General Terms and Conditions (GTC) of Translation and Similar Services (Updated 29 December 2011):

§ 1. Initial Provisions

1. [Parties] Kancelaria Tłumacza Języka Angielskiego i Łacińskiego Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz (Translation Practice of Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz), entered into the register of business activity kept by the President (i.e. Mayor) of the Capital City of Warsaw, Poland, under the number 506420, headquartered: ul. Krasnobrodzka 21/70, 03-214 Warszawa, hereinafter referred to as "we" or by first person verbs, is a sole proprietorship created and operated under the laws of Poland. The 'Client' means the entity ordering a translation service from us and being party to our agreement (this does not include any further buyer or recipient, such as the end customer of a translation agency). The 'Parties' mean both of the parties taken collectively.

2. [Force and Application of These GTC] Unless otherwise agreed by the Parties, translation services are provided by us under these General Terms and Conditions. Placing an order without an explicit reservation entails accepting these GTC.

3. [Third Parties] In accepting an order, we do not become party of the Client's own contractual or other legal relationships with the Client's own clients or further purchasers or recipients. This means, without limitation, that we do not assume the Client's own duties to the Client's clients.

4. [Headers] The headers provided in these GTC are intended for convenience. They do not affect the substance of the Parties' obligations.

§ 2. Placing an Order

1. [Placing an Order] An order shall be deemed binding when the Parties have explicitly agreed that the order shall be carried out. Proposals made during negotiation by either single party shall not constitute an offer in the understanding of Article 66 of Polish Civil Code. Only a mutual confirmation makes a contract.

2. [Non-Standard or Additional Terms or Conditions] Any deviations from the standard Terms and Conditions, or any additional Terms and Conditions to be inserted, must be agreed before the confirmation of the order. This applies also to any reference material, as well as any specific requirements of style or vocabulary or similar, as well as any additional circumstances affecting the execution of the order, time required for it, technical issues etc. We shall not be under a duty to accept such terms or conditions (including materials) provided unilaterally by the Client after the confirmation of the order. Claims against us based on the foregoing are hereby excluded (e.g. connected with finding a different translator).

3. [Confirmation Based on Only a Sample of the Text] In the exceptional cases where we confirm the order without being able to review the whole text to be translated, the sample provided for our benefit should be representative of the whole text, which shall be the Client's responsibility. The validity of our confirmation depends on the absence of significant deviations from the sample and on the accuracy of the Client's statements (e.g. as to the number of pages of text, its legibility, correctness of language used).

4. [Price Per Word, Price Per Page] If we quote a per page price, this always refers to the standard page (customarily used in Poland), comprising 1800 characters, including spaces and any other characters in the document. The number of characters shall be decided by the statistics generated automatically by the text editor. In the case we quote a per word price due to using Trados, the number of words calculated automatically by Trados shall be binding.

§ 3. Receipt of the Order, Payment of the Price

1. [Time-Limit for Claims] Following the execution of the order and delivery of the product, the Client shall be entitled to a period of seven (7) days per each commenced sixty (60) pages for any review of our translation and for bringing claims. This is a time bar for any claims relating to the timeliness, technical, graphical, formal, organisational or accounting aspects of the order. This is also a time bar for any claims connected with the quality of the language of the target text, as well as any claims connected with any translative issues devoid of material significance.

2. [Heeding Client Feedback] We may heed certain comments or wishes received from our Client but we shall not be obliged to do so. The Client may modify the text however the Client sees fit but only at the Client's sole responsibility; our responsibility shall cease.

3. [Settlement, Invoice] Settlement is based on a simplified invoice (Polish: rachunek uproszczony) with a fourteen (14) day payment deadline, or at the end of the month in the case of a more permanent relationship. The date of settlement, as well as the date of sale shall be the end of either the review or the deadline for it as referred to in subparagraph 1, provided that we reserve the right to issue the invoice if the review is protracting or the objections we receive are groundless.

§ 4. Warranty, Guarantees, Statutory Warranty

1. [Scope of Guarantees] We guarantee (in the understanding of Polish law) the correctness of translation, as well as the high quality of the language, as well as compliance with the agreed deadline and any other arrangements made with the Client regarding the specific order provided that they are sufficiently clear and precise to allow objective verification. Any further reaching forms or warrany, guarantee, statutory warranty etc., as well as any other form of liability in contract, in tort or otherwise, is hereby excluded.

2. [Correctness] Correctness of translation and the quality of the language shall be understood in reference to objective relationships between the meanings of words in the respective languages, the laws of logic, as well as the rules of the respective language, taking account of the respective specialised field, the specialised language (e.g. where it follows rules different from those of the standard langauge), the specific context, and with allowance for differences in individual styles and reasonable interpretive differences. It is explicitly stipulated that the Client's own or any other person's (not excluding a proofreader) opinion shall not be deemed sufficient and obtaining the positive opinion of such a person shall not belong to the subject matter of the contract. [Note: This excludes what American and other common law refers to as the 'satisfaction' standard, the standard here is objective compliance with the contract.]

§ 5. Limitations and Exclusions of Liability

1. [Liability Cap] The aggregate amount of our liability in connection with a translation, regardless of the basis of such liability, shall be limited to the price of that translation or the appropriate proportional part of a price agreed for the translation of more than one document.

