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.

What exactly are non-material damages?

Non-material damages compensate the suffering itself — pain, grief, fear and loss of enjoyment of life — and are entirely separate from the financial loss you suffer through an accident. So it is not compensation for costs or lost income, but for what was done to you and for what you can no longer experience as you did before.

In legal language, non-material damages are called immaterial loss or loss other than financial loss. That term explains exactly what it turns on: loss that cannot be captured in a receipt. You can produce the physiotherapist’s invoice; you cannot produce an invoice for the fact that you can no longer run, can no longer lift your child, or wake at night from the moment of the collision.

Precisely because the loss cannot be measured, non-material damages are assessed on an equitable basis. That means the court — or, in negotiations, the insurer — estimates an amount that does justice to the situation, on the basis of all the circumstances of the case and of what has been awarded in comparable cases before. There is no formula and no calculator that works this out.

For many victims that is the most unsatisfying part of their case. It is also the part where most can be gained in negotiation, because an amount assessed "on an equitable basis" is by definition open to influence by how well your situation has been substantiated.

What is the difference between non-material damages and material loss?

Material loss is your demonstrable financial disadvantage; non-material damages compensate the suffering that has no price tag. Together they make up your total loss. This distinction is the basis of every personal injury case, and it is explained sloppily almost everywhere — with the result that people think "non-material damages" is another word for "compensation". It is not: non-material damages are usually the smallest part of a personal injury claim.

	Material loss	Non-material damages (immaterial loss)
What it targets	financial disadvantage	suffering, pain, loss of enjoyment of life
How it is assessed	calculated, with supporting documents	estimated on an equitable basis, by comparison
Evidence	invoices, payslips, reports	medical reporting and a description of the consequences
Usually the largest	yes, with serious injury usually by far	no
Future loss	yes, often over decades	in principle a single lump sum

What counts as material loss is broader than people think:

Head of loss	Explanation
Loss of earning capacity	income lost now and in the future, including missed promotions and pension accrual
Medical costs	the excess, treatments, medication, aids
Domestic help	what you can no longer do yourself
Care and nursing	including where family members take it on
Adaptations	home, car, workplace
Travel costs	to practitioners, expert examinations and the hospital
Study delay	for schoolchildren and students
Do-it-yourself work	jobs, garden and maintenance you can no longer do yourself
Out-of-court costs	the costs of your lawyer and medical adviser

By way of illustration. A cyclist is hit and breaks their ankle. They cannot work for six months, drive to the physiotherapist every week and their neighbour does their shopping. The insurer offers "an amount for the suffering" and they think that settles everything. It does not: that offer relates to the non-material damages, while their lost income, the excess, the travel costs and the household tasks taken over are material loss — a separate, calculated head. As long as an offer is not broken down, there is no way of seeing what is actually being compensated. This is an illustrative example of the rule, not a case handled by our firm.

The practical importance of this distinction: an insurer who offers "a decent amount for the suffering" is thereby offering nothing for your loss of income. Anyone who negotiates only on the non-material damages figure generally leaves the greater part of their loss on the table.

Where does the right to non-material damages appear in the law?

In principle there is a right to non-material damages where someone is liable and you have suffered physical injury, have been harmed in your honour or good name, or have otherwise been harmed in your person. The statute names those situations expressly and at the same time provides that the amount is assessed on an equitable basis. That is set out in article 6:106 of the Dutch Civil Code: for loss that does not consist of financial loss the injured person is entitled to compensation to be assessed on an equitable basis (a) if the liable person intended to cause such loss, (b) if the injured person has suffered physical injury, has been harmed in their honour or good name or has otherwise been harmed in their person, or (c) if the loss lies in harm to the memory of a deceased person.

In addition there is the general rule that a person who is liable must compensate the loss resulting from the event — and that compensation for loss other than financial loss only arises in so far as the law gives a right to it. That is article 6:95(1) of the Dutch Civil Code: the loss to be compensated consists of financial loss and other loss, the latter "in so far as the law gives a right to compensation for it". Non-material damages are therefore not an automatic consequence of every tort; there must be a statutory basis.

In practice that threshold is rarely a problem in personal injury cases: where there is physical injury from an accident there is in principle an entitlement to non-material damages, provided liability is established. The discussion is almost never about whether there are non-material damages, but about how much.

Where it does chafe is in situations without physical injury: shock without a clinical picture, annoyance, or the mere fact that a norm has been breached. For "harm to the person" without injury, stricter requirements apply; the mere unpleasant experience is as a rule not enough. The Supreme Court worked that out in its judgment of 15 March 2019 (ECLI:NL:HR:2019:376): anyone relying on "harm to the person in another way" must in principle put forward sufficiently concrete information from which it follows that mental injury can be established by objective standards. The mere breach of a fundamental right is not enough for that. Only where the nature and seriousness of the breach mean that the adverse consequences are so obvious can harm to the person be assumed without that substantiation.

How is the amount of the non-material damages determined?

