⚖ Advoca
Advoca › Terms and conditions

Terms and conditions

Draft: machine translation, not yet reviewed by a lawyer. The Dutch and French texts are binding.

Version 2026-10-18 — English translation provided for convenience; the Dutch version is binding. See also our privacy policy and cookie policy.

These terms of use (the "Terms") govern access to and use of Advoca, the online practice-management software for law firms (matter management, time recording, invoicing, debt collection and document management with OCR) (the "Service"), offered by [COMPANY NAME], company number [COMPANY NUMBER], Ottergemstraat 58, 9570 Lierde, Belgium, e-mail info@advoca.be ("Advoca", "we"). The Service is intended exclusively for professional use by lawyers, law firms and their staff (the "Customer", "you").

1. Acceptance and formation

By creating an account, accepting these Terms or using the Service, the Customer enters into an agreement with Advoca under these Terms. The person creating the account represents that they are authorised to bind the firm. Each version of these Terms is identified by a version number; on acceptance we record the version number, the language and the checksum (SHA-256) of the text you read.

2. Description of the Service

Advoca is a software-as-a-service application with which a firm manages cases, parties, deadlines, time entries, invoices, collection files and documents. Uploaded documents are automatically text-recognised (OCR) to make them searchable. Each firm works in its own environment, isolated at database level. Advoca provides no legal, tax or accounting advice; the Customer remains solely responsible for the content of its cases, invoices and deadline calculations.

3. Free trial

New firms receive a free 30-day trial. No payment card is required to start the trial. After the trial ends, access is restricted until the Customer takes out a subscription. These Terms apply in full during the trial.

4. Subscription and prices

The Service is offered as a monthly subscription, per user per month, excluding VAT:

The features of each plan are described on the pricing page of advoca.be at the time of ordering. Prices may be changed with at least 30 days' notice before the next billing period; a price increase entitles the Customer to cancel before its effective date. Invoices are payable within 15 days of the invoice date. In case of non-payment Advoca may, after a reminder, suspend access until payment is received; unpaid amounts bear interest by operation of law in accordance with the Belgian Act of 2 August 2002 on combating late payment in commercial transactions.

5. Term and cancellation

The subscription runs month to month and renews automatically. The Customer may cancel at any time via the account settings or by e-mail to info@advoca.be; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current monthly billing period. Monthly fees already paid are not refunded. Advoca may terminate the agreement with three months' notice, and with immediate effect in case of a serious or repeated breach of these Terms.

6. User accounts and acceptable use

Each user has a personal login that may not be shared. The Customer is responsible for all actions performed through its users' accounts, keeps its user list up to date and reports any suspected unauthorised access immediately. The Customer uses the Service only for lawful purposes and in accordance with the rules of the bar. Reverse engineering the Service, circumventing its security, automated bulk extraction of data, or making the Service available to third parties outside the firm is not permitted.

Accounts whose registration was never completed (e.g. e-mail address not confirmed or no firm created) are automatically deleted, together with their associated data, 30 days after creation.

7. Availability and maintenance

Advoca aims for high availability of the Service but provides it on a best-effort basis without a guaranteed uptime percentage. Scheduled maintenance is, where possible, carried out outside office hours and announced in advance. Advoca may temporarily interrupt the Service where necessary for the security or integrity of the data.

8. Customer data and confidentiality

All data the Customer enters or uploads into the Service (cases, client data, documents, time entries, invoices) remains the property of the Customer. Advoca acknowledges that this data is covered by the lawyer's professional secrecy (Article 458 of the Belgian Criminal Code) and treats it as strictly confidential. Advoca does not access the content of cases or documents except (i) at the Customer's express request in the context of support, (ii) to the extent strictly necessary to provide or secure the Service, or (iii) where required by law, in which case Advoca notifies the Customer in advance to the extent permitted. Processing of personal data on behalf of the Customer is governed by the data processing agreement in the annex, which forms an integral part of these Terms.

