Divorce and family law in the Netherlands

Your family lawyer

Martijn Mok is a family lawyer and a registered divorce mediator (member of vFAS, the Dutch association of family lawyers and divorce mediators). He handles divorces and other family matters, from the first phone call to the final court decision.

Dutch courts work in Dutch, so the court documents and the hearing are in Dutch.

How a divorce works in the Netherlands

A marriage can only be ended by a court. You need a lawyer for that. There are two routes.

• Together. If you agree on the main points, you file a joint request, with one lawyer for both of you. This is usually the quickest and least expensive route.
• On your own. If you cannot agree, one of you files the request. The other spouse can respond through their own lawyer, and the court decides the points you disagree on.

If you have children under eighteen, you normally file a parenting plan together with the request.

Children

After a divorce, parents usually keep joint parental authority. You decide together on important matters such as school and medical care. The parenting plan sets out how you share the care, how you inform each other and how the costs are divided.

Moving abroad with the children is not something one parent can decide alone. It needs the consent of the other parent or permission from the court.

Child maintenance is based on what the children need and on what each parent can afford. We calculate this with you.

Money, the house and pensions

What happens to your assets depends on when and how you married, and on which country's law applies to your marriage. Under Dutch law, marriages concluded since 1 January 2018 fall under a limited community of property. Earlier marriages usually fall under a full community of property, unless you signed a prenuptial agreement. Pensions built up during the marriage are in principle divided.

Spousal maintenance is limited in time. For most marriages it lasts at most five years, with exceptions for long marriages and for parents of young children.

International aspects

When one or both of you are not Dutch, or you married abroad, two questions come first. Which country's courts can hear the divorce, and which country's law applies? Within the EU this is largely governed by European regulations, and the answer usually depends on where you and your children live. We check this before anything else, because it can make a real difference.

Mediation

Would you rather separate together? Martijn Mok can act as your divorce mediator. With one mediator you make agreements about the children, the house, maintenance and pensions. Because the mediator is also a lawyer, those agreements are legally sound and can go straight to the court.

Costs

We work with a fixed hourly rate and tell you in advance what applies. A first phone call is free and without obligation, and in that call we also discuss what your case is likely to cost. Please note that we do not work on the basis of subsidised legal aid (a toevoeging) in international cases. In those cases our regular hourly rate applies.

Get in touch

Call Martijn Mok directly on 050 – 211 09 84 or email mok@meerburgmok.nl. We have offices in Groningen and Assen.