The amount is estimated on an equitable basis on the footing of all the circumstances of the case, with the nature and seriousness of the injury weighing heaviest and the outcome calibrated against earlier awards. There is no tariff per type of injury, and two people with the same injury can receive very different amounts because their lives have been affected differently.

The factors that make the difference in practice:

Factor	Why it counts
Nature and seriousness of the injury	the starting point; how far-reaching is the harm to your body
Length of recovery	months of pain and treatment weigh differently from years
Permanent limitations	what you definitively can no longer do; this usually carries the greatest weight
Age	a young victim in principle carries the consequences for a lifetime
Consequences for work	loss of a profession that defined your identity weighs heavily
Consequences for family and relationship	caring role, parenthood, sexuality, independence
Hobbies and social life	the loss of sport, music, travel, volunteering
Visibility of the injury	scars and disfigurement have their own, permanent weight
Number and severity of procedures	operations, rehabilitation, admissions, painful treatments
Degree of culpability	intent or gross recklessness on the part of the person responsible can increase the amount

What stands out about that list: most of the factors are not about the injury, but about the life around it. A wrist that no longer bends fully means something different for a surgeon, a violinist and an administrative assistant. That is precisely where a case is won or lost — not in the diagnosis, but in the description of what that diagnosis means in your case.

For that reason we almost always ask clients for a diary or a written description of the day before the accident and an average day now. In negotiations that document is often more persuasive than the medical report, because the medical report only names limitations and not what those limitations cost.

How much do I get for a broken leg?

There is no fixed amount for a broken leg: it depends on the nature of the fracture, how recovery goes and what permanently remains of it. An uncomplicated fracture that heals completely is as a rule assessed very differently from a fracture with permanent functional limitation, malalignment, post-traumatic arthritis or chronic pain.

What drives the assessment in this type of case:

• whether there was surgery, and how often;
• whether osteosynthesis material was fitted and whether it had to be removed;
• the length of immobilisation and rehabilitation;
• whether there are permanent limitations in loading, mobility or gait;
• whether there is chronic pain or premature wear;
• the consequences for work, sport and independence.

For an indication of the ranges, practitioners consult the Smartengeldgids, in which earlier awards are catalogued by type of injury.

On this page we deliberately give no amounts per type of injury. Amounts circulating on the internet are often out of date, taken out of context or from another country — and they are almost always either too high, leading to disappointment, or too low, leading people to accept a poor offer. A realistic estimate can only be given once the injury has stabilised medically.

*Read on: personal injury amounts and non-material damages: examples.*

What part does the Smartengeldgids play?

The Smartengeldgids is a collection of non-material damages awarded in earlier cases, catalogued by type of injury, and in practice serves as the main reference point in determining the amount. It is not a statute and not a price list: it is a work of reference with which parties and courts can compare their case with cases decided earlier.

That comparison works in principle as follows:

1. The injury is categorised — which part of the body, what nature, what seriousness.
2. Within that category, cases are sought that most closely resemble yours on the facts.
3. The age of the victim, the permanent limitations and the consequences for daily life in those cases are looked at.
4. Older judgments are indexed, because an amount from a judgment of years ago is worth less today.
5. It is then argued why your case comes out above or below the cases found.

Where it goes wrong: an insurer generally picks the comparison cases that come out lowest, and leaves out of account the circumstances that make your case more serious. The answer is not "I think that is too low", but pointing to other, better comparable cases and substantiating why those are more apt.

In addition there is a broader picture from the case law than the guide shows. Judgments can also be consulted directly, and recent judgments in particular are relevant when the amounts are on the move. Judgments can be consulted free of charge at uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl.

Why are non-material damages lower in the Netherlands than abroad?

Dutch non-material damages are traditionally modest compared with neighbouring countries, because in assessing them on an equitable basis the courts align closely with what has been awarded before — which keeps the level in place by itself. That mechanism is the heart of it: every new judgment looks backwards, and those who look backwards change little.

Some structural differences come on top of that:

• In the Netherlands social security and health insurance are relatively generous, so part of the disadvantage is absorbed elsewhere in the system and does not have to run through non-material damages.
• The Netherlands has no jury trials and no punitive damages; non-material damages are in principle not punitive in character.
• Loss is broken down in detail in the Netherlands: much of what elsewhere sits in a single amount falls here under separate material heads.

There is movement, though. In the literature and in personal injury practice it has long been argued that the Dutch level is too low, and there have been judgments awarding higher amounts than were previously usual.

For you that means two things. First: amounts from older overviews are as a rule too low to serve as a starting point now. Second: an insurer citing an out-of-date comparison case without indexation is structurally offering too little — and that is an argument you can make concrete.

Non-material damages by situation: where your accident fits

The test for non-material damages is the same for every accident, but the question of liability and the route to it differ considerably per situation. That is why two victims with the same injury go through a completely different process.

