PROFFESIONAL CONSULTATION IN THE NETHERLANDS. PART 1

Yomi Adenuga
Sep 10
8 min read

Updated: Oct 3

Names and identifying details have been changed to respect the privacy of individuals.

Consultations in the Netherlands: Dentists, Lawyers, Doctors, and other Professionals

In the Netherlands, professionals such as dentists, lawyers, and doctors structure their consultations with an emphasis on transparency, accessibility, and quality of service. Each profession has its own approach, but the underlying principle is to ensure clients and patients clearly understand the process and receive dependable support. Here’s a brief overview of what to expect in each field.:

Dental Consultations.

Book an appointment by phone or online after registering with the dental clinic.
Includes an oral health check, X-rays, and a discussion of treatment plans. Costs typically range from €50 to €250, depending on the required procedures.
All dental fees are government regulated, ensuring uniform costs across practices.
Most health plans covered children’s dental work, and sometimes adults’ dental work as well.
Many dentists are expat-friendly and offer services in English.

Medical Consultations (Doctors & GPs)

People can make appointments by phone, online, or during walk-in hours (spreekuur). An initial intake may be required upon registration with a general practitioner (GP).
Sessions last about 10–15 minutes and include discussion and physical examination where needed. GPs serve as gatekeepers of specialist care.
Dutch health insurance fully covered basic GP consultations. Without insurance, a consultation may cost around €175.
Home visits and e-consultations are possible in special situations. Many practices offer English-speaking staff for expats.

Legal Consultations.

Most legal consultations are by appointment at law offices, legal aid clinics, or special consultation hours. Initial legal advice is often free or discounted.
Hourly rates range from €150 to €400, but those with lower incomes may qualify for subsidized legal aid, reducing personal payment to between €226 and €952 depending on income.
The “Juridisch Loket” legal aid and various local clinics offer free or heavily discounted advice for basic legal matters. Clients share their concerns, while lawyers give advice, tell them how much it will cost, and suggest other services if required.
Specialized lawyers are available for various issues and language preferences, with simple information on fees before proceeding.

General Notes:

Across sectors, consultations are by appointment, with clear, regulated pricing and professional standards.
Bring a valid ID, health insurance information, and any relevant records or materials.
To ensure quality, transparency, and easy access, professional services in healthcare and law are closely controlled by regulators for both citizens and foreigners.

Professional consultations, whether in law, medicine, or banking, are fundamentally built on trust. Clients and patients open up sensitive details of their lives, often involving personal, financial, or health-related matters, with the expectation of confidentiality, honesty, and competence. Trust assures them that the advice or service received is not only accurate but also in their best interest. Without trust, the very foundation of professional practice collapses, as expertise alone cannot sustain meaningful and ethical client relationships.

However, most people who trust are naïve and naivety is not a virtue. It's a fault; it's partly a fault. If you're naïve and you run into someone who's malevolent, including you, they might do you incalculable damage, and you might never recover. That's not a good thing. You don't want to be naïve. If you're not naïve, that means you'll be burned once or twice or three or four times. Once you've been burned, it will be hard to trust because you will think, why would I trust you or myself, while I can be betrayed? You become cynical and that's an improvement. It’s better to be cynical than to be naïve. Even if it's premature and it's often premature with younger people.

So how do you get out of that conundrum? Well, this is a crucial thing to know. You trust people because you're courageous. It's a mark of courage to commitment. You make an agreement, knowing the other person is full of snakes and you are also.

There's lots of ways, this can go sideways, but you have to go ahead, to put together an agreement and articulate it out together and find something that is of mutual benefit to both. You may choose to shake hands, sign the agreement and try to stick to the agreement and risk trusting each other. It's a risk. Life is a risk.

That being said, be careful when it comes to so-called “clients/attorney confidentiality with your legal representative. Don't be naïve. I've experienced betrayal by legal representatives who sold out confidential information to the opposition(prosecutor) to get an edge over their clients in exchange for winning another much-needed case for them or a legal representative who turn to connives against you when there is strain in your relationship or switches to another representative. It might result in retaliation against you. I will elaborate further on this. Yes! Even though, professionals are bound by ethics, industry regulations, and reputational responsibility, ensuring quality and honesty in service delivery.

I attended a diaspora conference in Den Haag recently, one of the audience members raised the issue of unable to do farming being a farmer in Africa before relocating to The Netherlands but couldn't further his profession/skill or possess a farm in The Netherlands? This absolutely reflects his lack of knowledge of the system.

Firstly, the farming sector is guided by cartels. Secondly, The Netherlands is quite a small country geographically, and even some farmers and companies in The Netherlands go outside the country to purchase land for farming. That will be an unrealistic expectation for a diaspora.

Some professions operate under both written regulations and unwritten rules in The Netherlands. Take law, for example, you may excel academically, but entry into the profession often requires more than just passing the law exams. A referral is essential, and an apprenticeship of at least three years under that referral is mandatory before you may be fully accepted to practice.

Yet, this system has its drawbacks. I once lost a case to a completely unschooled individual. He wasn’t a lawyer, but being a white dude, he outwitted not only the entire court but also the trained lawyers, securing his exoneration. I was stunned. How could professionals with law degrees, who invested years of study and money, be defeated so easily? It showed me that many professions are not judged purely on academic merit.

