Written by Onur Arslan, personal injury lawyer at Arslan Advocaten. Registered in the legal practice areas register of the Netherlands Bar for employment law and personal injury. Last updated: 31 August 2026.
In short: Arslan Advocaten assists accident victims in Eindhoven from Croy 7C, 5653 LC Eindhoven. The first assessment of your case is free of charge. Where another party is liable, the reasonable costs of our assistance are in principle paid by that party or its insurer (Article 6:96(2) Dutch Civil Code). We work in Dutch, Turkish, Polish and English. Call 040 711 3099 or email [email protected].
What exactly does a personal injury lawyer in Eindhoven do for you?
A personal injury lawyer holds the liable party to account, maps out the full extent of your loss, conducts the discussion with the insurer and litigates when matters stall — and where liability is admitted, his reasonable costs are in principle borne by the other side. That last point is what most victims do not know, and the reason many people in the Eindhoven region handle their own case against a claims handler who does this every day.
What happens in practice when you instruct us:
- We assess free of charge whether there is a liable party and whether your claim is still in time.
- We hold that party liable in writing and thereby interrupt the limitation period.
- We instruct our own medical adviser, so that the insurer is not the only one with a medical reading of your file.
- We map out every head of loss — including those you would not think of yourself, such as loss of DIY capacity, study delay and pension accrual.
- We negotiate the settlement, and only record the outcome once your medical situation is stable.
The difference between having expert assistance and not having it rarely lies in legal theory. It lies in the completeness of the schedule of loss, in the questions put to the medical expert, and in the reply to an insurer who cites one low comparable case and leaves out the rest.
Where is Arslan Advocaten in Eindhoven, and how do you get there?
We receive clients from the Eindhoven region at our office at Croy 7C, 5653 LC Eindhoven, reachable on 040 711 3099. Our head office is in The Hague; we also have offices in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Tilburg and Eindhoven.
| Detail | Eindhoven |
|---|---|
| Address | Croy 7C, 5653 LC Eindhoven |
| Telephone | 040 711 3099 |
| [email protected] | |
| Type of location | office (by prior appointment) |
| Head office | Paletplein 80, 2526 GZ Den Haag — 070 450 0300 |
Croy is on the De Hurk business park, in the Gestel district on the south-west side of Eindhoven: directly accessible from the A2/N2 and the ring road, with parking on site. For clients who are unsteady on their feet after an accident or who come with a companion, that makes a considerable difference compared with an office in the centre.
If you cannot travel, we come to you. In cases of serious injury the first conversation often takes place at home, in hospital or at a rehabilitation centre. An intake can moreover be done by telephone or video call, so that interrupting the limitation period does not have to wait until you can get around again.
From Eindhoven we work for the whole Brainport region and South-East Brabant, including Veldhoven, Best, Son en Breugel, Nuenen, Geldrop-Mierlo, Waalre, Valkenswaard, Oirschot, Eersel and Helmond.
Which court hears a personal injury case from Eindhoven?
A civil personal injury case brought by an Eindhoven resident belongs to the District Court of Oost-Brabant, which has hearing locations in 's-Hertogenbosch and in Eindhoven at Stadhuisplein 4. Appeals then go to the Court of Appeal of 's-Hertogenbosch. The Oost-Brabant district covers the eastern part of North Brabant, with thirty-two municipalities including Eindhoven, Helmond, Oss and 's-Hertogenbosch.
For you as a victim that is mainly relevant in two situations.
In a preliminary-issue procedure. If negotiations stall on one defined point — liability itself, the choice of medical expert, the questions put to that expert or the level of non-material damages — you do not have to litigate the whole case. In a preliminary-issue procedure (deelgeschil) the court decides that one point, after which negotiations get going again. The costs rule is set out in Article 1019aa Rv: the court assesses the costs on the side of the person suffering loss through death or injury, taking into account all reasonable costs within the meaning of Article 6:96(2) BW. Those costs therefore count as a head of loss, not as ordinary legal costs.
In full proceedings. If the dispute remains unresolvable, ordinary civil proceedings before the District Court of Oost-Brabant remain.
In practice only a small proportion of personal injury cases actually reach a judge. Even so, the question of which court has jurisdiction is not theoretical: an insurer takes into account how credible it is that you will press on.