Situation	Who is in principle liable	Particular feature
Road accident	the person who caused it and their third-party insurer	cyclists and pedestrians enjoy special protection in traffic against motor vehicles. Article 185 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 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 is due to force majeure”. The 50% and 100% rules of thumb are not in the statute itself; they were developed in the case law of the Supreme Court.
Accident at work	the employer	the employer must in principle show that they have complied with their duty of care. Article 7:658(2) of the Dutch Civil Code: the employer is liable “unless they show that they have complied with the obligations referred to in subsection 1 or that the damage is to a significant extent the result of intent or conscious recklessness on the part of the employee”.
Medical negligence	the care provider, often the hospital	the breach of the norm must appear from an expert opinion
Violent offence	the offender; in addition the Violent Offences Compensation Fund	a payment may be available even without a solvent offender
Dog bite	the keeper of the animal	strict liability: fault is in principle not required. Article 6:179 of the Dutch Civil Code: the keeper of an animal is liable for the damage caused by the animal.
Defective object or structure	the keeper or manager	think of a loose paving stone, a broken stair rail, a defective piece of play equipment. Article 6:173 of the Dutch Civil Code (defective movable object) and article 6:174 (defective structure); for public roads that liability rests on the public body responsible for the state of the road.
Defective product	the producer	its own regime with its own time limits. Article 6:191 of the Dutch Civil Code: the claim is barred after three years from the date on which the injured person became aware of the damage, the defect and the identity of the producer, and lapses in any event ten years after the producer put the product into circulation.
Accident with an animal or livestock	the keeper	comparable to the dog bite

Road accident. The largest part of personal injury practice. Liability is often quickly clear from the police report or the accident statement form, after which the discussion moves straight to the injury and the loss.

Accident at work. Here the employee’s position is strong in law: the employer must in principle show that they complied with their duty of care, and only intent or conscious recklessness on the part of the employee themselves stands in the way. Agency workers and self-employed contractors working under authority can often rely on this too. Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code extends that protection to anyone “who, in the exercise of their profession or business, has work carried out by a person with whom they have no employment contract” — that in principle covers agency workers and hired-in self-employed contractors. Whether a self-employed contractor can rely on it in a particular case depends on the circumstances.

Violent offence. Alongside a civil claim against the offender and the possibility of joining the criminal proceedings, there is the Violent Offences Compensation Fund: a payment from the state for victims of an intentional violent offence with serious injury. That fund works with fixed injury categories and its own application period, and pays out even if the offender is unknown or without means. The application period is set out in article 7 of the Violent Offences Compensation Fund Act: an application must be filed within ten years of the day the offence was committed (for surviving relatives: ten years from the day of death). A late application is still dealt with if it was “filed as promptly as could reasonably be required”. The fund works with six injury categories, with payments of € 1,000, € 2,500, € 5,000, € 10,000, € 20,000 and € 35,000; close relations and surviving relatives receive a fixed amount of € 5,000. Classification is on the most serious injury. The payment is not full compensation, and is as a rule set off against what you later receive from the offender.

Dog bites and defective objects. These are strict liabilities: the keeper is in principle liable without anything being blameworthy on their part. That shortens the liability discussion, but moves it to contributory negligence — did you walk onto the property, did you tease the animal, were you not looking where you were going?

How much for whiplash?

With whiplash there is in principle a right to non-material damages, but this is the type of injury where insurers push back hardest, because there is usually no visible abnormality on scans. The heart of a whiplash case is not the diagnosis but making plausible a consistent, credible and non-simulated pattern of complaints caused by the accident.

The case law accepts that establishing complaints does not in every case require an objectively verifiable medical abnormality; it can be enough that the complaints are real, consistent and sustained and that an alternative explanation is absent. The starting point comes from Supreme Court 8 June 2001, ECLI:NL:HR:2001:AB2054 (Zwolsche Algemeene/De Greef): no unduly high requirements may be set for proving this type of complaint, and an objectively established medical abnormality is not always required, provided the complaints are real and not imagined, feigned or exaggerated.

What makes a whiplash case strong:

Element	Why it counts
Early medical recording	complaints that only surface months later are harder to attribute
Consistency over time	the same complaints with the GP, physiotherapist, company doctor and expert
Absence of an alternative explanation	no comparable history or concurrent cause
Objectively verifiable loss of functioning	sick leave, adapted work, abandoned hobbies, help at home
Neuropsychological examination	for complaints of concentration and memory

What insurers steer towards: a personal investigation, an extensive request for your complete medical history, and the contention that the complaints have another cause or that you would have dropped out even without the accident. You do not have to agree without more to the request for your complete medical file; the scope of what is provided is negotiable and it normally runs through a medical adviser.

Non-material damages for acquired brain injury (NAH)

Acquired brain injury is among the most serious injury categories, and the amount of the non-material damages is determined above all by the cognitive and behavioural consequences — not by what is visible on the scan. With mild traumatic brain injury in particular, the imaging can be normal while functioning has permanently changed.

