Divorce and family law in the Netherlands

Your family lawyer

Martijn Mok is a family lawyer and divorce mediator. He is a member of vFAS, the Dutch association of family lawyers and divorce mediators. He assists clients with divorce and other family matters, from the first advice to the final arrangements or court decision.

Proceedings before Dutch courts are conducted in Dutch. Petitions and other procedural documents are therefore prepared in Dutch. We can discuss your case with you in English and explain the documents and the court procedure to you.

How a divorce works in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, a marriage can only be ended by a court. You need a lawyer to file for divorce. A registered partnership can in some cases be ended without going to court if both partners agree and the statutory conditions are met.

There are two routes to a divorce.

• Together. If you agree on the main issues, you can file a joint request. One lawyer can file the joint request for both of you. This is usually the quickest and least expensive route.
• One spouse applies. If you cannot agree, one spouse can file for divorce. The other spouse can respond through their own lawyer. The court then decides the issues you cannot agree on.

If you have children under eighteen, a parenting plan is normally submitted with the divorce request. It contains the arrangements you make for your children.

Children

If you have joint parental authority, this normally continues after the divorce. You continue to make important decisions about your children together, for example about school and medical care.

The parenting plan sets out how you divide the care of the children, how you keep each other informed and how the costs are shared.

If both parents have parental authority, one parent cannot simply move abroad with the children. This requires the consent of the other parent or, if consent is refused, permission from the court.

Child maintenance depends on the children's financial needs and on each parent's ability to contribute. We can calculate the appropriate amount with you.

Money, the house and pensions

What happens to your assets and debts depends on when and how you married and, in international cases, which country's law applies to your matrimonial property.

If Dutch law applies, marriages entered into on or after 1 January 2018 are generally subject to a limited community of property. Marriages entered into before that date are generally subject to the general community of property that applied before that date, unless the spouses made a prenuptial agreement or an exception applies.

Under Dutch law, each spouse is in principle entitled to half of the old-age pension the other spouse accrued during the marriage. Different rules may apply to foreign pension schemes. Spouses can also make different arrangements.

Spousal maintenance is limited in time. Under current Dutch law, the general rule is half the duration of the marriage, with a maximum of five years. There are statutory exceptions, including for parents of younger children and in certain long marriages.

International aspects

An international divorce can involve several different legal questions. Can the Dutch courts deal with the divorce? Will a Dutch divorce be recognised in your home country? And which law applies to matters such as your property, maintenance obligations or pensions?

Different rules may apply to each of these questions. Your nationality, your spouse's nationality, where you live, where your children live and when and where you married can all be relevant.

We therefore determine the international legal position at the start of the case. This can make an important difference to the outcome.

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, pensions and the other financial consequences of the divorce.

Because the mediator is also a family lawyer, the legal consequences of your agreements are taken into account. The agreements can be recorded in a divorce agreement and, where appropriate, submitted to the court with a joint divorce request.

Costs

We work with a fixed hourly rate and tell you in advance what applies. A first phone call is free and without obligation. During that call, we can also give you an indication of the likely costs of your case.

Please note that we do not handle international cases on the basis of subsidised legal aid (a toevoeging). Our regular hourly rate therefore applies.

Get in touch

Call Martijn Mok directly on 050 – 211 09 84 or email mok@meerburgmok.nl. Would you rather be called? Send us your number and we will call you back. We have offices in Groningen and Assen.