Last updated: August 2026

An analysis of more than 2,600 divorce decrees shows that the average processing time in small claims court has increased by 57% since 2016. On appeal, the average processing time rises to more than 7 months.

A question that every employment law attorney or lawyer is invariably asked: How long do these proceedings actually take? To the best of my knowledge, no systematic research has yet been conducted on this question, even though it is highly relevant in practice. After all, the duration of proceedings is not merely a matter of scheduling. In virtually every termination case, the expected duration of the proceedings plays a role in determining whether the parties would be better off settling. The longer the proceedings take, the higher the costs for the employer (continued wage payments, loss of productivity, legal fees) and the greater the uncertainty for the employee (income, career, reputation). Those who know how long a termination proceeding lasts on average can better assess the value of a settlement proposal. This study maps out those durations for the first time.

For this study, I analyzed 4,283 dissolution orders issued by Dutch district courts and courts of appeal. At the trial court level, in 1,908 of the 2,817 orders (68%), both the date of the petition and the date of the ruling could be inferred from the text. On appeal, this was the case for 737 of the 1,101 orders (67%). Not all rulings mention these dates in the proceedings.

First Instance: What Does the Law Say?

Article 7:686a(5) of the Dutch Civil Code stipulates that the hearing of the petition must begin no later than the fourth week following the week in which the petition was filed. This amounts to a five-week period for the oral hearing. The law does not impose any penalty for exceeding this timeframe. In addition, the courts apply a target timeframe of four weeks for rendering a decision following the oral hearing. Together, this results in an intended processing time of approximately nine weeks.

From 65 to 102 days

In the second half of 2015, immediately after the Wwz took effect, the average processing time was 49 days. At that time, the courts had few Wwz cases and therefore short waiting times. That figure is therefore not representative of the typical processing time.

Starting in 2016—the first full calendar year under the Wwz—the trend is clear. The average processing time has risen from 65 days in 2016 to 102 days in 2025. That is a 57% increase over ten years. The median shows the same pattern: from 63 days in 2016 to 98 days in 2025.

The increase has been gradual. Until 2019, the average processing time remained below 80 days. In 2020, it jumped to 92 days, partly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on court capacity. It has not decreased since then. In 2024 and 2025, it will rise further to 92 and 102 days, respectively.

Where is the delay?

The procedure consists of two phases. The first phase runs from the filing of the petition to the oral hearing. The second phase runs from the hearing to the ruling.

The first phase lasts an average of 57 days, or just over 8 weeks. That is considerably longer than the statutory five-week deadline. Only 22% of cases meet that statutory deadline.

The second phase lasts an average of 26 days, or nearly 4 weeks. That is within the judiciary’s target timeframe. In 74% of cases, that deadline is met. For this second phase, the data coverage is significantly higher (2,725 cases, 97% of first-instance decisions), because the date of the oral hearing is mentioned in virtually every decision. The results based on this larger dataset are virtually identical to those of the smaller dataset: the time taken to issue a ruling after a hearing is stable and is met by most judges.

Significant Differences Among Courts

The processing time varies considerably from court to court. At the fastest courts (Northern Netherlands, Limburg, Overijssel), dissolution proceedings take an average of about 10 weeks. At the slowest courts (Amsterdam, Zeeland-West-Brabant), it takes nearly 13 weeks—a difference of three weeks.

Coverage varies by court: at some courts, a larger proportion of the rulings include the date of the petition than at others. This is because some courts or judges use a ruling template that does not include the date the petition was filed. The North Holland District Court is underrepresented, with a coverage rate of 24%. The figures for each court should therefore be interpreted with some caution.

It is striking that the ranking by phase differs from that of the total processing time. The Northern Netherlands District Court is the fastest overall, but this is almost entirely due to the shortest waiting time until the hearing (42 days). The time taken to issue a ruling after the hearing is, in fact, relatively long there (29 days). At the Limburg District Court, it is exactly the opposite: the waiting time until the hearing is average (54 days), but the ruling is issued more quickly after the hearing than at any other court (19 days). At the Amsterdam District Court, the delay is almost entirely in Phase 1: it has the longest wait time until the hearing of all district courts (66 days), while the time taken to issue a ruling after the hearing is relatively short (25 days). The differences between courts are thus largely determined by available hearing capacity, not by the speed with which the judge reaches a decision after the hearing.

Does the soil make a difference?

Hardly. Whether the case involves poor performance (ground d, average of 80 days), culpable conduct (ground e, average of 83 days), or a disrupted working relationship (ground g, average of 85 days), the differences are minimal. The processing time appears to be determined more by the availability of courtrooms than by the complexity of the case.

Acceptance or rejection: a slight difference

Cases that are granted take an average of 85 days. Cases that are denied take an average of 80 days. Cases that are granted therefore take slightly longer, but the difference is minimal.

Appeals: an average of just over 7 months

Anyone who files an appeal after the subdistrict court’s ruling should expect a significantly longer processing time. The average processing time from the filing of the appeal to the ruling is 219 days (just over 7 months). The median is 176 days (nearly 6 months).

The trend is also on the rise in appellate proceedings. In 2016, the average processing time was 154 days. By 2025, that figure had risen to 255 days (8.5 months). That represents a 65% increase. The median reflects the same trend: from 138 days in 2016 to 232 days in 2025. In 2023, the processing time peaked at an average of 290 days (median 248 days), nearly 10 months.

Significant Differences Among Courts of Appeal

The differences between the four courts of appeal are even greater than the differences between the trial courts.

At the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeals, an appeal takes an average of 163 days (more than 5 months). At the Amsterdam Court of Appeals, it takes 304 days (more than 10 months). That is nearly double. Anyone filing an appeal in the Amsterdam jurisdiction waits, on average, nearly a year for a ruling.

Delays also occur in the waiting period leading up to the hearing in appeals. The period from the filing of the appeal to the hearing lasts an average of 155 days (just over 5 months). The period from the hearing to the ruling lasts an average of 63 days (2 months).

Total processing time for appeals

Anyone going through first-instance proceedings and an appeal one after the other should expect the total duration of the proceedings to be roughly ten months or more. At the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, this can take more than fourteen months, counting from the filing of the original petition. For employers and employees who become involved in termination proceedings, this is a reality they must take into account.

What does this mean in practice?

In practice, the termination proceedings are increasingly failing to serve as the quick route to dismissal that the legislature had envisioned. For employers, this means an average of three months of ongoing payroll costs and a situation that remains unworkable, with cases lasting up to five months. At the Amsterdam District Court, four months is not an exception.

Now that the waiting period until the oral hearing is systematically increasing, time itself has become a factor in the dispute. The outcome of a case is thus determined not only by the legal merits but also by the question of how much delay the parties can afford. This has a direct impact on settlement negotiations. In practice, settlement negotiations often take into account the expected duration of the proceedings and the associated costs. This study sheds light on that factor for the first time, thereby making the rationale behind a reasonable settlement more transparent.

For lawmakers: Article 7:686a(5) of the Dutch Civil Code prescribes a time limit for oral proceedings that, in practice, is not met in 78% of cases, even though the law does not impose any penalty for exceeding it. The gap between the legal standard and reality has only widened over the past ten years.