Case flow management net-project - The practical value for civil justice in the Netherlands

Abstract

The problem of court delays has caused a widespread need for fast and efficient civil procedures that are able to maintain a high standard of quality. The EU-funded research project - 'CFMnet: Towards European Caseflow Management development network - Identifying, developing and sharing best practices' - wants to meet this need with a collection of European (CFM) practices in a handbook and an online platform. Does the CFMnet-project have an added value for the judiciary in the Netherlands? The Netherlands is currently reforming the judiciary in a major transformation called Quality and Innovation (Kwaliteit en Innovatie). The flexible methodology of this project pre-eminently allows for the inclusion of new ideas. This research shows that the CFMnet-project provides both relevant and irrelevant information for the Netherlands. On the one hand, there are some important practices in the CFMnet handbook that are currently unused in the Netherlands, for instance the centralized management of court experts, real-time case management and certain ICT tools. On the other hand, the Dutch jurisdiction is already familiar with a surprisingly high number of practices that are proposed in the handbook, such as summary proceedings and the division of labor between the court clerk and the judge. The relevance of the CFMnet-project thus differs from issue to issue.