A New Battle For Open Justice

In a new ruling on April 21, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that Dutch courts must disclose more case data. This includes data such as the names of the parties involved, hearing dates, the status of the proceedings, and any judgments. This takes a big step but still does not provide full disclosure. The Supreme Court explicitly notes that courts are not required to disclose other types of information. Similarly, not about cases that have already ended without a verdict, such as settlements. In practice, it is very common for cases to be settled, so this will remain an important gap. In this article, I address this ruling and why this new disclosure may be relevant to you as well.

The case