What determines the weight in acquired brain injury:

• Cognitive consequences: memory, concentration, speed of information processing, overview and planning.
• Change in behaviour and personality: irritability, disinhibition, loss of initiative, loss of empathy. For the family this is often the heaviest, and it is why acquired brain injury is called "the invisible injury".
• Fatigue and sensory overload: the most underestimated limitation, and the one that most constrains daily functioning.
• Loss of insight into the condition: where the victim does not fully grasp their own limitations, which complicates the evidence.
• Permanent dependence: support, daily structure, supervision, sheltered living.

What makes this type of case special is that the partner or parent is often better able to describe what has changed than the victim themselves. A collateral history — the description by those close to the victim — therefore belongs in the file as a matter of course. Neuropsychological examination is as a rule indispensable, and with children there is the added factor that the consequences only become fully visible years later, when education or work calls on functions that have not developed normally.

With serious brain injury, non-material damages in the Netherlands run up into the highest categories.

With very serious injury the loss is moreover predominantly material: lifelong care, loss of earning capacity over a full career, home adaptation and support usually far exceed the non-material damages. A case that fixates on the non-material damages does the victim a serious disservice here.

Non-material damages for scars and disfiguring injury

With scars it is not the medical seriousness but the visibility and the permanence that weigh heaviest, and the assessment as a rule takes account of the place on the body, the age and the sex of the victim. A scar on the face or the hands is assessed differently from a scar covered by clothing.

Factors that drive the assessment:

Factor	Explanation
Location	face, neck and hands are permanently visible
Size and nature	length, width, difference in colour, raised or indented tissue
Development	hypertrophy or keloid formation makes the appearance permanently less favourable
Scope for correction	whether corrective surgery can improve the appearance, and at what cost
Age	with young victims the consequences last longest
Psychological consequences	shame, avoidance, social withdrawal
Functional consequences	contractures, restricted movement, altered sensation

What is often forgotten is that scarring has two tracks. Alongside the disfigurement itself, a psychological component regularly arises: avoidance of the swimming pool, the gym, the beach or new contacts. That component has to be recorded separately, otherwise it disappears in the assessment.

In practice: have the scar photographed at several moments, in the same conditions, and keep those photographs. A scar still changes considerably in the period after it forms, and an assessment at the wrong moment does your case an unnecessary disservice.

Non-material damages for psychological injury and PTSD

For psychological injury there is in principle a right to non-material damages, but as a rule that requires a clinical picture recognised in psychiatry, established by an expert. Grief, anger, shock or shaken trust are understandable, but in themselves generally do not give rise to a separate entitlement.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is the most common recognised picture after an accident or violent offence. It is characterised by flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance of everything that recalls the event, heightened alertness and persistent negative mood. Alongside PTSD, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and adjustment disorders occur regularly.

What carries a psychological case:

• a diagnosis by a psychiatrist or healthcare psychologist, not just by the GP;
• a description of the course: when did the complaints start, what was treated, with what effect;
• the consequences for work, relationship and daily functioning;
• the absence — or indeed the presence — of a psychiatric history, and how that relates to the current picture.

It is on that last point that insurers often focus: the contention that you were vulnerable and so would have developed complaints even without the accident. Against that stands the principle that a wrongdoer must take the victim as they find them; a particular vulnerability is in principle not simply at the victim’s expense.

Non-material damages for permanent disability

With permanent injury the degree of functional loss is often expressed as a percentage of permanent disability, but that percentage does not determine the non-material damages — it is one of the building blocks. Two people with the same disability percentage can receive widely differing amounts, because the percentage says nothing about what the loss means in their lives.

The percentage is established by a medical specialist using a standardised method and relates to the functional loss of the person as a whole.

Why the percentage alone is not enough:

Situation	Same percentage, different consequence
Loss of fine motor skills in a hand	far-reaching for a dentist, limited for a manager
Restricted shoulder function	the end of a career for a painter, a nuisance for an office worker
Loss of smell and taste	disastrous for a chef, inconvenient for someone else
Restricted walking function	the end of a sporting life, or barely noticeable

The moment of assessment matters. Loss is as a rule only finally quantified once the medical end state has been reached: the point at which no further improvement or deterioration is expected. Settling too early means that the later course no longer counts, because a settlement agreement with full and final discharge in principle closes the case definitively.

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 formulated; a vague clause offers little protection in practice.

Bereavement damages and shock damages: what is the difference?

Bereavement damages are a fixed amount for the grief of those close to someone who has died or suffered serious and permanent injury; shock damages compensate your own psychological injury arising from direct confrontation with a shocking event. The difference is not academic: it determines who is entitled, to what, and what you have to prove.

