Has the Court of Central Netherlands stopped hearing appeals against minor traffic offenses and assessments for property tax? Were they put ‘on the shelf’ or ‘taken off the roll’? The president is immediately looking for the correct description of the measure that the court took at the beginning of this year. Patricia Messer-Dinnissen finally opts for “leave it a little longer” and smiles diplomatically.
Citizens who fall under the courts in Utrecht, Lelystad, Amersfoort and Almere received a letter that their appeal against a fine will no longer be processed this year.
And that is a special decision. After all, all cases and all citizens should be equal in court. And the judiciary may never refuse a request for justice. Of the 200 types of cases that Messer’s court deals with, these two types seemed “the least harmful” to put on hold, she says. Now all courts are managing stocks and allocating staff and rooms in proportion to expected availability. But the tightness is usually spread: every sector is then affected about equally, whether it is punishment, trade or government. At administrative level, types of cases are preferably looked at as little as possible.
On which matters can you responsibly take longer?
Patricia Messer Dinnissen president
However, the capacity shortage in Utrecht was so acute that substantive choices were necessary. Messer calls it a “joint decision with the team presidents, which everyone supports. The consideration: which issues can best be socially justified if you take a little longer. It is easier to explain that a traffic violation or a WOZ assessment does not immediately go to court than a case involving a child that must be placed under supervision, or a criminal case involving a victim.”
Last year, the Public Prosecution Service also changed tack. Hundreds of minor criminal cases were taken off the docket and dismissed in various districts. The durations had become too long, the influx was too great.
Commercial advisors
Limiting the number of appeals against the value of the home has now become unnecessary. The Utrecht tax courts have been able to achieve their numbers mainly due to more convenient planning and sharper preparation. And as much as possible within the reasonable period of one and a half years determined by the Supreme Court. If the backlogs had increased due to the decision to leave these cases on hold for longer, it would also have cost the state money. For every six months that the limit is exceeded, the citizen will be awarded 500 euros in compensation. And in some cases also compensation for the costs of the proceedings. Here the many commercial advisors in this field could have collected a considerable windfall.
The agreement with the Public Prosecution Service to handle far fewer traffic fine cases has now worked. Although the Public Prosecution Service reminds: those cases will have to be dealt with at some point. She is not afraid of a suction effect of the temporary freezing of traffic matters. After all, those who want to appeal must first pay. Appealing after such a Public Prosecution Service ticket therefore does not result in a postponement of payment.
The cause of the shortage is known. In the judiciary, a recruitment and training backlog for judges is a result of budget cuts. The legal assistants are in demand in the tight labor market and are leaving (too) quickly. Furthermore, a ‘grey wave’ of judges is about to retire.
In the coming year, 11 judges will complete their training. ‘Net 2 to 3’ of that will remain after the pensioners leave
Eleven judges will complete their training at the Court of Central Netherlands next year. According to the president, “net 2 to 3” of that will remain after the retirees leave. Strictly speaking, the court now has enough work for an additional 10 to 15 judges. Which are therefore not there and will not be there in the short term. It has been agreed with the Public Prosecution Service that only 5,500 new light traffic cases can be added this year. The total stock is now 7,000. The Public Prosecution Service had wanted to have 11,000 new cases decided this year. The Public Prosecution Service says it finds the development in Utrecht worrisome and “painful for all those involved”. After all, these matters will eventually have to be dealt with.
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Central Netherlands also pays the price of its location, in a diamond of highways. This makes it the court with probably the highest number of appeals against speeding offences. Incidentally, the president has the impression that only a few of the thousands of cases are brought individually by road users. The bulk comes through objection agencies that take the fines off the hands of citizens, use all legal options at all authorities, especially because of the legal costs they receive from the court and incidental compensation.
The court has little influence on it. And she shouldn’t have it either. Although recently the court sometimes tips off a municipality or the Public Prosecution Service when there is a peak of cases involving the same traffic situation, whereby the citizen’s objection is always well-founded. It then reads: everyone you ticket there will soon be proved right by us. And it is better to destroy all those fine decisions yourself, instead of using the courts for this. But influencing case flows is actually impossible for the ever-neutral court. At most it can be ‘signaled’. For example, the commercial no cure, no pay objection agencies dominate in WOZ cases. One even in such a way that it determines the planning of these cases for the entire Court of Central Netherlands. If that one “authorized representative on behalf of the citizen” is prevented, which is more often than not the case, the president knows, the case law in that area largely falls out. That objection and appeal game in the WOZ has become a revenue model. It’s all about the legal costs and any compensation – the amount of the fines or assessments of the citizen usually change little or nothing. “Is that really the best use of our capacity?” President Messer is critical but cautious. “We cannot solve this, the legislator has to do that.”
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A version of this article also appeared in
the newspaper of June 22, 2023.