If criminal proceedings run alongside your civil claim — after a collision where the person responsible is prosecuted, or after a violent offence — you can join the criminal proceedings as an injured party free of charge. That can lead to a compensation order under which the state advances the amount if the offender does not pay: under Article 6:4:2(7) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Sv) the state pays out the remaining amount if the convicted person has still not paid in full eight months after the judgment has become final. Under Article 4:14(2) of the Decree on the enforcement of criminal decisions a maximum of € 5,000 applies in principle, which falls away for convictions for a range of violent and sexual offences. The criminal court will only deal with a claim if it does not place a disproportionate burden on the criminal proceedings; complex personal injury claims are therefore regularly referred to the civil court.
What does a personal injury lawyer in Eindhoven cost?
Where another party's liability is established, the reasonable costs of your legal assistance are in principle borne by that liable party, as a separate head of loss alongside the rest of your claim. Your lawyer then costs you nothing in principle; the bill goes to the insurer of the person who caused the accident.
The basis is Article 6:96(2) of the Dutch Civil Code (BW), which also treats as financial loss: the reasonable costs of preventing or limiting loss (sub a), the reasonable costs of establishing loss and liability (sub b) and the reasonable costs of obtaining satisfaction out of court (sub c). The word "reasonable" is embedded twice: it must be reasonable that you incur costs, and the amount of those costs must be reasonable. This is the double reasonableness test. Note that paragraph 3 provides that sub b and c do not apply in so far as the costs rules of Article 241 Rv apply; in court proceedings the ordinary fixed-scale costs therefore apply.
| How it is funded | How it works | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Costs borne by the liable party | where liability is admitted, your reasonable costs are reimbursed as a head of loss | before admission there is no paying party yet; make arrangements about that phase |
| Legal expenses insurance | your policy covers the case | under Article 4:67 of the Financial Supervision Act (Wft) the policy must expressly provide that you may choose your own lawyer in judicial or administrative proceedings or where there is a conflict of interest. The Court of Justice of the EU interprets this broadly: the insurer may not make that right of choice dependent on its own assessment that external assistance is necessary (CJEU 7 November 2013, C-442/12, Sneller/DAS) |
| State-funded legal aid | a toevoeging through the Legal Aid Board, with a personal contribution | income and asset limits apply; often not needed in personal injury cases |
| Joining the criminal proceedings | free of charge | only where a criminal offence is involved, and limited to straightforward claims |
| Violent Offences Compensation Fund | an application can be made without a lawyer | a contribution, not full compensation |
What we do free of charge in any event is assess your situation. You will then hear whether there is a liable party, whether your claim still falls within the time limit and what the next step is — before you decide anything and without any cost.
Where do accidents happen in and around Eindhoven?
The personal injury cases we see from the Eindhoven region concentrate in three areas: traffic on and around the ring road and the main urban roads, cycling, and work in manufacturing and logistics. That is no coincidence: it reflects how this city is put together.
Eindhoven combines a very busy traffic network around the A2, A58, A67 and the ring road with a fine-meshed system of main urban roads. At the same time it is a pronounced cycling city, with segregated cycle routes, busy school routes and a growing share of fast electric bicycles and fatbikes. And it is the heart of a region in which manufacturing, high-tech supply, construction and logistics account for a large share of employment — sectors involving machinery, forklifts and working at height.
On top of that, Eindhoven has many international workers and students. Anyone who has not lived here long often does not know the Dutch insurance system and is unaware that the costs of a lawyer are usually not for their own account where someone else is liable. That is precisely the group that too often enters into discussions with a claims handler alone.
| Type of accident | What we see a lot of in this region |
|---|---|
| Road accident | rear-end collisions on the ring road and slip roads, right-of-way accidents on urban roads |
| Cycling accident | collision with a car when crossing or turning; injuries involving e-bikes and fatbikes |
| Workplace accident | machine injuries, falls from height, being struck by a forklift on business parks |
| Occupational disease | exposure to substances, noise-induced hearing loss, physical overload |
| Medical error | delayed or missed diagnosis, complication after a procedure |
| Fall due to a defective situation | loose paving slab, missing barriers around works, slippery floor |
We deliberately quote no accident statistics per junction here: those figures are rarely properly comparable and say nothing about your case. What does count is how your accident happened — and that is best recorded on the day itself.
