THE BOTTOM LINE
- Even if a Dutch administrative body concedes during an appeal, you are still entitled to have the court order that body to pay your reasonable legal costs.
- Expert witness fees are capped at a statutory hourly rate, and courts will disallow reimbursement for tasks deemed purely administrative, such as “file creation” or general “planning.”
- To maximize cost recovery, businesses and their counsel must ensure expert invoices are transparent and clearly link all billed time to substantive work on the case.
THE DETAILS
This case provides a valuable lesson for any business engaged in administrative appeals in the Netherlands. The dispute began when an individual challenged a decision by the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV). After the appeal was filed but before a hearing took place, the UWV reversed its decision and granted the appellant’s claim in full. The appellant then withdrew their court appeal, leaving only the matter of legal costs to be decided. Under Dutch law, if a government body effectively concedes during litigation, the party that brought the appeal can ask the court to order that body to cover their costs.
The court quickly settled the standard legal fees, awarding the fixed-point rate of €907 for the lawyer’s work in filing the appeal. The main point of contention, however, was the €4,196 invoice from a medical expert hired by the appellant. The UWV argued the number of hours was excessive and included non-reimbursable administrative support. The court agreed to a partial reimbursement, confirming that expert costs are recoverable but are subject to strict rules. The reimbursement is based on a statutory instrument (the Besluit tarieven in strafzaken 2003), which caps the hourly rate for experts at €162.63 for 2025.
The court’s decision offers a clear roadmap for what is and what is not considered a recoverable expert cost. The court allowed reimbursement for substantive work, including time spent reviewing the case file, drafting the expert report, and time for the client’s review and correction of that report. However, it explicitly disallowed costs for “file creation and planning” and “finalizing the report.” Citing higher court precedent, the judge classified these activities as general administrative overhead, not direct expert work for the legal case. By trimming these administrative and vaguely described hours, the court reduced the recoverable expert fees from the claimed €4,196 to €2,114, underscoring the need for detailed and justifiable billing from all third-party experts.
SOURCE
Source: Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant
