“Friesland threatens first province to be without justice ‘- Volkskrant

"Friesland threatens first province to be without justice '- Volkskrant

By: Ana Es – 09/22/14, 06:00

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The court in Leeuwarden will disappear fear the judges who work there. In an open letter to the government, they are sounding the alarm. “Friesland will be the first province that has no law.”

• We want first with the judges in conversation . I can only say that there is no intention to close the session locations Assen and Leeuwarden

  A spokesman for the government of the District Court Northern Netherlands

The impending closure of the court Leeuwarden is a new chapter in a series of mergers in the judiciary in the northern Netherlands. Police, the Public Prosecution Service and parts of the law in the three northern provinces are concentrated in the city of Groningen. The Frisian judges now sound the alarm about the latest reorganization plans: all the office staff of the courts in Leeuwarden and Assen is moving to Groningen

The merging of the office staff is a quality investment, “reads the official reading. the court administration in the northern Netherlands. Three recent studies, which have not been made public, would show that the quality of justice in Leeuwarden and Assen is insufficient. At one location sessions may be better prepared.

“According to the plan is only the office staff to Groningen,” said the spokesman of the government of the District Court Northern Netherlands. The lawsuits would still be done locally.

The Frisian judges believe nothing of it, they write in an open letter in the Leeuwarden Courant Saturday. The transfer of the office staff to Groningen they see it as a step which disappear from the law in Friesland irrevocably the sequel will be. ”

‘Socially irresponsible’

A court stripped of legal staff, which only occasionally visiting judges come sessions to run, they see as unworkable and “socially irresponsible.” Citizens will have in such a court no longer trust.

The board of the District Court Northern Netherlands will not comment on the letter to. “We first want to talk with the judges,” said the spokesman. “I can only say that there is no intention to close the session. Locations Assen and Leeuwarden ‘

The Frisian judges denounced the” increasing merger chaos’ in which they work. During the review of the judicial system in 2013, the number of districts was reduced from nineteen to ten.

in the Netherlands

The northern provinces are thereby drastically reorganized. The formerly independent courts in Groningen, Assen and Leeuwarden are fused into one administrative organization: the Court Northern Netherlands. At the same time the Court of Appeal of Leeuwarden merged with the office in Arnhem, 160 kilometers away.