Cycling accident in Eindhoven: who is liable?
If you are hit as a cyclist or pedestrian by a car, motorcycle or scooter, your position is particularly strong: the owner or keeper of that motor vehicle is liable in principle, even where no fault can be attributed to them. This follows from Article 185 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 (WVW 1994), which imposes strict liability on the owner or keeper of a motor vehicle for damage to persons or property not carried by that vehicle, "unless it is plausible that the accident was due to force majeure".
The well-known 50% and 100% rules of thumb do not appear in the statute itself: they were developed in the case law of the Supreme Court. Their thrust is that part of your loss must in principle be compensated even where you made a mistake yourself, and that children enjoy more far-reaching protection.
What that means in practice for the discussion with the insurer:
- The insurer will as a rule raise contributory negligence: you were not looking properly, you were going too fast, you were not wearing a helmet, you had no lights. That apportionment is negotiable and legally complex — do not accept a percentage without substantiation.
- In collisions between two cyclists, or between a cyclist and a pedestrian, Article 185 WVW does not apply. Ordinary tort law then governs, and the evidential position is fundamentally different.
- With an e-bike or fatbike, much depends on whether the vehicle is still legally a bicycle or must be classified as a moped or motor vehicle. That distinction changes the liability rule entirely and is a genuine point of dispute with tuned or heavy models.
- If the other party drove on or was uninsured, there is still a route: the Motor Traffic Guarantee Fund (Waarborgfonds Motorverkeer).
Immediately after a cycling accident: get yourself examined medically, even if the symptoms seem mild; make sure there is a police report or accident statement form; note down witnesses; photograph the scene and your injuries; and keep the bicycle, helmet and clothing. A bent frame is evidence of the impact; a discarded bicycle is not.
Workplace accident in the Brainport region: who bears the loss?
In a workplace accident the employee's position is strong in law: the employer is liable, unless he proves that he complied with his duty of care or that the damage was substantially caused by the employee's own intent or deliberate recklessness. This is set out in Article 7:658(2) BW. The burden of proof therefore lies not with you but with your employer — a reversal that makes a great deal of difference in practice.
For the Eindhoven region, paragraph 4 of that same article is at least as important. It extends the protection to anyone "who, in the course of his profession or business, has work performed by a person with whom he has no employment contract". That covers agency workers and hired-in self-employed contractors in principle. In a region where much production, construction and logistics work runs through employment agencies and secondment, that means: even if you are not employed by the company where things went wrong, you can often address that company directly. Whether a self-employed contractor can rely on it in a specific case depends on the circumstances.
Report the accident, and make sure it is reported. The duty to report is set out in Article 9(1) of the Working Conditions Act (Arbeidsomstandighedenwet): the employer must report workplace accidents resulting in death, permanent injury or hospital admission immediately to the supervisory authority — in practice the Netherlands Labour Authority. In addition, under paragraph 2 he keeps a list of reported accidents and of accidents leading to more than three working days' absence.
If your employer does not report it, report it yourself. The inspection report is often the most important piece of evidence in the file later on: it records what the workplace looked like, which safeguards were missing and what instructions had been given. Without that report you have to reconstruct the situation months later, by which time the machine has long since been modified.
Alongside the classic accident, occupational disease plays a role in this region: harm that does not arise in a single moment but through years of exposure or strain, such as hearing damage or conditions caused by exposure to substances. Those files are more laborious — causation and the starting point of the limitation period are the key questions here — but fall under the same duty of care.
Medical error in the Eindhoven region: when does liability arise?
Not every disappointing outcome is an error: liability rests with the care provider who did not act as a reasonably competent and reasonably acting professional would have acted in the same circumstances. A complication that can occur even with careful treatment does not in itself give rise to liability. That difference — culpable error against recognised risk — is what this type of case turns on.
What makes a medical file different from a traffic case:
- The breach of standard must as a rule be established through an expert opinion: an independent specialist from the same field who assesses what should have happened.
