The Central Netherlands District Court now works with debt officers. Debt officers are court employees who can help people with debts. They can ensure that litigants with financial problems reach their municipality’s debt assistance sooner. Other courts have been working with debt officers for some time and have found that the use of debt officers contributes to a faster identification of people with debts.
During hearings, judges regularly see people with debts or financial concerns. By deploying debt officers, the court wants to help this group of people to come into contact with debt assistance more quickly. Pauline Elferink, project leader and senior judge at the Court’s Supervision department: “Repeatedly sentencing people with debts to pay claims does not contribute to solving the problems. It is more effective to see how we can help these people further.” can help. That is why we will refer litigants to debt counseling if they are open to it.”
Debt officers are trained employees who can be called by the examining judge if it appears during or in preparation for a hearing that the litigant has debts. They can also be present at specific hearings, for example in cases where people are in arrears with a housing association or health insurer. After the hearing, the debt officer will talk to the litigant, record the relevant information and share it with the municipality where the litigant lives. The municipality will then contact the person seeking debt assistance within three working days.
Source: Central Netherlands District Court
10
Tags: Central Netherlands District Court deploys debt officers