At times, it feels as though anyone says, a farmhand picking potatoes on the farm could be dressed up in a black robe and presented as a lawyer in the court. Don’t expect the kind of courtroom battles of wits that we see in the U.S. or Nigeria, like O. J. Simpson’s legendary “Dream Team” of Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, or Alan Dershowitz.

The Dutch and American Legal Systems.

The Dutch and the American or the Nigerian legal systems differ significantly due to their distinct legal traditions, structures, and the roles of lawyers and judges. The differences specifically regards how lawyers confront facts and evidence in court. It is the fundamental contrast between the "adversarial system" in the United States and the "inquisitorial system" in the Netherlands. Dutch courts rely heavily on written evidence and statements gathered during the investigation phase. Reports, and expert opinions often carry significant weight in Dutch trials. Lawyers in the Dutch system have less influence over the presentation of facts and evidence compared to their counterparts in the United States.

The difference between the Dutch and American legal systems arises from their underlying philosophies:

Dutch System is "Inquisitorial" in nature. The focus is on uncovering the truth through a neutral investigation led by judges. The process is designed to minimize bias and ensure that the outcome is based on an impartial evaluation of evidence.

American System is "Adversarial". The focus is on a battle between two opposing sides, with the belief that truth is best uncovered through rigorous debate and confrontation in open court.

Experience To Learned from:

1. DENTAL PRACTITIONERS:

I had a dentist who's sent an enormous invoice claim to my insurance, and it was accepted although it was arranged with their contacts at the insurance company for smooth pay-out and those bills were sent to me to be paid. You have to be vigilant and obtain knowledge of how the dental bills are charged upfront. I was scammed and ripped off on two instances by dubious dental practitioners. Both forwarded frivolous invoices to my health insurance which were transferred to me to pay. The health insurance paid those dentists without verifying those invoices from me but of course, those dental practitioners have influence and know how to outplay the system. I was given a denture bought on Temu for 4 euros by a dentist and my insurance company was invoiced for over a thousand euros, and I had to pay this bill by force.

I once lived in an elderly community. 70% of the residents are already disabled from either the wrong medical surgery or became handicapped through an unnecessary surgery operation. Elderly are big industry, easily manipulated and are vulnerable. Some surgeries are not even necessarily needed but they are huge revenue for the practitioners when they are performed. You could be turned into a cash cow. One popular late-night show host recently was terminated (Humberto) when he blew the whistle on this subject on his TV show.

Don't get easily cajoled to get under the knife. Seek second opinion. It's like a hawk out there, no professional earns their living or pays their staff salaries and office space rents with fresh air. They need you more. The pharmaceutical industry is paying to recommend their drugs to patients too. I had a girlfriend in the past. All she does all day is drive around in a luxurious car, packed with gifts in her car trunk for doctors who recommend her pharmaceutical company's drugs to patients in The Netherlands.

2. CAR RENTALS:

I had a terrible experience when I once offered a replacement car after a car breakdown at a car rental company near Utrecht. The terms and car rental agreement were presented to me on a tablet to sign, you cannot view the entire clause of the agreement when you sign but was later send to me as PDF through email. You are only relieved to get home or to work after such car breakdown during the winter season and trust the agreement to be nothing but honest agreement according to government regulations.

I returned the car after a week without any damage, I later received loads of traffic fines regarding over speeding from the CJIB. I’m equipped with the knowledge of my past experience as a car rental owner myself. I know the protocols and the regulations, especially when a client violates the traffic law during the rentals.

However, this company paid the fines directly without my consent but claimed that the rental agreement that I signed includes paying on my behalf. First, I could not have signed such an agreement consciously, accepting guilt before a violation? no way Jose! Besides the fact that such agreement violates the government rental regulation. I have the right to protest and investigate such fine, rental companies can only charge an administration fee to transfer the fine to the driver and forward his information to the CJIB which I did in the past.

The company paid the fine without my consent and denied me the right to appeal and I have to pay the company. I disagreed. Some dubious tactic engaged by this company to extort vulnerable people. I dugged in and later discovered the trick. First, the agreement was signed on a tablet that won’t show the clause to pay on your behalf and later sent to me by email. Secondly, the company placed some gadgets in the car to monitor your driving habits, which is an illegal thing to do. I protested, the signed agreement to be declared null and void. There were 7 traffic violations in two weeks of driving. This was a route that I know like the back of my hands. I drove with my personal car on this route to work for more than a year without a single traffic violation. I knew something was not right with that company and the traffic violation fines. Checking Google review of this company, there are loads of bad reviews and unsatisfied clients with similar complaints.

LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES: Be careful when it comes to so-called client/attorney confidentiality with your legal representative. Don't be naïve. I've experienced betrayal by legal representatives who sold out confidential information to the opposition(prosecutor) to get an edge over me a client in exchange for winning another much-needed case for him or a legal representative who turns to connives against you when there is strain in your relationship or when you decide to switch to another representative. It might result in retaliation against you. I will delve more elaboratively into this subject on my next blog post.

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