Rechtswinkel: free legal aid organisation

What is the Rechtswinkel?

The Rechtswinkel is a voluntary organisation that provides free legal aid. At our front office you can ask any legal question you have. We try to provide the neccesary information or we will refer you to someone who can help you. Our back office helps to solve cases that involve labor law, rental law, social security and consumers´problems. For instance, we write letters to and negotiate with the opposite party or go to court if possible. We also try to help on a larger scale for instance by informing the public with flyers and articles in local papers about their right and obligations.

Who do we help and why?

The Rechtswinkel in Tilburg is the oldest and one of the largest legal advice centre’s in the Netherlands. We work for free because we made a clear political choice: we help tennants, not landlords; we help employees, not employers and so on. For the same reason we also have an upper limit of income. Also anyone who is member of a union or has insurance for legal aid first has to call on that.

Visiting hours

The Rechtswinkel has visiting hours on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 14.00 till 20.00 hours. You cannot make an appointment; you have to wait your turn. We ask for your patience when it is busy.

If you already have a case at our office and you need to drop something off or pick something up you can stop by to do so every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday between 09.00 and 20.00 or every Wednesday or Friday between 09.00 and 17.00 hours. At these times you can also reach us by phone. We try to anwer legal questions by phone, but please realize it is often preferable to talk in person with all the neccesary papers at hand.

Back office

At the front office we try to advise you with any type of legal question. Our back office only helps with cases regarding labour law, rental law, social security and consumer´s problems.

For instance:

Labour problems:

You have questions about your contract; you don´t get paid according to your contract; you have read the collective labour agreement for temporary employees (you can find it in the English and Polish language at  “http://www.abu.nl/abu2/pagina.asp?pagkey=98142″) and have questions about it; you are about to get fired and want to know your rights; your employer is about to go bankrupt and you want to know your rights…

Rental problems:

Your landlord wants to end your rental contract, but you don’t agree; there are several things wrong with your house or room, but your landlord doesn´t want to fix them; you pay a ridiculous amount of money for rent; you have problems with your energy company about your bills…

Social security:

You can´t find a job and need welfare; you want to ask the tax office for money to help with rent or health insurance costs; you can´t afford city taxes; you have a problem with the IBG, the institution that provides college funds and loans to students; your health insurance company wants to fine you because you didn´t realise you are obligated to have health insurance in the Netherlands…

Consumers´problems:

You bought a computer, but it doesn´t work properly and the salesman doesn´t want to fix it; the company you hired to put a pond in your garden didn´t do a good job; you have problems with your telecom- or internet provider; you have to pay a sum of money but you can´t pay it at once and want help to pay in instalments…

The above are only examples. At our front office we can tell you if we can help you with your question or problem or refer you if not.

How can you reach us?

By phone: 013-5353135

By fax: 013-5354281

Our address: Lange Schijfstraat 107, 5038 TT Tilburg