Amsterdam court to test 15-minute criminal trials

The court in Amsterdam will test out 15-minute trials. It scheduled these “bulk hearing days” for 25 days in January and February to see whether it could handle some cases within 15 minutes while doing justice to all parties involved, AT5 reports.

The court selected cases for the bulk hearing days that it believes can really be handled in 15 minutes. “Briefness, speed, and at the same time doing justice to the interests of the suspect, the legal profession, and the injured party are always the starting point in these hearings,” the court said.

The bulk hearing days will happen at the court on Parnassusweg in Amsterdam-Zuid. The suspects and their lawyers will be notified in advance.

The reason for these short hearings is “to meet the social demand not to leave criminal cases on the shelf, but to handle them within a reasonable period of time.”

The court already held one such bulk hearing day in December. According to the court, the majority of the involved lawyers were optimistic about the experience.