- In addition, causation must be established: would your current situation have been fundamentally different without the error? With a missed diagnosis that is often the hardest question.
- You are entitled to access to and a copy of your medical records. Request that before you do anything else.
- Alongside a claim for damages there are other routes: the complaints officer and the disputes body of the care provider, and disciplinary proceedings. These do not lead to compensation, but often produce information that supports your civil case.
The liable party is usually the hospital or care institution, even where the error was made by an individual practitioner. Those institutions have liability insurance with specialist claims handlers. This is the type of case in which a victim without their own medical adviser is structurally playing catch-up.
What makes a good personal injury lawyer — and how do you recognise one?
Do not look for whoever calls themselves "the best personal injury lawyer in Eindhoven", but for whoever can explain what has to happen in your file over the coming twelve months, and why. There is no quality mark that means "best", and there is no ranking. What does exist are concrete questions with which you can distinguish a specialist from a generalist.
| A question you can ask | Why that question works |
|---|---|
| "Which medical adviser do you work with, and when do you instruct them?" | without your own medical adviser, only the insurer's reading is in the file |
| "What will you do about the questions for the medical expert examination?" | the questions steer the outcome; anyone without a view on them leaves that steering out |
| "Which heads of loss do you see in my case, besides income and medical costs?" | loss of DIY capacity, study delay, pension accrual and domestic help are the items most often left out |
| "When in your view will the medical end situation be reached?" | anyone wanting to settle too early is working in the other side's interest |
| "What will this cost me if liability is admitted, and what if it is rejected?" | an honest answer distinguishes the two phases instead of saying "it's always free" |
Also note the difference between a lawyer (advocaat) and a personal injury adviser or claims agency. Both can negotiate, but only a lawyer can conduct a preliminary-issue procedure or full proceedings — and that determines whether the prospect of litigation is credible. And note who pays the bill: if a party works on the basis of a percentage of your award, part of your compensation does not reach you, while the law in fact places those costs with the liable party.
What loss can you have compensated?
Your loss consists of two parts: material loss, your demonstrable financial disadvantage, and non-material damages, the compensation for suffering that carries no price tag. With serious injury the material loss is usually by far the largest — anyone negotiating only over the non-material figure as a rule leaves the greater part of their loss on the table.
| Head of loss | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Loss of earning capacity | income missed now and in the future, including missed promotions and pension accrual |
| Medical costs | policy excess, treatments, medication, aids |
| Domestic help | what you can no longer do yourself |
| Care and nursing | including where relatives take this on |
| Adaptations | home, car, workplace |
| Travel costs | to practitioners, expert examinations and the hospital |
| Study delay | for pupils and students |
| Loss of DIY capacity | odd jobs, garden and maintenance you can no longer do yourself |
| Out-of-court costs | the costs of your lawyer and medical adviser |
If a loved one dies as a result of the accident, surviving relatives have their own, more limited set of claims: funeral costs, loss of maintenance, bereavement damages and — where they suffer their own psychological injury through the confrontation — shock damages. Bereavement damages are set at fixed amounts under the Bereavement Damages Decree and are limited to a statutorily defined circle of entitled persons (Article 6:107(2) and 6:108(4) BW). Note the commencement date: there is no entitlement to bereavement damages where the event took place before 1 January 2019.
How much compensation for pain and suffering will you get?
There is no tariff per type of injury: non-material damages are estimated on an equitable basis taking all the circumstances of the case into account, with the nature and severity of the injury weighing heaviest and the outcome calibrated against previously awarded cases. Two people with the same injury can receive very different amounts, because their lives have been affected differently.
The basis is set out in Article 6:106 BW: for loss that does not consist of financial loss, the injured party is entitled to compensation to be assessed on an equitable basis, including where he has suffered physical injury, has been harmed in his honour or reputation or has otherwise been affected in his person. Where physical injury results from an accident there is therefore an entitlement in principle, provided liability is established. The discussion is almost never about whether there are non-material damages, but about how much.
What determines the weight: the nature and severity of the injury, the duration of recovery, permanent limitations, your age, the consequences for work, family, hobbies and social life, the visibility of the injury and the number and severity of procedures. It is striking that most of those factors are not about the injury but about the life around it. A wrist that no longer bends fully means something different to a mechanic, a violinist and an administrative assistant.
