Starting as a lawyer
Your step-by-step plan
Before you become a trainee lawyer
Before you become a trainee lawyer
The first stop as a trainee lawyer? This is the office of the Court of Appeal of your jurisdiction. You must submit your original degree, an original copy of your internship agreement and a certificate of your nationality .
You then register online at a bar of your choice and only then do you take the oath. The oaths at the bars are usually taken on one fixed day at the beginning of the month.
Caution! After taking the oath, you are not yet a lawyer. Only after inclusion in the list of trainees by the Bar Council may you call yourself a lawyer, wear the gown and perform the duties of a lawyer.
During your three-year apprenticeship, you will undertake additional vocational training. Plus you have to provide a number of hours of free legal representation (pro bono). Will you pass the vocational training? Then you will receive a 'certificate of competence to practise the profession of lawyer', in short B.U.B.A. certificate.
After your internship and the successful obtaining of the B.U.B.A. certification, you can continue your registration at your desk. As soon as they approve your application, your internship is officially completed. Now your career as a lawyer can really begin.
Your obligations
Your obligations as a trainee lawyer or self-employed person
As a trainee lawyer you work under the same statute as an independent lawyer. You are performing an independent profession and must take care of the same obligations.
First of all, you need a company number . To do this, you need to register in the CBC register of the Crossroads Bank for Companies. As a trainee lawyer or an independent lawyer you are liable to pay VAT. You must activate this number separately. Finally, you are legally obliged to join a recognised social insurance fund such as Acerta. You can arrange all of this yourself, or have it taken care of by Acerta's enterprise office. In addition, we will activate your VAT number for you free of charge.
What does a social insurance fund do?
Based on your status and income , your social insurance fund will calculate how much social security contributions you have to pay to the government every quarter through them. In exchange for your contribution, your social security such as health insurance, pension accrual and child benefit rights are guaranteed. Good to know: at Acerta you pay the lowest administrative cost on the market! This way you save a lot of money over your entire career.
Your personal rainy day fund
Your personal rainy day fund
Your pension? As a trainee lawyer, that's probably a long way off. And yet: after a career as a lawyer, you probably want to maintain the same standard of living in your old age.
With a (Social) VSPSS (Voluntary Supplementary Pension Scheme for the Self-Employed) you will save for later, and you benefit today because your social contributions will become less. Double win!
In addition, guaranteed income insurance is not a superfluous luxury. Are you unable to work for a longer period of time due to illness or an accident ? Thanks to this insurance you will receive an extra monthly paymentin addition to the payment from the health insurance fund. You can surely use these to keep paying all your ongoing expenses.
Don't delay your professional liability insurance with civil liability either. Maybe you think that as a lawyer you don't need this, but a professional error with damage to third parties can be very expensive without this insurance.