	Bereavement damages	Shock damages
What for	grief at what happened to another	your own psychological injury
Requires your own clinical picture	no	yes, in principle a recognised psychiatric condition
Requires confrontation	no	since the Supreme Court judgment of 28 June 2022 the manner of confrontation is no longer a separate requirement, but it is a weighty consideration
Circle of entitled persons	defined by statute	not limited in advance to a fixed circle
Amount	fixed amounts from a decree	on an equitable basis, depending on the seriousness of your own injury
Can be combined	yes, both can exist alongside each other	yes

Bereavement damages has a statutorily defined circle of entitled persons and fixed amounts that differ according to the relationship and the situation — death or serious and permanent injury, and whether an offence was involved. The circle is set out in article 6:107(2) of the Dutch Civil Code (serious and permanent injury) and article 6:108(4) of the Dutch Civil Code (death): the spouse or registered partner, the life partner with whom a joint household is permanently run, the parent, the child, the person who permanently cares for the victim within a family setting or for whom the victim provided that care, and finally “another person who stands in such a close personal relationship that it follows from the requirements of reasonableness and fairness” that they count as a close relation. Brothers and sisters are not as such included in the list; they have to rely on that final residual category.

The amounts are set out in the Bereavement Damages Decree and read (in force since 1 January 2019, unchanged):

Entitled person	Serious and permanent injury	Death	Serious and permanent injury through an offence	Death through an offence
Spouses and registered partners	€ 15,000	€ 17,500	€ 17,500	€ 20,000
Life partners	€ 15,000	€ 17,500	€ 17,500	€ 20,000
Minor children and parents	€ 15,000	€ 17,500	€ 17,500	€ 20,000
Adult children living at home and parents	€ 15,000	€ 17,500	€ 17,500	€ 20,000
Foster children and parents	€ 15,000	€ 17,500	€ 17,500	€ 20,000
Adult children not living at home and parents	€ 12,500	€ 15,000	€ 15,000	€ 17,500
Care within a family setting	€ 15,000	€ 17,500	€ 17,500	€ 20,000
Other close personal relationships	€ 12,500	€ 15,000	€ 15,000	€ 17,500

These amounts are fixed by law: they are not open to negotiation and are not adjusted up or down according to the circumstances.

Note the date of introduction. The Bereavement Damages Act (Stb. 2018, 132) and the Bereavement Damages Decree entered into force on 1 January 2019 (Royal Decree of 14 September 2018, Stb. 2018, 339). No separate transitional law was laid down for the civil entitlement; through the general rule of transitional law in the Civil Code it therefore applies that there is no right to bereavement damages where the event causing the loss took place before 1 January 2019, not even if the death or the finding of injury only came afterwards. That is a hard boundary: if the event is older, this head of loss simply does not exist.

Shock damages is something fundamentally different. Here you have become a victim yourself. The classic situation is the parent who sees their child’s accident happen, or the person confronted with the consequences shortly afterwards. In the case law this doctrine has been clarified in recent years and the requirement of strict, simultaneous perception has become somewhat less rigid: what is decisive is whether the confrontation was so shocking that psychological injury understandably arose from it. The Supreme Court reformulated this framework in its judgment of 28 June 2022, ECLI:NL:HR:2022:958. The essence of it:

• a person who suffers a severe emotional shock through a tort against another can have a claim of their own;
• whether that conduct is also wrongful towards them depends on all the circumstances, including (a) the nature, course and consequences of the tort against the primary victim, (b) the manner in which the person concerned was confronted with it and how far that was unexpected, and (c) the nature and closeness of the relationship with the primary victim;
• what is compensated is the loss flowing from mental injury established by objective standards and serious in nature, duration and/or consequences.

Importantly, the requirement formerly applied of perceiving the accident or direct confrontation with its serious consequences is no longer a separate threshold, but one of the considerations.

By way of illustration. A woman is cycling behind her partner when he is hit by a car and suffers serious and permanent injury. She sees it happen and afterwards develops flashbacks and sleeping problems, for which a psychiatrist makes a diagnosis. Two different entitlements then run alongside each other. As a close relation she may qualify for bereavement damages — a fixed amount for her grief at what happened to him, for which she does not have to establish a clinical picture of her own. In addition she may have her own claim to shock damages, but for that it is precisely required that her own mental injury is established by objective standards. So the question is not which of the two it is, but whether both have been assessed. This is an illustrative example of the rule, not a case handled by our firm.

Why this distinction matters in your case: surviving relatives are regularly told that "bereavement damages are the only thing you are entitled to". That is incomplete. Anyone who has themselves developed a recognised clinical picture through the confrontation can have a separate claim as well — with an amount that is not fixed. In practice the insurer rarely raises that question of its own accord.

Loss on death: what are surviving relatives entitled to?

On death, the victim’s own right to non-material damages does not in principle simply pass to the surviving relatives; the law gives surviving relatives their own, more limited set of entitlements. That makes loss on death legally quite different from personal injury.

