The Challenge

In the Netherlands, 57% of residents face a legal issue every five years, yet only 3% of these cases reach court. Nearly half remain unresolved due to complex, costly, and intimidating procedures. This access gap challenges the judiciary’s dual responsibility: upholding the rule of law while ensuring citizens can engage with it meaningfully.

The Solution: voorRecht

voorRecht is a digital-first, end-to-end service designed to help citizens resolve disputes such as neighbour conflicts, home-owners’ association disagreements, and small construction claims, quicly, independently, and affordably.

Key Features:

• Digital-first, human-supported journey: Citizens begin online and are guided step by step. If needed, they can escalate to trained court-based facilitators.
• AI-enabled self-help tools:
• Explorer chatbot: Translates people’s stories into legal terms, clarifies their issues, and explains realistic paths forward.
• Case Comparer: Surfaces similar jurisprudence in plain Dutch, empowering users to understand the legal context.
• Structured resolution process: A guided workbook supports principled negotiation. A judge becomes involved only if earlier stages fail.

The Approach

A multidisciplinary team—judges, court staff, designers, behavioural scientists, technologists, and citizens—co-created the service over 12 months.

They developed personas, user journeys, a service blueprint, and a modular technical platform. Agile sprints enabled rapid prototyping, remote testing, and live pilots across three court districts.

Impact (mid-2025)

• 100 cases resolved—double the annual volume previously reaching court for these issues.
• 65% settled without judicial intervention, preserving relationships and reducing pressure on courts.
• 48-hour initial response, with most cases closed in under two weeks (vs. six months traditionally).

Scalability & Legacy

Now live in three districts, voorRecht will cover half of the Netherlands by the end of 2025. Its architecture is designed to scale across all civil domains. It exemplifies a shift in the judiciary’s role from reactive problem solver to proactive enabler of human-centred justice.​