First lawsuits before the local court should be possible purely digitally

Federal Minister of Justice Stefanie Hubig (SPD) wants to use digital technologies to facilitate access to justice and increase the efficiency of the administration of justice. To this end, she published a draft law on Friday with which a new online procedure in civil jurisdiction is to be developed and tested. According to the bill, citizens who wish to bring a straightforward monetary claim before the local court will initially have access to a simple and fully digital procedure.

The"online civil court procedure" was recently developed and presented by the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Digital Service. Since the end of March, citizens have been able to use a digital input system to create a complaint in the area of air passenger rights and submit it to affiliated judicial institutions. This applies in particular to cases of delays, cancellations or denied boarding under the EU Passenger Rights Regulation. At the start, seven "pilot courts" supported the legal tech project with their technical expertise.

This online service is now to be expanded and initially extended to include small claims. According to the draft, which is based on a government bill from the traffic light era, those seeking legal advice will be supported in preparing a lawsuit by means of information services and query dialogs. Electronic legal transactions will initially continue to be used for filing lawsuits. Citizens should use the free My Judicial Mailbox service launched in fall 2023. They will need the controversial BundID to log in. The legal profession is to be included in the trial via the existing infrastructure of the special electronic lawyers' mailbox (beA), the use of which is also controversial.

Court fees to fall

The state governments want to authorize the justice department to determine the local courts that test the online procedure in live operation by statutory order. The general procedural rules of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO) are to be amended so that an oral hearing is not necessary and the use of video conferencing systems is to be expanded at the same time. According to the initiative, the evidence procedure will be simplified. It should be possible to replace the pronouncement of a judgment in online proceedings with its legally effective digital delivery.

At the same time, the structuring of procedural material, the end-to-end digitalization of proceedings and more data-based communication should make the work of the courts – more efficient and save resources, particularly in mass proceedings such as in the area of air passenger rights –.

The online procedure will be tested over a period of ten years. In order to further develop the service, an evaluation is planned after four and eight years after the law comes into force. The court fees for the digital procedure are to be reduced in order to create economically attractive access to justice for low-threshold claims. Hubig emphasized: "Only justice that is easily accessible for everyone is really good justice." The project still has to pass through the federal cabinet, parliament and the state chambers.

(vbr)