NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sandra Verburgt, Petra Beishuizen and Ivo Janssens, Delissen Martens Advocaten
Living/Contact Arrangements and Child Main- tenance . If they fail to agree to a parenting plan, then they may ask the Family Court to render a decision with regard to parental responsibility. The Family Court judge will hear both spouses and then render a decision upon the request of the petitioner and respondent. The court may have made an order to divide or settle the mat- rimonial regime, but that decision in itself does not result in a transfer of the assets. The parties may need to implement further acts to establish the actual division of the assets – for example, sign a deed of division and transfer of real estate with a civil law notary. Timeline Contentious divorce proceedings take between one and two years on average. In contrast, divorce by mutual consent takes between three and six months (based on a divorce agreement). Service of divorce petition The divorce petition shall be served upon the other party within 14 days once the petition has been submitted to the Family Court. If the other spouse is habitually resident within the Nether - lands, this spouse will be granted a term within which to respond of six weeks upon service. If the other spouse is not habitually resident in the Netherlands or does not have a known address in the Netherlands, the term within which to respond to the petition is three months upon ser - vice. If the respondent spouse instructs a lawyer, that lawyer may request an extension of the term within which to respond to the divorce petition, provided that such request is submitted before the expiration of the initial term of six weeks or three months. The Dutch court shall be deemed to be seised at the time when the divorce peti - tion instituting the divorce proceedings is lodged with the Family Court.
Dissolution of Registered Partnership The same grounds and procedure as outlined for divorce also apply to the dissolution of the registered partnership of registered partners with minor children. Registered partners without minor children may submit a declaration in order to dissolve their partnership on the ground that it has irretrievably broken down to the Registrar of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Registered Partnerships of the municipality in which they live. This declaration shall be co-signed by a lawyer or civil law notary. Religious Marriages The Netherlands is a secular state. The Family Court only dissolves civil marriages and regis - tered partnerships. Only a civil divorce has legal effect under Dutch law, just as only a civil mar - riage will be recognised as a marriage under Dutch law. It is forbidden to have a religious marriage before the civil marriage has been sol - emnised. However, it has been assumed in case law that not co-operating in a religious divorce may con - flict with the due care that should be observed concerning the other party. As early as 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that the husband’s refusal to co-operate in bringing about a rab - binical divorce from his wife may be unlaw - ful. In that case, the court may order him to co-operate after all. This ruling was confirmed again by the District Court of Rotterdam in a judgment of 8 December 2010 and the District Court of Amsterdam in a judgment of 10 April 2012. On 21 November 2017, The Hague Court of Appeal ruled in the same way in respect of the husband’s refusal to co-operate in ending a Sunni religious marriage and sentenced him to co-operate within two weeks.
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