9. Export and deletion on termination

The Customer may export its data at any time using the Service's export functions (including documents, invoices in UBL format and structured case data). After termination the export remains available for 30 days; on request Advoca provides within that period a complete export in a common, machine-readable format. After that period the Customer's data is deleted from the production systems and, once the backup cycle has elapsed, from the backups, subject to statutory retention obligations (e.g. Advoca's invoices to the Customer).

10. Intellectual property

The Service, the software, the source code, the designs and the trademarks of Advoca remain Advoca's exclusive property. The Customer receives, for the term of the agreement, a limited, non-exclusive and non-transferable right of use. Advoca acquires no rights in the Customer's data.

11. Liability

Advoca is liable only for direct damage resulting from a breach attributable to it. Advoca's total liability per calendar year, on any ground, is limited to the total fees paid by the Customer for the Service in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the damage. Advoca is not liable for indirect damage such as lost profit, loss of clientele, reputational damage, or the consequences of missed deadlines or limitation periods; monitoring deadlines remains the lawyer's responsibility. These limitations do not apply in case of fraud, wilful misconduct, or where the law prohibits limitation.

12. Changes

Advoca may amend these Terms. Amendments are announced at least 30 days before they take effect, by e-mail or within the Service, with a new version number. If the Customer does not accept the amended Terms, it may cancel before the effective date. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

13. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by Belgian law. Disputes are first discussed in good faith between the parties. Failing a solution, the courts of the judicial district of East Flanders, Oudenaarde division, have exclusive jurisdiction.

14. Contact

[COMPANY NAME] — Ottergemstraat 58, 9570 Lierde, Belgium — company number [COMPANY NUMBER] — info@advoca.be.

Annex — Data Processing Agreement (Art. 28 GDPR)

This annex constitutes the data processing agreement between the Customer (controller) and Advoca (processor) within the meaning of Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR). For the data of the Customer's own account holders and users (name, e-mail, login, billing details of the firm), Advoca acts as controller; this is described in the privacy policy on advoca.be.

A.1 Subject matter, duration, nature and purpose

A.2 Categories of data subjects and data

Data subjects: the Customer's clients, opposing parties, third parties in cases (witnesses, experts, judges, fellow lawyers), contact persons and staff of the Customer.

Data:

A.3 Obligations of Advoca

Advoca (i) processes the data only on documented instructions from the Customer, including these Terms and the use of the Service; (ii) ensures that persons with access to the data are bound by confidentiality; (iii) implements the security measures of A.5; (iv) assists the Customer, insofar as possible, in responding to data-subject requests and in meeting the obligations of Articles 32–36 GDPR; (v) deletes or returns the data at the end of the Service in accordance with A.8; (vi) makes available all information necessary to demonstrate compliance and informs the Customer immediately if, in Advoca's opinion, an instruction infringes the GDPR.

A.4 Sub-processors

The Customer gives general authorisation for the use of the following sub-processors:

All processing of case data takes place within the European Union. Advoca informs the Customer at least 30 days in advance of any intended addition or replacement of a sub-processor; the Customer may object within that period on reasonable grounds and, if no solution is found, terminate the agreement free of charge. Advoca imposes equivalent obligations on its sub-processors and remains liable to the Customer for their performance.

A.5 Security measures

A.6 Breach notification

Advoca notifies any personal data breach affecting the Customer's data without undue delay and at the latest within 48 hours after becoming aware of it, to the e-mail address of the Customer's account administrator, with the available information on the nature of the breach, the data concerned, the likely consequences and the measures taken. Advoca supplements that information as it becomes available.

A.7 Audits

Advoca makes the documentation of its security measures available on request. The Customer may, at most once a year or following a breach, have an audit carried out by itself or by an independent auditor accepted by both parties and bound by confidentiality, with 30 days' prior notice, during office hours and without disrupting the service to other firms. The costs of the audit are borne by the Customer unless a material breach is found.

A.8 Deletion at the end

At the end of the Service, Advoca returns the data via the export of Article 9 and then deletes all Customer data, including copies, from the production systems; backups expire according to the retention cycle of at most 90 days and are not restored except in case of an incident, in which event the terminated Customer's data is deleted again. On request Advoca confirms the deletion in writing. Data Advoca is legally required to retain is deleted once that obligation ends.