What surviving relatives can in principle claim:

Head of loss	Explanation
Funeral costs	the funeral, in so far as in keeping with the circumstances
Lost maintenance	the income that falls away on which the surviving relatives depended. Article 6:108(1) of the Dutch Civil Code: among others the spouse or registered partner and the minor children, other blood relatives or relatives by marriage whose maintenance the deceased provided for, and those who lived with the deceased in a family setting and were dependent on them
Bereavement damages	fixed amount for the statutorily defined circle of close relations
Shock damages	where a close relation has suffered psychological injury of their own
Loss of do-it-yourself work and caring tasks	the loss of household and caring input

If there was a period between the accident and the death in which the victim suffered, the non-material damages for that period can in some circumstances fall into the estate — provided the entitlement to them was recorded in good time. Since 1 January 2019, article 6:95(2) of the Dutch Civil Code provides that for transfer under universal title it is sufficient “that the entitled person has notified the other party that they claim the compensation”. A single written claim during life therefore suffices; proceedings or a settlement agreement are not needed for it. The same provision makes the right to non-material damages immune from attachment. This is a point easily overlooked in practice and which, once missed, can no longer be repaired.

How long do I have? Limitation of non-material damages

For loss through injury or death there is one period: 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 limit of twenty years that applies to other claims for damages expressly does not apply to injury and death claims. That follows from article 3:310(5) of the Dutch Civil Code, which departs on this point from the general rule in subsection 1.

The first period therefore does not automatically start on the day of the accident. Where injury only becomes apparent later — or where the liable party only becomes known later — the period can start later.

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 awareness of both the loss and the liable person
Minor victim	article 3:310(5) of the Dutch Civil Code: if the victim was a minor on the day the loss and the liable person became known, the five-year period only starts on the day after they reach majority
Personal injury through an offence	article 3:310(4) of the Dutch Civil Code: if the event is a criminal offence to which Dutch criminal law applies, the claim against the offender is not barred for as long as the right to prosecute has not lapsed through limitation or through their death
Claim directly against the motor insurer under the WAM	article 6 WAM gives the injured person a direct right against the insurer; article 10(1) WAM bars that claim after three years counted from the event from which the loss arose — so much shorter, and without any awareness requirement
Very old event	for injury or death claims there is no absolute period of twenty years; only the five-year period after awareness

Interrupting the period is simple and sensible. A written notice in which you unequivocally reserve your right to performance in principle starts a fresh period. If you are unsure whether your case is still in time, have that assessed before you do anything else — a time-barred claim cannot be saved, however strong the case is on the merits.

How do you claim non-material damages? The procedure step by step

In principle you report the accident, hold the liable party liable in writing, your injury is mapped out medically and a negotiation process with the insurer follows that in most cases ends in a settlement. Only a small proportion of cases eventually reach the courts.

1. Reporting and recording. Report the accident to the bodies involved: the police for a road accident or offence, the employer and if necessary the Netherlands Labour Authority for an accident at work. Record the situation with photographs and note the names of witnesses. The duty to report is set out in article 9(1) of the Working Conditions Act: the employer reports workplace accidents leading to death, permanent injury or hospital admission immediately to the supervisory authority — in practice the Netherlands Labour Authority. In addition, under subsection 2 they keep 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 later.
2. Notice of liability. A written letter in which you hold the other party liable, describe how the accident happened and interrupt the limitation period. How this is worded partly determines what the discussion will be about for the rest of the process.
3. Response and acknowledgement. The insurer acknowledges, rejects or asks for further investigation. In personal injury practice there are conduct arrangements about the periods within which a response must be given.
4. Medical process. Your medical adviser assesses your situation. Where views differ, an independent medical expert examination follows, preferably with a jointly chosen expert and jointly agreed terms of reference. Those terms of reference steer the outcome; do not sign them without having had influence on them.
5. Advance payment. Where liability is acknowledged, an advance payment is usual, so that you do not have to wait years for the final settlement.
6. Settlement and negotiation. Your heads of loss are substantiated, the non-material damages are argued on the basis of comparable cases, and negotiation takes place.
7. Partial dispute procedure. If matters get stuck on one defined point — for example liability, the choice of expert or the amount of the non-material damages — a partial dispute procedure can have the court rule on that single point, without litigating the whole case. The costs rules are set out in article 1019aa of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure: the court assesses in its decision 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) of the Dutch Civil Code. Those costs therefore count as a head of loss, not as litigation costs.
8. Main proceedings. If the dispute remains unsolvable, the ordinary procedure before the district court remains.
9. Settlement agreement. The settlement is recorded, as a rule with full and final discharge. Read it carefully: after that the case is in principle closed.

With a violent offence a second track often runs in parallel: joining the criminal proceedings as an injured party. That is free of charge and can lead to a compensation measure, under which the state advances the amount if the offender does not pay. The advance payment scheme is set out in article 6:4:2(7) of the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure: if the convicted person has still not paid (in full) eight months after the judgment became final, the state pays the remaining amount to the victim, and then recovers it from the convicted person itself. Under article 4:14(2) of the Enforcement of Criminal Decisions Decree a maximum of € 5,000 applies, but that maximum falls away for convictions for a range of violent and sexual offences (among others articles 141, 239 to 254ba, 273f, 287 to 291, 300 to 303, 312 and 317 Sr) — there the full amount is advanced. The criminal court only deals with a claim if it does not place a disproportionate burden on the criminal proceedings; complex personal injury is therefore sometimes referred to the civil court.

