Minister Weerwind: “Disputes should be resolved as simply as possible. Therefore, it is nice if parties can come to an agreement. But if that does not work, access to the courts must always remain open. The amount of the court fee can be a barrier for citizens and businesses to take that step to court or to defend themselves there. By reducing these costs, it becomes easier for people to seek their rights and I increase access to justice.”

Reduction through Indexing

The court fees will be reduced by permanently scrapping the postponed indexing of 10.29% for 2023. This indexing was previously postponed because a legislative proposal for reducing court fees was being prepared, and it would be contradictory to first raise the court fees through indexing and then quickly lower them again. In addition to scrapping the 2023 indexing, the indexing for 2024 will be reduced from 4.57% to 1.83%. Overall, the court fees will be approximately 13.5% lower than they would have been otherwise. This way, those seeking justice will have clear information about the level of court fees as of January 1, 2024, and the reduction will be implemented with as few administrative actions as possible.

The government initially planned to submit a legislative proposal to reduce court fees by 25%. However, in the spring of 2023, the government had to make other financial choices, resulting in less budget available for the reduction of court fees, specifically 27 million euros. The legislative proposal to reduce court fees by 25% will not be pursued. By excluding civil cases with claims higher than 100,000 euros and cases for the Netherlands Commercial Court from the reduction, court fees can be reduced by 13.5%. The court fees for these excluded cases will be indexed as of January 1, 2024, with the indexing of both 2023 and 2024, totaling 15.33%.