Derk-Jan van der Kolk

Derk-Jan van der Kolk has been an attorney at law since 1986. He is a partner in the Insurance and Shipping & Offshore sector groups of Van Traa Advocaten.

Derk-Jan specialises in insurance and liability law, with a focus on personal injury and death, fire and environmental claims, including asbestos-related problems. He advises insurers and companies on liability insurance, fraud, fire insurance, technical insurance, professional liability and general policy interpretation issues as well as injury and death claims.

Derk-Jan is a well-known name in the personal injury industry. He has been vice-president and chairman of the Quality Committee of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (LSA). Since 2019, he has been an honorary member of LSA.

Derk-Jan is a member of the Chamber for Long-Term Personal Injury Cases (arbitration). As a board member of VSSA (Stichting vergoeding schade slachtoffers schietincident Alphen aan den Rijn), he is involved in the settlement of damages caused by the shooting incident in shopping centre "De Ridderhof" in Alphen aan den Rijn.

Derk-Jan is also a board member of the DES Fund. The DES Fund was set up to award compensation to victims of the drug DES.

He is also a board member of the Schadeloket Verzekeraars Chroom-6 Tilburg, which determines compensation for personal injury claims arising from exposure to Chromium-6.

Since 2023, Derk-Jan has been actively involved in the (Equal) Dignified Recovery Foundation. Through this foundation, a low-threshold and accelerated recovery model has been developed for victims of the childcare allowance affair.

In the past, Derk-Jan has been a member of the Compensation Committee for Sexual Abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands (2013-2017).

Derk-Jan is also chairman of the General Council of Churches of the Protestant Congregation Rotterdam-Noordrand.