How long does a divorce proceeding take?

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

A question that every employment lawyer or attorney is invariably asked: how long does such a proceeding actually take? To my knowledge, no systematic research has yet been conducted on this question, even though it is highly relevant in practice. The duration of a proceeding 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 first instance, 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 judgments 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 commence no later than the fourth week following the week in which the petition was filed. This amounts to a five-week period before the oral hearing. The law does not impose any penalty for exceeding this period. In addition, the courts apply a target period of four weeks for the 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.

Since 2016, the first full calendar year under the Wwz, the trend has been 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 trend: 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 takes an average of 26 days, or nearly 4 weeks. This 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 the hearing is stable and is met by most judges.

Significant differences between courts

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

Coverage varies by court: at some courts, a larger proportion of judgments include the date of the petition than at others. This is because some courts or judges use a judgment 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 per court should therefore be interpreted with some caution.

It is striking that the ranking by phase differs from the total processing time. The District Court of Northern Netherlands 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 judgment is issued faster after the hearing than at any other court (19 days). At the Amsterdam District Court, the delay is almost entirely in Phase 1: the longest waiting time until the hearing of all district courts (66 days), while the time taken to issue a ruling after the hearing is relatively fast (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 at all. Whether the grounds are poor performance (ground d, average 80 days), culpable conduct (ground e, average 83 days), or a disrupted working relationship (ground g, average 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: 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 over 7 months

Anyone who appeals a decision by the subdistrict court should expect a significantly longer processing time. The average processing time from the filing of the appeal to the decision is 219 days (just over 7 months). The median is 176 days (nearly 6 months).

The trend is also on the rise in appeals. In 2016, the average processing time was 154 days. By 2025, this had risen to 255 days (8.5 months). That is an increase of 65%. The median shows 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 between courts of appeal

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

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

The delay also extends to the waiting period before the hearing in appellate proceedings. 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 both the first instance and the appeal process in succession should expect the proceedings to take roughly ten months or more in total. 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 involved in termination proceedings, this is a reality they must take into account.

What does this mean for practice?

In practice, the termination proceedings are increasingly failing to serve as the quick dismissal route 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 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 provides insight into that factor for the first time, thereby making the rationale for a reasonable settlement more transparent.

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