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Questioner

How do I go about starting proceedings myself? A good friend asked me if I would help her with a case against her ex-boyfriend. He abused her last summer and was convicted for that on 23-12-2015. He had abused her before and then made a statement that they both signed, stating that he would give her an amount of money if he did it again. This statement/agreement was notarized. So he did abuse her after all. Now she wants to persuade him to transfer the amount in question. In the meantime he has received a letter in which he is given two weeks to do this. This period will soon expire and he will receive another reminder. The expectation is that he will not pay. That is why she wants to take him to court to force him to do so. Given the burden of proof, a judgment against him and the legalized agreement, she thinks she has a strong case. In order to save costs, we are considering not hiring a lawyer, but starting the procedure ourselves. I know that we cannot draw up the summons ourselves. My specific question is: 'What are the minimum steps I need to take to start and conduct this case and what should I take into account?'

Lawyer

In my opinion, the agreement is contrary to the law and therefore void and unenforceable.

Lawyer

In principle, freedom of contract applies in the Netherlands, but it is nevertheless restricted, particularly by the grounds of voidability and especially nullity. Article 3:40 BW stipulates that - paragraphs 1 and 2 1A legal act which, by its content or purport, is contrary to morality or public order is null and void. 2 Conflict with a mandatory statutory provision shall render the legal act null and void, but if the provision is intended solely to protect one of the parties to a multilateral legal act, it shall only render it voidable, unless the purport of the provision provides otherwise. The above agreement in paragraph 2 - the scope of the statutory provision ic the penal provisions of title xx of the criminal code, assault - is nevertheless null and void. After all, in my opinion it is contrary to good morals or public order to use an act that is prohibited by formal law and for which a penalty is imposed a contrario as a reward for the opposite behavior, the failure to comply with the penal provision. Moreover, the law regulates the penalty and not the citizen himself.