Brussels Court of Appeal Warns of Backlog Into 2028

Some cases before the Brussels Court of Appeal are now scheduled as far out as September 2028, the court has warned, as its first president formally asked Belgium’s justice minister for urgent reinforcements and said magistrates are “on the verge of implosion.”

In a letter to Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) consulted by Le Soir and reported by RTBF, First President Laurence Massart requested 57 additional staff. A more detailed note, reported by L’Echo and summarised by BruxellesToday, put the figure closer to 75 people — including 26 magistrates and 23 court clerks.

The court says it has decided to publish an annual state of play to make the scale of the problem visible, a move that signals mounting frustration within Belgium’s judiciary.

A backlog that outpaced staffing

Between 2020 and 2025, incoming files rose 60% at the French-speaking indictment chamber and 65% in the French-speaking correctional chambers, while staffing remained unchanged, according to figures cited by La DH. BruxellesToday and L’Echo reported even higher increases, at 69% in correctional matters and 55% at the indictment chamber.

Part of the surge is driven by a strengthened federal prosecutor’s office, which is sending more cases to the appeal court. “But this development has not been passed on to the Court of Appeal,” said Sophie Leclercq, president of the 16th chamber. A new financial section is due to be created at the federal prosecutor’s office, yet no additional magistrates are planned to handle contested cases after first-instance rulings.

To keep pace, the court has recalled retirees, substitute councillors and magistrates from other sections, while judges prepare case files during their holidays. “We are working with bits of string,” Massart said, warning that magistrates “are on the verge of implosion.”

According to reporting attributed to L’Echo and cited by BruxellesToday, the situation has already produced concrete consequences: the 4th French-speaking civil chamber, which handles insurance and civil liability matters, has been closed since March for lack of clerks and will not reopen until September. About one third of the court’s clerical staff is on long-term sick leave. In correctional matters, more than 2,400 files are awaiting trial, and in some cases no hearing date has been set at all.

‘An abandoned patient’

The court’s internal note describes the institution starkly as “an abandoned patient,” citing a “structural lack of resources,” and warns of “collapse” through “successive, increasingly strong waves” if nothing changes.

The court also invoked the “Julie Van Espen risk” — a reference to a young woman raped and murdered in 2019 by a man who should have been tried earlier for similar offences. The Belgian State was later held liable in that case, and Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt publicly apologised to her family in January 2025, as La Libre reported. The case has become a national symbol of the consequences of judicial delay.

The Collège des cours et tribunaux, which oversees the courts, estimates the Brussels Court of Appeal would need 25 additional councillors to function normally, and has echoed the court’s warnings about chronic under-funding of Belgian justice.

A wider crisis of confidence

The appeal court’s appeal lands amid a broader deterioration in relations between Belgium’s judiciary and its political leadership. In October 2025, the federal human rights institute (IFDH) warned that the rule of law in Belgium is eroding “insidiously and worryingly,” pointing to the non-execution of court decisions and insufficient resources for justice, as La Libre reported.

At the time, Verlinden said the report “shows once again that our rule of law is not a given,” adding: “For the rule of law, no compromise is possible. We must therefore make structural efforts and implement the necessary reforms.” Her office has since said it shares the judiciary’s concerns, noting that working groups were already launched and that more resources will need to be mobilised in the future.

The timing is delicate. The court’s warning arrived in the same week that Brussels King’s Prosecutor Julien Moinil publicly denounced political clientelism, recounting that an unnamed Brussels MP had called him to demand the release of someone in prison, as RTBF reported. Moinil has repeatedly called for more resources and prison places, placing the debate over judicial means squarely in a heated political moment.

The court’s note also pushed back, without naming him, at MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez, who had alleged the Brussels backlog had tripled compared with other jurisdictions. The signatories called such claims “unfounded rumours,” attributing the rise mainly to a massive influx of new cases.

Structural drivers specific to Brussels

Several factors make the capital’s appeal court a particular bottleneck. These include the split of the Hal-Vilvorde district, an increase in first-instance judges, and the arrival of the federal prosecutor’s office — more than half of whose cases, often the most complex in the country, concern Brussels. The capital’s role as the seat of the European Union institutions and of international firms also generates a high volume of civil, commercial and fiscal litigation.

The ministry points to an impulse plan, including a recruitment drive for around 113 new magistrates and roughly €12 million in investment, alongside improved working conditions and security. Critics counter that pension reform remains untouched.

What to watch

Much now depends on whether the federal government translates expressions of concern into hiring. The court’s decision to publish an annual state of play gives the public and policymakers a recurring benchmark against which to judge progress.

The immediate risk is self-reinforcing: as delays grow, more litigants may abandon or delay proceedings, and overstretched magistrates may leave — thinning the ranks further. Whether the 57 reinforcements Massart requested, or the 75 outlined in the fuller note, materialise will determine whether some Brussels cases are still being fixed for 2028 and beyond.