Are you a Drent and do you have a conflict with a government agency? Then chances are that you will have to travel far for an appointment with a social lawyer who can help you. And there is even a chance that you will be rejected with your questions if the file is too complicated or too great.
The last two decades, since the first cabinet of Rutte, the system for the Social Advocatuur has continued to undress. Lawyers in this field depend on government money, so that they can support people at a low rate. The policy among Rutte cabinets led the Dutch Bar Association in 2014 to predicted that half of the lawyers would leave the profession within a few years, with the most important reason that it would no longer be profitable.
Since 2019, the number of lawsuits has been conducted by social security lawyers almost halved, from 29,000 to 15,000 last year. And one region is more bothered by the other. For example, in the east and north of the Netherlands, where relatively less social security lawyers are, the number of things decreased harder than in the rest of the country. Lawyers fear that this is because people can no longer find their way to judgment.
De Groene Amsterdammer and Investico Speaked in the article with Edward Cats, who, to his great grief, is the only one in the Emmen area working as a social security lawyer. He is concerned with conflicts about social assistance or disability benefits. But most attention from his Hondsrug Advocatuur legal office goes to asylum and immigration law.
Cats explains that he sometimes has to make hard choices when people turn to him. “I cannot endanger my practice. The clients I have already accepted are also entitled to good assistance.” In some cases he then refers them to Zwolle, Groningen or Assen, which can lead to the helpers for more than an hour extra travel time. To the great sorrow of the lawyer. “If I can’t even help people from my own environment, I find it really annoying.”
He regularly receives requests from people outside his region, such as Borger-Odoorn or Hoogeveen. For many he is the last person they can ask for help. And when he stops, there is no one left. “I really want to retire anyway. I will not continue until I was 72.”
The investigation also made it clear that a large part of the lawyers must reject one or more clients every week. This makes a different prediction of the Dutch Bar Association ten years ago. The warning was then that ‘complicated things are a loss’ and are therefore refused earlier. The thicker the file, the greater the chance of rejection. After a rejection of a lawyer, it is often referred to colleagues in other areas, but the chance that they will have the room to pick up difficult files is small.
And so it threatens to go wrong in social law, says Irene Nijboer, director of the Legal Aid Council. “If no more money is released, we expect real shortages. Large deficits. That means that the constitutional right to legal aid is endangered.”