How to choose a family law firm in the Netherlands for a complex divorce

Choosing a family law firm for a complex divorce in the Netherlands comes down to three things: whether the firm handles family law as a core practice rather than as a sideline, whether it can deal in-house with whatever makes the case complex, and whether it can work in a language the client actually understands. A divorce becomes complex when it involves business ownership, substantial or cross-border assets, pension rights, or a genuine dispute about the children. Each of those introduces a separate body of law, and the cost of getting one of them wrong at the outset is usually far higher than the cost of the advice.

This guide sets out what makes a divorce legally complex under Dutch and European rules, what a firm needs to be able to do in each of those situations, and what to ask before instructing anyone. It is written for people deciding whom to instruct, not to argue for any particular choice.

What makes a divorce complex under Dutch law

Most Dutch divorces are not complex. Where the spouses agree, there are no children under eighteen and no significant assets, the case is a matter of drafting and filing. Complexity arises from specific features, and it is worth identifying which of them apply before looking for a divorce lawyer, because they determine what kind of firm the case actually needs.

• Business ownership: shares in a BV, a directeur-grootaandeelhouder (DGA) structure, a partnership interest, or a family company in which more than one generation holds an interest.
• Substantial or contested assets: real estate, investment portfolios, second homes abroad, or accounts and holdings in more than one jurisdiction.
• Pension rights: occupational pensions to be equalised, pension accrued in the spouse’s own company, or entitlements built up with foreign employers.
• An international element: spouses of different nationalities, a marriage concluded abroad, a recent move to or from the Netherlands, or a plan by one spouse to leave.
• A dispute about the children: primary residence, the division of care, relocation abroad, or a risk of a child being removed from the Netherlands without consent.
• An income structure that resists a simple calculation: salary combined with dividends, bonuses, share options or income that fluctuates with the business.

These features compound. A DGA divorce with a foreign spouse and children is not three separate problems but one problem in which each element constrains the others, and the sequence in which they are addressed matters. Our article on high-net-worth divorce in the Netherlands deals with the asset side in more detail.

The rules that decide a cross-border divorce

Where a couple has an international connection, the first questions are not about the merits but about which court may hear the case and which country’s law it will apply. Getting these wrong is the error that cannot be repaired later, because a divorce granted by a court with jurisdiction elsewhere is difficult and expensive to unwind.

Jurisdiction in divorce and parental responsibility is governed by Regulation (EU) 2019/1111, known as Brussels IIb, which has applied since 1 August 2022. A Dutch court generally has jurisdiction where both spouses or the respondent are habitually resident in the Netherlands, and in a number of further situations set out in the Regulation. Where more than one Member State has jurisdiction, the court first seised prevails, which is why the timing of a petition can be strategically decisive and why a spouse who suspects proceedings are about to be issued abroad needs advice quickly.

The applicable law on the divorce itself is determined by Regulation (EU) No 1259/2010, Rome III. Spouses may choose the applicable law within the limits the Regulation sets, and in the absence of a choice the law of the country of common habitual residence applies in the first place. For a couple living in the Netherlands that will usually be Dutch law, but not invariably.

Matrimonial property is a separate question again. For couples who married on or after 29 January 2019, Regulation (EU) 2016/1103 determines which country’s matrimonial property law applies; for earlier marriages the position is governed by the Hague Convention of 1978 or by the older Dutch conflict rules, depending on the date of the marriage. Maintenance is not covered by Brussels IIb at all: jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of maintenance obligations fall under Regulation (EC) No 4/2009 and the applicable law under the 2007 Hague Protocol. Finally, where a child is taken abroad without the other parent’s consent, the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention applies and its procedures move very fast.

The practical point is that four different instruments can apply to a single divorce, each with its own connecting factor, and a firm without genuine private international law experience will not identify them in the first meeting, which is when it matters.

Matrimonial property and business assets

Where Dutch matrimonial property law applies, the starting point depends on when the marriage was concluded. For marriages entered into on or after 1 January 2018 the default regime is the limited community of property (beperkte gemeenschap van goederen): what each spouse owned before the marriage, and what either receives by gift or inheritance, remains private, while what is built up during the marriage falls into the community. Marriages concluded before that date are, in the absence of prenuptial conditions, still governed by the former general community of property, under which almost everything is shared. Our article on the limited community of property explains the difference and the record-keeping it requires.

Prenuptial or postnuptial conditions (huwelijkse voorwaarden) displace the default, and in a complex divorce they are usually the first document to read. Two problems recur. The first is a set-off clause (verrekenbeding) that was never performed: where spouses agreed annually to set off what remained of their income and never did so, the law provides a presumption that the assets present at the end of the marriage are to be divided, which can produce an outcome close to a full community despite the contract. The second is confusion between private and community funds after years of moving money between accounts, which raises reimbursement claims (vergoedingsrechten) that have to be traced and evidenced.

Business assets add a valuation question on top of the legal one. A shareholding has to be valued at a defined moment and on a defined basis, and the choice of method materially changes the outcome. That work is done by a valuer or forensic accountant, not by a lawyer, but the lawyer frames the instruction, and an instruction that fails to specify the valuation date, the standard of value and the treatment of retained profits produces a report that cannot be used. Where the company holds the pension entitlement of the DGA, or where the other spouse has a claim against the company rather than against the shares, family law and corporate law questions cannot sensibly be separated.

Tax consequences follow almost every decision about a business or a property in a divorce, and they belong with a tax adviser rather than with the lawyer. What the lawyer should do is flag the point in time and ensure that the settlement is not signed before the tax position has been checked, because the sequence is difficult to reverse afterwards.