2. [Exclusion of Liability for the Shortcomings of the Source and for the Client's Own Decisions] We shall not be responsible or liable for any linguistic or translative deficiencies resulting from the shortcomings of the source (e.g. the author's violation of rules of language, or his peculiar manner of expression and such like). Translation does not include editing the text such as for example to upgrade its legibility or its aesthetic value to above what the source has. Neither does translation include substantive verification of e.g. historical dates or mathemetical calculations or accuracy of quotations from other works. Nor shall we be responsible or liable for the consequences of compliance with the Client's instructions or guidelines. The Client shall bear the sole responsibility and liability to third parties for the consequences of such decisions made by the Client (e.g. mandatory standardised vocabulary) and is advised to make any such decisions with conscious consideration of the responsibility borne for their possible results.

3. [Limitation of Liability for Deficiencies in Urgent Translations] Liability for deficiencies found in urgent ('express') translations (i.e. exceeding six standard pages or equivalent per full day of work, excluding the day on which the order is made and the day on which it will be collected, and each translation for immediate performance or to be returned on the day it is ordered) shall be reduced proportionally to the limited time and justified tiredness of the translator, resulting from having to translate large portions of text within a short time-frame, especially at night time or after many hours of work already done.

4. [Formatting and Office Activities] Translation does not include precisely copying the formatting of the source (e.g. with accuracy to half an inch or using the exact same font of line spacing etc.), provided that some CAT programs enables this kind of accuracy in their automated processes, and we shall use such programs where expressly agreed with the Client prior to the confirmation of the order. The possibility of returning the text to us to fix or improve the formatting or withholding our payment on such grounds shall be excluded.

5. [CAT Programs] We shall use the CAT program agreed with the Client (prior to the confirmation the order), if any, provided that we shall not be liable for the defects or failures of such a program, including those which prevent the use of that program on the file containing the text, e.g. (without limitation) due to the program's problems reading the file submitted by the Client. We shall not be liable for technical issues arising in such circumstances or for their consequences.

§ 6. Complaint Procedure

1. [Basis of Complaint] The basis of a complaint may only be a circumstance covered by the scope of warranty as given in § 4 supbaragraph 1 and not excluded under the provisions of § 4 or § 5. Complaints based on other bases shall not be processed and may not form the basis of claims.

2. [Suspicion of Error] Should a suspicion of error arise, the Client shall first address us to clarify the situation. We shall review the translation and fix any errors we find, if any. We warn our Clients against the consequences of amateur attempts at correction of professional translations or entrusting such correction to persons not having appropriate qualifications.

3. [Unprofessional Corrections] A professional Client, especially a translation agency, should use its best effort so that any corrections made or relied on have been produced by persons having appropriate qualifications. In the case of a translation agency, publishing house or similar body, we shall have the right to require that our Client, at the Client's own expense, should review the correction submitted to us and resubmit it with the approval of a person having appropriate qualifications.

4. [Frivolous or Subjective Corrections] Corrections which are frivolous and come down to rearranging the sentence order or replacing synonymous words basing on the proofreader's intuition, even if such a proofreader should be a renowned professional, shall be barred, especially considering that claims based on such grounds are excluded under § 4 and § 5 of these GTC.

§ 7. Cancellation or Termination, Suspension

1. [Termination, Cancellation, Withdrawal] The Client may terminate, cancel or withdraw from the order at any time and without providing any cause for doing so or incurring any fees, provided that the Client shall pay for the already translated part, which, of course, the Client may receive and keep and use.

2. [Suspension] The Client may, without providing any cause or incurring any fees, suspend the order at any time, provided that the deadline for the translation shall be extended appropriate in agreement with us and according to our availability, and provided that payment for any already translated parts shall not be delayed.

§ 8. Miscellaneous

1. [Polish Law and Courts] All of the relationships between our Client and us shall be governed by Polish law, excluding its conflict of law provisions referring to foreign law, and with express exclusion of any foreign law or customs. Exclusive jurisdiction and competence shall belong to Polish courts competent under the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, with the express exclusion of any foreign courts or other foreign authorities. Should this provision happen to be null or ineffective or unenforceable in an individual case, the Parties undertake not to bring any law suits, actions or motions or applications or anything of the sort before non-Polish courts or authorities under the pain of losing the claim pursued and incurring a duty to return any sum awarded by such a foreign court or other authority.

2. [Amicable and Efficient Conflict Resolution] The Parties shall strive to avoid disputes or controversies, especially in matters trivial or of relatively insignificant importance, and failing so, shall strive to solve such disputes or controversies amicably and as time- and cost-efficiently as possible.

3. [Language of Communication] The language of communication between the Parties may only be Polish or English, provided that the Parties shall avoid situations in which the person communication should not have a sufficient command of the language used or be replaced by a person with less command of the language than the previous one, or situations of native speakers of Polish communication in foreign languages where not necessary. We shall have the right to require that our Client appoint a person with sufficient command of the relevant language.

4. [Business Days] We are not available for business on Sundays (all) and the following days of the year: 1 January, 6 January, Corpus Christi (movable holiday), 15 August, 1 November, 11 November, 24 December, 25 December, 26 December, 31 December (except for the mornings of 24 and 31 December). We will be grateful if you could please place phone calls on the closest business day instead of these days, and if you could please take account of night time in the Polish time zone (GMT+1).

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We have strived to make these GTC clear and understandable. Should any doubt still arise as to their meaning, please do not hesitate to contact us for explanation. Thank you.