For that reason we almost always ask clients for a description of an average day before the accident and an average day now. In negotiations that document is often more persuasive than the medical report, because that report only names limitations and not what those limitations cost.
We deliberately quote no amounts per type of injury on this page: figures circulating online are often out of date or taken out of context, and therefore either too high or too low.
Read on: non-material damages in personal injury cases: level, calculation and procedure.
How long do you have to claim your loss?
For loss caused by injury or death a single period applies: five years, counted from the day after the day on which you became aware both of the loss and of the person liable for it. The absolute twenty-year limit that applies to other claims for damages expressly does not apply to injury and fatal-accident claims. This follows from Article 3:310(5) BW, which departs from the main rule of paragraph 1 on this point.
| Situation | Where the period in principle starts |
|---|---|
| Road accident with a known other party | at the accident |
| Injury that only comes to light later | on becoming aware of the loss and the liable party |
| Minor victim | Article 3:310(5) BW: if the victim was a minor when the loss and the liable party became known, the five-year period only starts on the day after reaching the age of majority |
| Injury caused by a criminal offence | Article 3:310(4) BW: where the event is a criminal offence to which Dutch criminal law applies, the claim against the offender does not become time-barred as long as the right to prosecute has not lapsed |
| Direct claim against the motor insurer | Article 6 of the Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM) gives the injured party a direct right against the insurer; Article 10(1) WAM makes that claim time-barred after three years from the event causing the loss — so much shorter, and without any awareness requirement |
Interrupting the limitation period is simple and sensible. A written communication in which you unequivocally reserve your right to performance in principle starts a fresh period. If you are unsure whether your claim is still in time, have that assessed before you do anything else — a time-barred claim cannot be rescued, however strong the case is on the merits.
How does a personal injury case proceed, step by step?
In principle you report the accident, hold the liable party liable in writing, your injury is assessed medically, and a negotiation process follows that in most cases ends in a settlement. How long that takes depends almost entirely on how quickly your medical situation stabilises.
- Reporting and recording. Police in the case of a road accident or offence; the employer and, where necessary, the Labour Authority in the case of a workplace accident. Photographs, witnesses, and keep damaged items.
- Notice of liability. A letter describing how the accident happened, holding the other party liable and interrupting the limitation period. Its wording partly determines what the discussion will be about for the rest of the process.
- Response and admission. The insurer admits liability, rejects the claim or asks for further investigation; there are agreed standards on response times for this.
- Medical stage. Your medical adviser assesses your situation. Where views differ, an independent medical expert examination follows, preferably with a jointly chosen expert and jointly agreed questions.
- Advance payment. Where liability is admitted an advance is customary. Where there is loss of income, that is often the most important thing to be arranged in the first few months.
- Quantification and negotiation. Your heads of loss are substantiated and the non-material damages are argued on the basis of comparable cases.
- Preliminary-issue procedure. If matters stall on one point, the court decides it without the whole case being litigated.
- Full proceedings. If the dispute remains unresolvable, ordinary proceedings before the District Court of Oost-Brabant remain.
- Settlement agreement. The settlement is recorded, as a rule with a full and final discharge. After that the case is in principle closed.
Loss is as a rule only finally quantified once the medical end situation has been reached: the point at which no further improvement or deterioration is expected. Where there is doubt about the future course, a reservation can be included so that a specifically named deterioration can still be claimed later. That reservation must be precisely worded; a vague clause offers little protection in practice.
What if the insurer rejects your claim or raises contributory negligence?
A rejection is not a final verdict, and a first offer is an opening bid — not a calculation of what you are entitled to. An insurer serves the interests of its insured and of its own claims burden. That is not a reproach: it is the role it has in this system. It only becomes a problem when a victim believes the claims handler is on their side.
| What happens | What lies behind it |
|---|---|
| A quick offer shortly after the accident | your injury has not yet crystallised; buying it off early is cheaper |
| An offer "covering everything" | non-material and material loss are merged, so you can no longer see what is for what |
| Reference to one low comparable case | cases with higher awards go unmentioned, and no index-linking is applied |
| Emphasis on contributory negligence | part of the loss is deducted; that apportionment is negotiable |
| Personal investigation or a broad medical request | building pressure and looking for an alternative explanation for your symptoms |
| Request for full and final discharge | closing the case definitively before the course of your recovery is known |
What you can do about this is less complicated than it looks: sign nothing while your medical situation is still changing, have every offer itemised per head of loss, and deal with the non-material damages separately using your own comparable cases. An offer that is not itemised cannot be assessed — and therefore cannot be accepted.
