Litigation

Litigious Services

• Special Pledge (Lien) Registrations
• Real Estate – Ownership Due Diligence
• Corporate Encumbrances Due Diligence
• Qualified E-Sign Validity Checks
• European Execution Order Handling

IP Disputes

The world economy follows suit, and the pandemic effect is set to further strengthen this trend. At the heart of the technology sector’s success is intellectual property and its protection becomes more important than almost any other litigation in the 21st century. Since the fastest moving industry sector in Bulgaria is again technology, and Bulgarian economy is an open type, these global trends affect us you too. We are witnessing a mentality shift in leaders and entrepreneurs on the local market where their drive to protect the IP crown jewels is stronger than ever.
IP law (except for trademarks, and, to a certain extent, patents) remains predominantly local and national expertise in the context of EU law is vital to an effective protection strategy. Our expertise in IP and IP related disputes runs deep and contextual and we are fully equipped to support your defence strategy or prelitigation research and negotiation efforts. Among others, we cover the following areas:

• Trademark Infringement
• Bad Faith Misuse of Trademarks
• Copyright Misuse (e.g. in source code or architectural plans related disputes)
• Cybersquatting / Domain Name litigation
• Trademark Opposition Claims Handling
• IP validity and Ownership Disputes
• Open Source Infringement / Borderline Disputes
• Unfair competition, Predatory Pricing and Abuse of Dominant Position claims

Construction-Related Disputes

Sound, clear, and reasonable construction agreement is the best way to avoid litigation. Our experienced lawyers will help you from the negotiations to the execution of the construction agreement.

However, if a dispute arises despite all efforts to avoid it, we are ready to represent you in achieving out-of-court settlement, initiate or defend yourself in an arbitration trial or before the state court.
We work closely with engineers and construction supervision experts and architects as a team aiming to provide the best possible result for the client.

 Judicial Review

Our litigation team has a strong focus in administrative redress claims and judicial review against government decisions e.g. the contested Ц-33 decision in the energy sector attempting to overhaul the policy decisions and the feed-in tariff introduced in the Energy Law for clean energy producers in Bulgaria. The state tried to reduce the incentives it had created to attract FDI in green energy.

Our litigation team has a strong focus in administrative redress claims and judicial review against government decisions e.g. the contested Ц-33 decision in the energy sector attempting to overhaul the policy decisions and the feed-in tariff introduced in the Energy Law for clean energy producers in Bulgaria.

The state tried to reduce the incentives it had created to attract FDI in green energy. Our litigation lawyers successfully represented large international investors to overturn the illegal administrative act and earn a large compensation for the client.

Lately, we are involved in a large collective claim against the state to address recent massive data protection breaches and tackle the administration’s illegal omission to install adequate protection and react in accordance with GDPR to the breach.

 Data Breaches

Every information security expert will tell you – there is no such thing as a 100% vet against security breaches. Still, all DPOs and business owners hope that it will not happen to them.

Still, all DPOs and business owners hope that it will not happen to them.

The pandemic has brought cybercrime levels and information security threats to a new high. To be able to react in the 72-hours window after a high-risk data breach, you need an adviser who is familiar with your business processes and the knows the drill under GDPR and – if applicable – the Network and Information Security Directive.

We represent both our legacy clients and undertake new mandates in situations of personal data breaches. We assist in assessing the risk levels as per the EDPB’s guidelines, drafting notices to authorities, circular notices to affected data subjects, handling Subject Access Requests post-breach, undertaking damage limitation activities, coordinating and capturing ex-post investigations of the breach and informing third party controllers and processors that might also be affected by the breach.

We prepare our clients to address litigation claims or draft (mass) claims on behalf of the subjects whose data has allegedly been breached. We explain the consequences to the management, partners, clients and employees and assist all parties to reach a mutually acceptable plan for future measures and amicably settle on compensation on the occasions when damage is imminent.

 Real Estate Disputes

We are here to protect your property rights in court.

Once it has come do that, you need a lawyer who will correctly assess your chances of winning and act decisively and swiftly based on thorough research of the situation to protect your interests.
Throughout the years we have noticed several repeated mistakes from our foreign clients when purchase property in Bulgaria:

• lack or incomplete legal due diligence of the real estate
• lack of safeguards in the company’s incorporation deed and a room for maneuver of the manager to sell the property without owners’ consent
• public liabilities of the seller of the real estate which may cause trouble for the purchaser.

We have always warned our clients – if they are going to spend hundred thousand EUR or more for a real estate, better make full necessary prior investigation so not be sorry later.
And remember – real estate brokers are not lawyers.

Labour Disputes

No matter how innovative your business is, unless you hire only robots, chances are that you will have labour law issues. And our labour practice is among the strongest.
Our clients include medium and large companies from industries such as: aircraft, construction, IT outsourcing, pharma, banking, etc.

We always advise our corporate clients not to underestimate the labour law pitfalls – working time, safe and healthy working conditions, legally stable labour contracts (not copied US law versions), clear and concise labor orders, easy to understand internal procedures, retention of labor files, how to hire and fire, etc.

As a rule of thumb, an employee’s financial liability is limited, except where a greater compensation can be achieved, or the covenants are not in conflict with any mandatory labor legal rule or the good morals. Thus, the employer may be challenged to win a compensation case, without expert legal support – terminating restrictions, competition or trade secrets.

Unfair treatment of employees and any form of discrimination could also raise serious concerns for an employer; thus, our team is advising a step forward before a dispute raise.

Among all, our expertise covers:

• Disputes on disciplinary sanctions/ dismissals / protection against dismissal of certain categories of employees
• Disputes on reimbursement by the employee of expenses and compensations under qualification contracts
• Disputes in respect of payment of overtime, professional diseases and labor accidents, delayed remunerations, and compensations.
• Disputes in respect of outsourcing or posting of employees and employer-employer or employer- employee financial claim thereof.
• Unfair competition during a labor relationship