Martine Wernsen
Lawyer and mediator
at Family Lawyer The Hague
0031 (0)6-24137819
Voorburg
The Netherlands
Visit company website
Martine has been an lawyer since 2003. She has experience in criminal law, juvenile law, family law and psychiatric patient law. She also works as a mediator.
Since a few years she focuses on family cases involving relocation of children and child abduction.
Martine has created this website (www.carefulchildrelocation.com) to draw more attention to these issues and to ensure a good cooperation between clients and lawyers in these often urgent cases. In addition to her practice, she is working daily to add information about these types of cases to this website.
Martine speaks Dutch and English.
Subsidized legal aid is not possible
Relevant experiences and positions
During her work as a lawyer in the Netherlands, Martine has completed several specialization courses in the fields of criminal law, juvenile law and family law. She was also an active board member of the Hague Association of Juvenile Lawyers. This diversity of interests and experience are useful in child abduction cases, since that is where those different areas of law intersect.
In 2021, Martine started writing for Careful child relocation. At first, that website was ment just for her office. It was only later that she realized how valuable it would be to share this web site with other lawyers from many different countries.
Some personal questions
When did you first handle a child abduction case?
It was in 2016. My colleague already had experience with these cases, but for me it was quite overwhelming.
Why is it interesting for you as a lawyer to work on these cases?
For me, it is nice to work intensively with my clients over a number of months. You have to dive right in and make sure that the client feels that he or she can be open and honest and that you don’t miss any important details
Which cases are you most concerned with?
With cases where siblings no longer grow up in the same country. I think that bond is hugely important and deserves more protection.
What do you think will change in the future in this area of law?
I think and hope that there will be more focus on the importance of children growing up with their siblings. And I hope that there will be better communication with children about how the fact that they are allowed to talk to the judge or guardian ad litem does not mean that their opinion will be decisive.
What is your advice to parents dealing with international child abduction?
Try to look at the dispute from some distance. Try to think about how you want to look back on this period in 5 or 10 years. Will you be able to explain to your children how you acted in these proceedings? Can you say that you tried to look at it objectively?