Pension rights on divorce

Occupational pension is dealt with separately from the rest of the assets. Under the Pension Rights Equalisation (Divorce) Act (Wet verevening pensioenrechten bij scheiding, WVPS) each spouse is in principle entitled to half of the old-age pension the other accrued during the marriage. Equalisation is not automatic in the practical sense: the pension provider only has to pay the entitled spouse directly if it is notified within a set period after the divorce, and where that period is missed the claim survives against the former spouse but has to be collected from that person rather than from the fund. Spouses may also agree to depart from the Act, to convert the entitlement into an independent pension right, or to exclude equalisation altogether, and any such agreement has to be set out in the prenuptial conditions or the divorce settlement.

Legislation to replace the WVPS with a system of conversion by default, the Wet pensioenverdeling bij scheiding 2022, was introduced in 2019 but has not been enacted. Until it is passed and brought into force by royal decree, the WVPS continues to apply in full. Anyone who reads that a new pension division regime is now in place should treat the statement with caution and check the current position before relying on it.

Two situations need specialist attention: pension accrued in the spouse’s own company, which raises questions about the company’s ability to pay and about the consent of the other spouse, and pension built up with foreign employers, where the WVPS may not reach the entitlement at all and the position depends on the law and the scheme rules of the country concerned.

What to look for in a Dutch family law firm

The criteria that matter follow directly from what makes the case complex, and they are worth checking rather than assuming.

Look first for genuine specialisation. Family law should be a primary practice area of the lawyers who will actually handle the file, not one of a dozen areas listed on a profile. Specialisation shows in familiarity with the family divisions of the relevant courts, in established working relationships with valuers, forensic accountants and actuaries, and in recognising early which issues in a case will be contested. Some Dutch family lawyers are members of the specialist family law association vFAS or hold a recognised specialisation, which is a useful but not decisive signal.

Where a business is involved, ask whether corporate law capability sits inside the firm. A divorce that turns on the value of a shareholding, on a shareholders’ agreement or on a loan account between spouse and company requires both disciplines to work from the same file. Referring the corporate questions to an external adviser is workable but slower, and it tends to produce advice that answers each question correctly in isolation.

For international cases, ask specifically about private international law experience rather than about international clients. A firm may have many foreign clients and still handle only domestic Dutch divorces for them. The relevant question is whether the firm has argued jurisdiction and applicable law, and whether it has conducted or defended proceedings under the 1980 Hague Convention if children may be taken abroad.

Language is a substantive requirement, not a convenience. Dutch proceedings are conducted in Dutch, and a client who cannot read the position statements filed on their behalf cannot correct the facts in them. Advice, drafting and the explanation of what happens at a hearing should be available in a language the client is fluent in.

Finally, consider who will do the work. Large full-service firms offer breadth, but family matters generate less billing volume than corporate transactions, and files are often delegated. Mid-sized firms with a dedicated family department, and specialist boutiques, tend to give more senior involvement. What matters is not the size of the firm but the identity and experience of the lawyer who will attend the hearing.

How to evaluate a firm before instructing it

Directories such as The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners are a starting point, though their Dutch coverage is weighted towards large commercial practices and many capable family law boutiques do not appear in them. Independent review platforms give a sense of communication and responsiveness, which is worth something, but they rarely distinguish between a straightforward divorce and a contested international one. Neither source substitutes for a conversation.

Use the first meeting as an assessment. A firm that is equipped for the case will ask targeted questions before offering any view: when and where the marriage took place, whether there are prenuptial conditions and what they say, what the asset and income structure looks like, where each spouse is habitually resident and what nationality they hold, and what the position is on the children. A confident strategy offered before those facts are known says more about the firm than any directory entry.

Ask directly about comparable experience, and about who handled those matters. Ask how the firm proposes to approach the case, and whether it sees mediation or a negotiated settlement as realistic, because a contested route that could have been avoided is the most expensive feature of any divorce. Be wary of any prediction of outcome: in family law the court retains a broad discretion, and a lawyer who guarantees a result is either misinformed or telling the client what they want to hear.

Costs and how they are charged

Ask for the basis of charging in writing before instructing. Dutch family lawyers usually work at an hourly rate, sometimes with a fixed fee for a defined part of the work such as a settlement agreement or an uncontested petition. The engagement letter should state the rate, who else may work on the file and at what rate, how disbursements are handled, and how often bills are issued.

Separate from the lawyer’s fee are the court fee (griffierecht), which is set annually by law, and the cost of any expert: a valuer, a forensic accountant, an actuary or a translator. In a business divorce the expert costs can approach the legal costs, and the question of who pays for the expert, and whether the parties will jointly instruct one, should be settled early rather than argued about later. Clients on a low income may qualify for subsidised legal aid through the Raad voor Rechtsbijstand, subject to income and capital thresholds published by that body. Our overview of the cost of a divorce in the Netherlands sets out the elements in more detail.

In Dutch family proceedings each party normally bears its own legal costs, and a costs order against the other spouse is the exception. That should be factored into any decision to litigate a point rather than settle it.

Family law at Law & More

Law & More is a Dutch law firm with offices in Eindhoven and Amsterdam. Our family law team acts for clients throughout the Netherlands, including internationally mobile clients and clients living abroad who are party to proceedings before a Dutch court, and works in Dutch and English as well as several other languages.

The work covers the division of matrimonial property, including real estate, investments and cross-border assets; divorces involving business ownership and DGA structures, with corporate law advice from within the firm; questions of jurisdiction and applicable law in international divorces; parental authority, care arrangements and the parenting plan; partner and child maintenance where the income structure is not a simple salary; and mediation where the parties prefer to settle rather than litigate.

If you are deciding whom to instruct, you are welcome to contact us to discuss the case and what it is likely to involve, so that you can compare on the basis of substance rather than of a profile page.

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