Why is the insurer’s first offer rarely the final offer?

An insurer looks after the interests of its policyholder and of its own claims burden, and in practice a first offer is an opening bid — not a calculation of what you are entitled to. That is not a reproach: it is the role an insurer has in this system. It only becomes a problem when a victim thinks the claims handler is on their side.

What you come across in practice:

What happens	What lies behind it
Quick offer, shortly after the accident	your injury has not yet stabilised; buying you off early is cheaper for the insurer
Offer "including everything"	the non-material damages are mixed in with material loss, so it is no longer visible what is for what
Reference to one low comparison case	the cases coming out higher are not mentioned, and no indexation is applied
Emphasis on contributory negligence	part of the loss is deducted; that apportionment is negotiable
Personal investigation or medical records request	building pressure and looking for an alternative explanation for your complaints
Request for full and final discharge	closing the case definitively before the course 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 specified per head of loss, and treat the non-material damages separately and with reasons, using your own comparison cases. An offer that is not specified cannot be assessed — and therefore cannot be accepted either.

Are non-material damages tax-free?

What happens to the amount after you receive it can have consequences for your assets, your benefits and certain allowances.

The points to watch:

• Box 3 assets test. An amount paid out and sitting in your account counts in principle as assets. For box 3 that is hard: a sum paid out falls under the assets in article 5.3 of the Income Tax Act 2001, and the exemptions in section 5.2 of that Act (woodland and nature, art, savings schemes and a few rights) contain no exception for personal injury or non-material damages. The exception exists only in benefits law — see the next point.
• Benefits. Healthcare benefit, housing benefit and the child-related budget have asset limits; exceeding them can lead to loss of the benefit. There are ways of leaving personal injury compensation out of account. This runs through a request for an exception to the assets test at Dienst Toeslagen. The basis is article 9 of the Awir Implementation Regulation: at the request of the person concerned the asset limit for housing benefit, healthcare benefit and the child-related budget is disapplied in so far as the assets consist of — among other things — “compensation for non-material loss awarded before 1 January 2024” (subsection 1, under b, sub 1°). In addition, subsection 2 contains a separate exception for healthcare benefit and the child-related budget for personal injury payments the amount of which was fixed before 11 October 2010. Under subsection 4 a request once made carries over to subsequent calculation years.

What applies without qualification: the non-material damages element must be specified separately in the settlement agreement, otherwise there is nothing to delimit.

• Social assistance and the Participation Act. Compensation can affect the asset limit; as a rule personal injury compensation is left wholly or partly out of account subject to conditions. The basis is article 31(2)(s) of the Participation Act (alongside part l, which covers payments designated by ministerial regulation): other compensation for material and non-material loss remains outside the means “in so far as, in the opinion of the municipal executive, those gifts and payments are justifiable in the individual case and from the point of view of providing assistance”. That is therefore a margin of appreciation for the municipality, not automatic — it pays to agree the compensation with the municipality in advance and to specify the non-material damages element separately.

Sort these points out before the settlement, not afterwards. An amount once paid out without the consequences for benefits and allowances having been arranged can still lose part of its value.

What does a personal injury lawyer cost?

If another party’s liability is established, the reasonable costs of your legal assistance are in principle for the account of the liable party, as a separate head of loss alongside your other loss. That is the most under-reported fact in the whole of personal injury practice: people forgo expert assistance because they think they cannot afford it, while the law in fact places those costs among the loss to be compensated. The basis is article 6:96(2) of the Dutch Civil Code, 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 contained in it twice: it must be reasonable that you incur costs, and the extent of those costs must be reasonable — the so-called double reasonableness test. Note: subsection 3 provides that sub b and c do not apply in so far as the litigation costs rules in article 241 of the Code of Civil Procedure apply; in proceedings the ordinary scale therefore applies.

That compensation does come with conditions. As a rule it is tested whether it was reasonable to incur costs and whether the extent of the costs is reasonable — the so-called double reasonableness test. And for as long as liability has not been acknowledged, there is as yet no party paying.

Form of funding	How it works	What to watch out for
Costs on the liable party	where liability is acknowledged your reasonable costs are compensated as a head of loss	before acknowledgement there is as yet no cover; make arrangements for that phase
Legal expenses insurance	your policy covers the case	under article 4:67 of the Financial Supervision Act the policy must expressly provide that you may choose your own lawyer (a) to represent your interests in judicial or administrative proceedings, or (b) where there is a conflict of interest. The Court of Justice construes that broadly: the insurer may not make the right of choice dependent on its own judgment that outside assistance is needed (CJEU 7 November 2013, C-442/12, Sneller/DAS), administrative proceedings such as the dismissal permit procedure at UWV are covered too (CJEU 7 April 2016, C-460/14, Massar), and the right of choice applies equally to judicial and out-of-court mediation (CJEU 14 May 2020, C-667/18)
State-funded legal aid	a legal aid assignment through the Legal Aid Board, with an own contribution	income and capital limits; often not needed in personal injury cases
Joining the criminal proceedings	free of charge	only for an offence, and limited to straightforward claims
Violent Offences Compensation Fund	application possible without a lawyer	a payment towards the loss, not full compensation
Hourly rate	paying privately	ask in advance for an estimate and for interim arrangements

What a specialist lawyer actually adds in this type of case is less legal than expected: mapping the loss in full, engaging the right medical adviser, helping steer the terms of reference for the expert, and substantiating the non-material damages with comparison cases that fit. With us you can have your situation assessed free of charge before you decide anything.