You do not simply have to agree to a request for your complete medical records. The scope of what is disclosed is negotiable and as a rule runs through a medical adviser.
Can you claim complaints that are not visible on a scan?
Yes. It is accepted in case law that establishing complaints does not in every case require an objectively demonstrable medical abnormality; it may be sufficient that the complaints are real, consistent and coherent and that an alternative explanation is lacking. The starting point comes from Supreme Court 8 June 2001, ECLI:NL:HR:2001:AB2054 (Zwolsche Algemeene/De Greef): no unduly high demands may be placed on the evidence for such complaints, provided they are real and not imagined, feigned or exaggerated.
For psychological injury a stricter requirement applies: as a rule a recognised psychiatric condition, established by a psychiatrist or healthcare psychologist. Against that stands the principle that a wrongdoer must take the victim as he finds them — a particular vulnerability is in principle not simply at the victim's expense.
In which languages can you come to us?
Besides Dutch, we assist you in Turkish, Polish and English, and we handle cases for international workers and students living or working in the Eindhoven region. For the Brainport region that is not a side issue: a considerable share of the work in high-tech, construction and logistics is done by people who did not grow up here.
Anyone unfamiliar with the Dutch system runs into three things: the assumption that a lawyer is unaffordable, while the reasonable costs fall on the other side where liability is admitted; mistaking the claims handler for a neutral body; and the time limits, which can be shorter than expected.
If you are an agency worker or posted employee and the accident happened at work, you can in principle also address the company where you actually worked, even without an employment contract with that company — Article 7:658(4) BW.
Which places in the region does the Eindhoven office serve?
Our office in Eindhoven serves the whole of South-East Brabant — the same area whose cases the District Court of Oost-Brabant hears. Among others, we receive clients here from:
| Direction from Eindhoven | Places |
|---|---|
| West | Veldhoven, Oirschot, Eersel, Bergeijk |
| North | Best, Son en Breugel, Nuenen |
| East | Geldrop, Mierlo, Helmond, Someren, Asten |
| South | Waalre, Aalst, Valkenswaard, Heeze-Leende |
If you live further away, or the accident happened elsewhere, that is no obstacle: we handle personal injury cases nationwide, with offices in The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Tilburg.
What happens when you call us?
In the first conversation you will hear free of charge whether there is a liable party, whether your claim still falls within the time limit and what step needs to be taken now. There are no costs attached and you commit to nothing.
It helps if you have to hand whatever already exists: the police report number or accident statement form, your employer's accident notification, letters from the insurer and a short description of your symptoms. If you have none of that, call anyway — interrupting the limitation period cannot wait until your file is complete.
Call 040 711 3099 (Eindhoven) or 070 450 0300 (head office The Hague), e-mail [email protected] or send your question via the contact form. Eindhoven office: Croy 7C, 5653 LC Eindhoven, by appointment.
This page provides general information and is not legal advice on your own case. No rights can be derived from the principles set out here.
Sources and accountability
The statutory rules referred to on this page can be consulted at the official source:
- Article 3:310 BW — limitation: Dutch Civil Code, Book 3
- Article 6:96 BW — out-of-court costs: Dutch Civil Code, Book 6
- Article 6:106 BW — non-material damages: Dutch Civil Code, Book 6
- Articles 6:107 and 6:108 BW — bereavement damages and fatal-accident loss: Dutch Civil Code, Book 6
- Article 7:658 BW — the employer's duty of care: Dutch Civil Code, Book 7
- Article 185 WVW — protection of non-motorised road users: Road Traffic Act 1994
Judgments can be found via Rechtspraak.nl. Statutory texts checked on 9 September 2026; the limitation periods, costs and competent court in your own case are assessed by the lawyer handling it.