A divorce does not always begin with agreement about the children, the home or finances. Even if discussion is still possible, it helps to know first which arrangements are needed and what consequences a choice has. From our office in Amsterdam you can discuss your family law question with Arslan Advocaten.
What can we assess your question on?
You can contact us about separation, maintenance, arrangements concerning children, parental authority and the financial settlement of your relationship. Read the explanation of divorce or choose your topic in the overview of family law.
Does your family have ties with more than one country? Indicate where you and your partner live, where you got married and where the children have their habitual residence. Those details can be decisive for which court has jurisdiction and which law applies.
Contact our office in Amsterdam
Address: Pieter Calandlaan 769, 1069 SC Amsterdam. Telephone: 020 747 0055. You can also contact us via the website. Mention any hearing date or other specific deadline.
For a substantive engagement, the work and the costs are discussed. Also read the explanation of costs and possible legal aid. Choosing our office does not automatically determine which court will hear your case; separate rules on jurisdiction apply to that.
Anyone getting divorced in Amsterdam has two kinds of questions: how it works legally, and where it happens in practice. The first question is national — family law is no different in Amsterdam than in Groningen. The second question is local, because which court hears your case, when you can go there and whether there is an alternative in your district differs from city to city.
This page deals with the second. The detailed explanation of divorce and family law can be found on the national pages divorce and family law; it is not repeated here.
Which court hears my divorce in Amsterdam?
A divorce of Amsterdam residents is heard by the District Court of Amsterdam, private law division, family and youth law team, at Parnassusweg 280, 1076 AV Amsterdam.
Unlike in tenancy and employment cases, you cannot litigate yourself here: a lawyer is mandatory for a divorce petition. Your lawyer files the petition with the court; the court decides by way of a decision (beschikking), and that decision is then registered in the civil registry. Only at that moment are you divorced.
The practical details:
| Court | District Court of Amsterdam, private law division, family team |
| Visiting address | Parnassusweg 280, 1076 AV Amsterdam |
| Postal address | Postbus 84500, 1080 BN Amsterdam |
| General telephone number | 088 361 70 00 |
| Appeal | Court of Appeal of Amsterdam |
A point of recognition in your post: family cases at this court have a case number beginning with C/13, followed by a number and the designation FA RK. You can see this in published Amsterdam divorce decisions, such as the one of 14 August 2026 (ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:8342), with case number C/13/758509 / FA RK 24-7214. If you see that designation on a letter, you know it concerns a family case at the District Court of Amsterdam.
For which municipalities does the District Court of Amsterdam have jurisdiction?
According to the Dutch judiciary (de Rechtspraak), the district of Amsterdam consists of Aalsmeer, Amstelveen, Amsterdam, Diemen, Ouder-Amstel, Uithoorn and Weesp.
That is a small district by Dutch standards, and that has a practical consequence: if you live just across the municipal boundary — in Zaandam, Haarlem, Purmerend or Hoofddorp — your case does not fall under the District Court of Amsterdam, even if you work in Amsterdam and the Parnassusweg is the nearest court for you. Do not assume it does; have it checked case by case.
Weesp is now part of the municipality of Amsterdam as an urban area — the Amsterdam Housing Regulation 2024 (Huisvestingsverordening Amsterdam 2024) even has its own transitional arrangement for it in article 5.1a — but it is still named separately in the court’s jurisdiction by the Rechtspraak.
If one of the partners lives abroad, or if you married abroad, the question of which court has jurisdiction is a separate preliminary question that must be answered before anything else. That question is not decided by where you are registered, but by rules of private international law. Present such a situation before a petition is filed.
Is a parenting plan mandatory in a divorce?
Yes — article 815(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that the divorce petition contains a parenting plan signed by both spouses for their joint minor children.
Paragraph 3 of the same article prescribes what it must in any event contain:
| Subject | What must be arranged |
|---|---|
| Care and upbringing | how you divide the care and upbringing tasks, or how you give shape to the right and duty of contact |
| Information and consultation | how you inform and consult each other on important matters concerning the person and the property of the children |
| Costs | the costs of the care and upbringing of the minor children |
That seems like a formality, and it is not. The parenting plan is the document you will fall back on in the years ahead, and the arrangements in it are included in the divorce decision. Vaguely worded arrangements cannot be enforced later; overly detailed arrangements do not hold up when life changes. Striking the balance between the two is the real work.
By way of illustration. Two parents agree in their parenting plan that the children will stay with both parents "by mutual agreement" and that the costs will be shared "reasonably". As long as the relationship is good, that works fine. If a disagreement arises two years later, it turns out that neither arrangement offers anything to hold on to: there is no schedule that can be complied with and no amount that can be collected. The question that then has to be answered is not who is right, but what was actually agreed — and that is precisely what the plan does not record. This is a hypothetical situation illustrating the rule, not a case handled by our firm.
