Time Taken for Disposition of Commercial Disputes in the Netherlands: Why official court statistics underestimate the problem of the long and unpredictable duration of court procedures

Dewy Pistora; Frans Van Dijk; Remme Verkerk

doi:10.36633/ulr.925

Time Taken for Disposition of Commercial Disputes in the Netherlands: Why official court statistics underestimate the problem of the long and unpredictable duration of court procedures

Dewy Pistora, Frans Van Dijk, Remme Verkerk^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Tilburg University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

This study provides insight into the total duration of litigation from the perspective of litigants. It examines commercial court cases with claims between 1 million and 5 million EUR in the Netherlands. It focuses on cases in which first instance judgments are appealed. In many of these cases other related procedures ensue. Using detailed data of the case administration system of the courts in the Netherlands, cases are followed as they wind their way through the court system. The results show that court statistics do not reflect the time taken for disposition from the litigant’s perspective. A substantial number of high value cases are not concluded within a reasonable time and there is a wide spread of the time taken for disposition. For prospective litigants, it is not easy to predict the duration of litigation. The ensuing uncertainty makes it harder for them to assert their rights.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	44-63
Number of pages	20
Journal	Utrecht Law Review
Volume	20
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.36633/ulr.925
Publication status	Published - 31 May 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Keywords

court delay
duration
reasonable time
time to disposition

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10.36633/ulr.925Licence: CC BY

6659a4f683a0aFinal published version, 1.41 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "This study provides insight into the total duration of litigation from the perspective of litigants. It examines commercial court cases with claims between 1 million and 5 million EUR in the Netherlands. It focuses on cases in which first instance judgments are appealed. In many of these cases other related procedures ensue. Using detailed data of the case administration system of the courts in the Netherlands, cases are followed as they wind their way through the court system. The results show that court statistics do not reflect the time taken for disposition from the litigant{\textquoteright}s perspective. A substantial number of high value cases are not concluded within a reasonable time and there is a wide spread of the time taken for disposition. For prospective litigants, it is not easy to predict the duration of litigation. The ensuing uncertainty makes it harder for them to assert their rights.",

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Time Taken for Disposition of Commercial Disputes in the Netherlands: Why official court statistics underestimate the problem of the long and unpredictable duration of court procedures. / Pistora, Dewy; Dijk, Frans Van ; Verkerk, Remme.
In: Utrecht Law Review, Vol. 20, No. 1, 31.05.2024, p. 44-63.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Time Taken for Disposition of Commercial Disputes in the Netherlands: Why official court statistics underestimate the problem of the long and unpredictable duration of court procedures

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Keywords

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