fees and expenses for work done until termination.

DOCUMENT RETENTION

Destroying documents. We may destroy our paper and (where possible) electronic files in line with our relevant policies on this seven years or more after sending you our final bill.

Retrieving documents. Suppose you or your other advisers request us to retrieve any documents from storage. In that case, you will pay our reasonable costs, including time spent reading such documents, writing letters or other work which we, acting reasonably, deem necessary to comply with such a request.

COPYRIGHT

We retain the copyright and all other relevant intellectual property rights in our work product. Accordingly, you will have a licence to use and make copies of the documents we prepare for the matter but not (unless otherwise agreed) for other matters.

QUERIES AND DISPUTES

Queries and disputes. Suppose you are dissatisfied with any element of our Service (including our charges). In that case, you should contact the director responsible for the matter, the head of the relevant department or our managing director. They will be happy to discuss the matter with you.

Negotiation and arbitration. As far as the law allows, if we cannot resolve any dispute related to a matter with you by negotiation, we may refer the dispute to arbitration to be finally resolved under the Commercial Rules of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa by an arbitrator appointed by the Foundation. The arbitration will be conducted in English in Pretoria.

Jurisdiction of the Courts. Any dispute (including a dispute relating to any non-contractual obligation) will, subject to the arbitration procedure, be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Pretoria).

GENERAL TERMS

Conflict. If there is any inconsistency between these ToU and any other ToU and conditions agreed between you and us, in writing, the written ToU between you and us will prevail. If there is a conflict between these ToU and the investment mandate you sign with us, the investment mandate will prevail.

Severability. If any provision of these ToU is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the remainder shall survive unaffected.

Governing law. South African law will govern these ToU.

Definitions in the ToU, the following words will bear the meanings given to them here:

‘you’ or ‘Client’ means the party who enters into an engagement with us for a matter and to whom we provide the Services and such other persons as you and we agree shall be treated as a Client for the matter; and

‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’ means Le Grange and Associates Incorporated, duly incorporated in terms of the law of the Republic of South Africa, with registration number 2022/866960/21 with our place of business at Pegasus Building 1, 210 Amarand Avenue, Menlyn Maine, Pretoria, Gauteng.

General words are not limited. Where we use general words to describe specific things that belong together, the general words can also mean other things.

Category: Uncategorized

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