Mistakes victims commonly make

Most of the damage in a personal injury case is not done by the other side, but by decisions the victim takes themselves in the first few months. These are the mistakes we see most often — and which can rarely be repaired afterwards.

1. Agreeing too quickly. Accepting an offer before the medical end state has been reached means that any later deterioration is at your expense.
2. Signing full and final discharge without a reservation. With that you in principle close the case definitively, including for loss you did not yet know about.
3. Playing down complaints with the GP. "I’m managing" ends up in the file and is used against you years later. Report complaints fully and early.
4. Waiting to report. The later complaints are first recorded, the harder it becomes to attribute them to the accident.
5. Giving an unlimited medical authorisation. A broad power of attorney gives the insurer access to your complete history; the scope is negotiable.
6. Looking only at the non-material damages. The non-material damages are usually the smallest part; loss of earning capacity and domestic help are usually larger.
7. Not keeping track of loss. Travel costs, own contributions, help from family and hours missed: what is not noted down is as a rule not compensated.
8. Underestimating social media. Photographs of a holiday or a party are used in files as counter-evidence to the limitations claimed.
9. Negotiating with a professional yourself. The claims handler opposite you does this daily; you do it once in your life.
10. Losing sight of the limitation period. A strong case brought too late is no longer a case.

Step-by-step plan and checklist

Straight after the accident:

1. Have yourself examined medically, even if the complaints seem mild — a record on day one is worth gold later.
2. Make sure there is an official record: police report, accident statement form, accident notification to the employer.
3. Note the names and contact details of witnesses.
4. Take photographs of the situation, of your injury and of the objects involved.
5. Keep damaged clothing, the bicycle or the helmet — that is evidence.

In the weeks that follow:

1. Report all your complaints fully to the GP and keep track of the treatments.
2. Start a diary: complaints, limitations, what you no longer do, who helps you.
3. Keep a loss file with all receipts, invoices and travel costs.
4. Note what help you receive from family and how many hours that takes.
5. Hold the liable party liable in writing and thereby interrupt the limitation period.

Before the settlement:

1. Sign nothing while your medical situation is still changing.
2. Have every offer broken down per head of loss.
3. Have the consequences for benefits and allowances assessed in advance.
4. Consider a reservation for specifically named future deterioration.
5. Have the settlement agreement checked before you sign.

When do you need a lawyer?

Not every case calls for a lawyer, but there are situations in which the difference between having and not having expert assistance runs into tens of thousands of euros. These are the signals.

Signal	Why it counts
Liability is disputed or rejected	without acknowledgement you never get to the loss
Contributory negligence is raised against you	the apportionment is negotiable and legally complex
Your complaints cannot be objectively verified	whiplash, brain injury and psychological injury require a specific build-up
There is permanent injury or permanent loss of work	the loss runs over decades and has to be substantiated arithmetically
A medical expert examination is proposed	the terms of reference and the choice of expert steer the outcome
You are put under time pressure	haste as a rule serves the insurer’s interest
It concerns a child	the consequences only become visible years later
Someone has died	bereavement damages, shock damages and loss on death run into one another
You are being followed or investigated	personal investigation is subject to strict limits
The offer is not specified	what is not broken down cannot be assessed

What it costs you: where liability is acknowledged, in principle nothing, because the reasonable costs of legal assistance lie with the liable party as a head of loss. (article 6:96(2) of the Dutch Civil Code)

Your situation in particular

Situation	What it turns on
Concrete amounts and examples	how earlier awards relate to yours	personal injury amounts and non-material damages: examples
Medical negligence	breach of the norm, causation and the expert process
Road accident	liability and the special protection of cyclists and pedestrians
Accident at work	the employer’s duty of care and the burden of proof
Violent offence	joining the criminal proceedings and the Violent Offences Compensation Fund
Medical expert examination	the independent examination and your rights in it
Medical adviser	what they do and why the terms of reference matter
Causation	the link between the event and the complaints
Authorisation	who may request medical information on your behalf

About this advice

Arslan Advocaten handles personal injury cases from offices in The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Tilburg and Eindhoven. We assess your situation free of charge, work with independent medical advisers and actuaries, and assist victims of road accidents, accidents at work, medical negligence and violent offences. Besides Dutch we speak Turkish and Polish.

Call 070 450 0300 or send us your question through the contact form. We will let you know where you stand and what the next step is.

This page gives general information and is not legal advice about your own case. No rights can be derived from the principles set out here.

Read also: Non-material damages for scars · Non-material damages after violence