Waiting downstairs in a community building in Woensel are a couple of people who have come for legal advice; upstairs at the ready is a team of law students keen to offer their help. The students work here as volunteers one evening a week and see this role as an internship of sorts. “You can complete your legal studies without once having worked in the real world,” says Bo Diepstraten. She is a final year law student at Tilburg University. Martine Boonstra, a recent Tilburg graduate, adds: “At uni you learn the theory, here you get stuck into practical work on domestic issues. You learn to deal with clients, clarify a problem, write advice and plenty more.”

Eviction

Problems brought by students often concern tenancy issues or things that go wrong with their consumer purchases. “We have students coming here every week. The issue could be brokerage fees asked by a real estate agent (not allowed), who is going to pay for repair costs in a rented property, getting back a deposit, you name it,” says Frank Rutgers. He recently started working for a law firm and is a board member of Eindhoven's legal advice center (stichting Rechtswinkel Eindhoven). When he was a student, housing corporation Trudo threatened to stop renting his accommodation. “That sort of thing isn't uncommon. We help with the process of sending a legal letter to a large organization and can find out what will happen if you refuse to vacate your room.”

Rutgers tells us that it would be good if more people knew of the existence of Rechtswinkel Eindhoven (the legal advice center), which has now been running for ten years. “We have more people providing assistance than people needing it and we can do a great deal to help students and internationals.” Only recently Diepstraten helped an Italian client with a tenancy agreement. “Tenancy law and housing benefit are based entirely on Dutch law and the websites about them are not in English.”

Pregnant girlfriend

Less run of the mill was the case of a young man who paid a visit to discuss a problem concerning pregnancy. “He'd been seeing his girlfriend for six months and after having unsafe sex she was expecting a child. His first question was: ‘Can I prevent this baby being born?’. The answer was simple: ‘No’. But in answer to his second question we could give more expansive advice,” says Boonstra. “’Can I have nothing to do with this baby?’ Well, he will always be the biological father but he could decide not to acknowledge his paternity. We stated his rights and obligations, for example about alimony.”

One case Diepstraten remembers well is that of a foreign student who had gone back home to visit her parents for Christmas. She had tried to bring food supplements whose ingredients included mushrooms back into the Netherlands. These were seized by customs officers. “She wanted to know whether she could avoid paying a fine and whether she would get a criminal record. By the way, we don't handle any criminal matters.” The volunteers can help students with matters concerning social security, employment law, and problems with the government or fellow citizens.

Walk-in clinic: every Tuesday and Thursday from 19:30 hrs to 21:00 hrs. For opening hours in the summer vacation first look on the site, because in July and August they are mostly closed.

Address: Nieuwe Fellenoord 7, Eindhoven