The first neighborhood court in Amsterdam deals with small cases, with a major impact on life
In Venserpolder, Southeast, the first neighborhood court in Amsterdam has been running for about a year now. One month deals with those small criminal cases, the other collections, in the heart of the district. ‘We don’t just want to decide, we really want to solve something’.
patience. An angelic patience and domesticity, which stand out during two afternoons in the neighborhood court in Venserpolder, Amsterdam-Zuidoost. After that comes the strength and the authority and perseverance of the judges apply, but they certainly do not immediately feel you as a ‘legal seeker’.
Take neighborhood judge Elvira Devis at her ‘debt collection hearing’ the following afternoon, receiving a trio of men at her large oval table in the room with gray carpeting, green walls and one row of chairs as a public gallery in the back.
Devis doesn’t wear a gown, only wants to in criminal cases. In addition to the clerk, two employees of health insurer Zilveren Kruis Achmea are sitting at her table, plus someone from the debt assistance. The company alone shows what it is all about today: looking for – or enforcing – solutions together.
‘What are you thinking about yourself?’
The first debtor is in arrears of 541.45 euros. If he can agree on an arrangement, then 25 euros collection costs will be deducted. He then does not have to pay the court fees that are part of a regular settlement.
“Honestly, it was just negligence,” he replies when Devis asks how the guilt came about. “I have the last of my health and it has gotten worse over the past few months. I was working on that.”
It is precisely then that it is wise to pay your health care premium, devis op. The man lives with his mother and has no work, but he does have a plan: he wants to set up a care foundation and help people in the neighborhood at home.
“If you pay an extra 50 euros per month on top of your premium, you will get rid of it well within a year,” the right side says to him. “What are you thinking about yourself?” Well, he likes such an appointment. He signs a settlement agreement for ten times 54.15 euros on top of the premium. The scheme will take effect the following month. Devis: “Very good that you have become. You better deal with this kind of thing right away.”
The next borrower is here for the second time. He is already paying off, but in the meantime has again failed to pay premiums. Devis: “If you have a problem with payment, you should call the health insurer immediately, otherwise things will go wrong again.” His son will help him, he says. He had lost his job at a cargo department at Schiphol, so he was even without a job. Now he works at the flower auction. “The shifts are too short, so I’m looking for some extra work.”
Devis is holding the case for more than six weeks to see how things are going. “Then I hope for good news, that everything has been paid for. We will see if it worked.”
The tone becomes sharper
The third ‘customer’, with a debt of 729.76 euros, is a sporty build in his twenties. Bandana on his head, sweatpants at half past ten, type of boy from the street. He needs work, but ‘little has happened for months’ and ‘it keeps growing’, he says in English. He refers to death that would help him in his job hunt. He lives with his mother and it is difficult for him to see his son in Germany due to the lack of money.
Judge Devis’ tone is sharpening now. “You are a young man, 26 years old, what did you do to find work yourself? There are so many jobs.”
Well. “I waited. She would help me.”
The women of the health insurance company join the court. “You don’t have to wait for help, do you?”
He will probably become an order picker in a warehouse, ‘but he doesn’t have the papers’. He ‘has little experience’ for cleaning rooms in a hotel. He has shown to have won it at a fivefold rate.
Devis: “Try it in three weeks. Or in stores. Everyone in the shops speaks English. Go out and see what you can do.They decide it “can’t go on like this forever.” “You have to come here at some point with a proposal. We’ll postpone it one more time. You can only cancel in six weeks because of work.”
The fourth debtor – beard, cap, jacket with fur collar over his hoody – has ‘a very considerable debt’ of more than 1000 euros. “The problems come, I try to solve them, but new problems come again, such as a severe hernia now.”
Devis: “Then it is all the more doubtful to pay the health care premium. Is it an idea to talk to debt counseling? He’s here now anyway…” That’s it. The debt counselor will ‘draw up a budget plan’ together with the debtor and his girlfriend. He has to come back in six weeks. Devis: “It is such a high amount, I don’t want to postpone it.”
Blown over from New York
The atmosphere in the room, more like a large room, is exactly as Maria Leijten had achieved, the family mate of the five neighborhood judges and four court lawyers. The neighborhood court in Venserpolder (4,500 homes) is the fruit of an idea that matured for more than ten years: an accessible court that does not rule on murder or rape, but on simple, smaller cases that nevertheless have a major impact on the lives of the local residents.
“It is a structure, it is not finished yet, but you have to set your big goals and then take small steps,” says Leijten. “You can’t just knock everything over and do it differently. In a mature organization such as the judiciary, it is difficult to bring innovation. Wherever you want something, three people say: not the past.” The main resistance? “We don’t just want to decide, we really want to solve something. That is not the notion of all judges, softly smaller.”
Leijten already visited it in 2011 and 2012 New York’s Red Hook Community Justice Center, in Brooklyn. Later, chairperson Christa Wiertz of the Amsterdam court and mayor Femke Halsema also went to watch.
“In December 2019, I became a project leader from the court. I then worked as a judge for three more days and filled two days with training courses for trainee judges, et cetera. This came while,” says Leijten. “Unfortunately, everything was locked due to corona, but then there was more room to properly fill the neighborhood judge phenomenon.”
Bindelmeer College made a classroom available, where Leijten settled ‘with her project team’. “Very important. If you settle down in Zuidoost, you get to visit people you wouldn’t otherwise reach.”
Leijten spoke to new residents and numerous people involved, from the ombudsman who lived in Zuidoost for a while to street coaches to the Faes foundation (For An Equal Society), which promotes possible neighborhood projects and the fight against racism.
“What could the district judge do?” I asked my interlocutors. “What should we definitely do, and what not? What are the conditions under which the district would welcome us?” She was also inspired by the district justice system in Woensel, Eindhoven, and South Rotterdam.
In November 2021, after much debate, the judge was able to move into the community center in the courtyard behind Albert Camuslaan. The first collection case followed in mid-December, the first collection cases in mid-January.
The core of the job: solving problems sustainably. “We remove everything that is just ballast. We look very practically: what can we arrange without violating the law? We keep a lot of things going, we want to solve everything down to the last detail.”
What distinguishes the neighborhood judge from a mediator or rescue? Leijten: “We have authority and perseverance, are accustomed to speaking with parties in conflict and know the law. We are neutral and do not have to answer to anyone.”
Enough positivity in Venserpolder
The municipality chose Venserpolder because neighborhood justice fits in with the big picture there Masterplan Southeast, and because residents of the neighborhood have encountered many camps, but as long as they remain fairly stable: sometimes three generations still live in the area. “Important: there is plenty of positivity here. People will develop, with a lot of energy,” says Leijten.
Leijten and her team are still hard at work to continue their ‘construction’. In the meantime, there have also been fifteen compulsory education talks ‘led by a kind of justice of the peace’, in which fourteen children went back to school. In the future, neighborhood judges will also deal with compulsory education cases.
The area in which the neighborhood court administers justice will soon be three times as large: the entire postcode area. This should ensure sufficient small criminal cases for the police judge (who may impose a maximum of one year in prison in his or her court). This also includes juvenile cases. The neighborhood judges would like to expand to include the entire Bijlmer.
When the neighborhood judge administers justice, two members of the public prosecutor’s office supervise. The ‘legal seekers’ have to go through a scan gate in the corner. Yet the security hardly detracts from the cosiness of the community center.
Big advantage: social work is in the same building. “They are also in our criminal cases, for voluntary assistance. A very useful addition,” says Leijten. “We are at the interface of justice and assistance. We are there for the small things with a big impact on life.”