4.7.3.3 Costs and fees in liability proceedings

According to the rules of professional ethics of the Dutch Bar, Dutch lawyers may not, in principle, agree to a "no cure, no pay" arrangement. Contingency fees are therefore not applied under Dutch law. The former Minister of Justice, Mr Donner, who is presently Minister of the Interior, is against contingency fees because fee structures of this kind would promote more litigation. I agree. In this respect the US could learn from the Netherlands and the UK, where contingency fees are equally unenforceable.

In the Netherlands, orders for costs payable by the loser to the winner are based on a statutory scale, with fixed amounts for each stage of the proceedings. This results in lower compensation for costs than the winner has to pay to his lawyer. If the winner were awarded a more realistic amount for costs, as in the UK, this would provide a greater deterrent against frivolous cases.