The ground for divorce itself is brief. Article 1:151 of the Civil Code provides that a divorce is pronounced at the request of one of the spouses if the marriage has irretrievably broken down. Nothing more is needed; the other partner cannot stop a divorce by disagreeing with it.
How long do I have to pay spousal maintenance?
If the court has not set a term, the maintenance obligation ends by operation of law after a period equal to half the duration of the marriage, with a maximum of five years — this is laid down in article 1:157(1) of the Civil Code.
There are four exceptions to that main rule, all four of which can extend the term:
| Situation | Consequence for the duration |
|---|---|
| Marriage longer than fifteen years and the maintenance creditor is no more than ten years younger than the state pension (AOW) age | the obligation does not end before that state pension age is reached (paragraph 2) |
| Marriage longer than fifteen years and the creditor was born on or before 1 January 1970 and is more than ten years younger than the state pension age | ten years (paragraph 3) |
| Children were born of the marriage | the obligation does not end before those children are twelve years old (paragraph 4) |
| Several of these situations at the same time | the longest term applies (paragraph 5) |
Two things that often go wrong. First, under paragraph 6 the term only starts to run on the date of registration of the divorce decision in the civil registry — not on the day you separated. Second, paragraph 7 contains an emergency brake: anyone who cannot reasonably do without the payments after the term has ended can still ask the court to set a term, but that request must be filed before three months have passed since the payments ended. Those three months are short, and they are final.
What happens if parents cannot agree on parental authority or primary residence?
In the case of joint parental authority, either parent can put the dispute before the court, and article 1:253a(6) of the Civil Code provides that the court deals with such a request within six weeks.
Under paragraph 1, the court takes "such a decision as appears to it desirable in the interests of the child". Under paragraph 2, it can set a complete arrangement: the division of care and upbringing tasks, the decision with which parent the child has its primary residence, and the way in which the parent the child does not live with is informed and consulted on important matters.
Paragraph 5 is important: the court first attempts to reach a settlement between the parents before it decides. A hearing in this kind of case is therefore not a purely legal debate; an express effort is made to find a solution both parents can live with. If none is reached, the court can impose a coercive measure.
And a detail that is surprisingly often useful: if the parents are under an obligation to submit a parenting plan and have not done so, under paragraph 3 the court of its own motion postpones the decision until that has been done — unless the interests of the child preclude this.
Can the neighbourhood judge in Amsterdam help with a family conflict?
In part of Amsterdam, yes: the neighbourhood judge (buurtrechter) Venserpolder in Zuidoost and the district judge (wijkrechter) Nieuw-West, in addition to court cases, also hold solution-focused conversations with (ex-)partners and family members who want to resolve a serious domestic conflict.
This is an Amsterdam facility. Since the end of 2021, the District Court of Amsterdam has been holding hearings in the neighbourhood, together with the municipality of Amsterdam, the police and the Public Prosecution Service.
| Neighbourhood judge Venserpolder | District judge Nieuw-West | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | Albert Camuslaan 38, Amsterdam | De Honingraat, Slotermeerlaan 103h, 1063 JN Amsterdam |
| Hearings | every Monday | every Thursday afternoon |
| Target group | residents of postcode area 1102 | residents of Geuzenveld-Slotermeer |
| Family-related | solution-focused conversations; professionals can register a family or youth case when the petition is filed | preventive compulsory education conversations and preventive conversations about domestic conflicts |
Two things to know. A solution-focused conversation is not a court case: according to the Rechtspraak, the judge can only make decisions in it if everyone involved can agree with them, and if no arrangements are made, the situation remains as it was. And this is not a substitute for divorce proceedings — those simply take place at the court on the Parnassusweg. It is an additional route for conflicts that are not yet a court case, or that run alongside one.
If your situation falls outside these two areas, there is also a mediation office at the District Court of Amsterdam to which cases can be referred.
How do I get in touch about a family case in Amsterdam?
Call 020 747 00 55 during office hours — Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:30 — or use the form at https://arslan.nl/contact/.
Arslan Advocaten has a full office in Amsterdam at Pieter Calandlaan 769, 1069 SC Amsterdam: an office where your file is handled and where you speak to a lawyer, by appointment. You can read more about the office on the page Amsterdam office.
In family cases, the first meeting is often the most important part of the entire file: it determines whether it will be a joint petition or a one-sided petition, what goes into the parenting plan and whether provisional measures are needed. So bring whatever documents you have — the marriage certificate or registered partnership certificate, any prenuptial agreement, recent income details for both of you and the children’s birth details.
Besides Dutch, you can also be helped here in Turkish, Polish and English. In family cases that is no side issue: someone who can explain their situation in their own language tells the details that determine the outcome.