Justice: Introduction of the geman E-Akte is postponed

The entire justice system is to be converted to electronic file management in all areas. While some users are already benefiting from the E-Akte and saving paper and time, things are not running smoothly everywhere. Many countries are currently in the process of introducing the "E-Akte in criminal proceedings". Now the deadline is to be extended to the beginning of 2027. The pilot phase for the E-Akte started back in 2016. The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) has now presented a draft bill, which has been approved by the Federal Cabinet.

The federal states were actually supposed to be obliged to use the electronic file by January 1, 2026. With the recently created legal basis, the federal and state governments should still be able to use paper files after January 1 if necessary. There are also to be "case-by-case exceptions" to the electronic form, for example if the effort would otherwise be too high.

At the end of July, Verdi called for the rollout of the E-Akte to be extended. Media such as Bayerischer Rundfunk reported frequent system crashes and delays at the local, regional and higher regional courts as well as at the public prosecutor's offices. Official error messages were also demanded. The Rundblick previously reported that the Lower Saxony Ministry did not consider a postponement to be necessary despite the problems. A notice has been in place since the beginning of September: "We are converting our procedures to the E-Akte and ask for your understanding for temporary delays".

In Hesse, the changeover is also proceeding according to plan. When asked, a spokesperson for the Hessian Ministry of Justice told heise online on September 2 that the E-Akte would be implemented on time by the start date. One challenge, however, is "the electronic supply of the federal investigative authorities (main customs office, federal police, federal criminal investigation office) and the tax authorities, which is currently still being set up". However, the judiciary can only influence this "to a limited extent", "as the investigative authorities concerned are the responsibility of other departments".

E-Akte and e-procedural file

The Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Justice and Health reported that the "introduction of the electronic administrative file in the judiciary" had been completed and that the electronic procedural file was "progressing according to plan". By the end of 2025, "the introduction of electronic files in the justice system will be complete". The E-Akte is currently being rolled out in "criminal and fine cases".

The electronic case file affects the various jurisdictions and is being introduced at different speeds in the various courts and specialist areas depending on the federal state. Affected are

• Ordinary jurisdiction (civil, criminal, family, voluntary jurisdiction, penal system)
• Labor jurisdiction
• Administrative jurisdiction
• Financial jurisdiction
• Social jurisdiction

"Except the criminal and misdemeanor area (editor's note: misdemeanor stands for administrative offences), the introduction of the electronic case file in the specialist courts and in ordinary jurisdiction has been completed," said the Ministry of Justice spokesperson. The work with the E-Akte in criminal cases is "particularly dependent on the electronic supply of the police", according to the spokesperson, who referred to the Ministry of the Interior in this matter.

According to the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Interior, "no particular difficulties have arisen with the E-Akte administration". "The electronic file in criminal cases is currently in operation in four police directorates of the Schleswig-Holstein state police force and around 3,000 members of the security and criminal police are working with it," said a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior. The application is very user-friendly, but is still being optimized.

"A communication component was damaged at the end of August 2025," the spokesperson told heise online. To avoid data loss, "the Schleswig-Holstein state police, among others, had to stop sending electronic files in criminal cases to the public prosecutor's offices for a few days". The disruption has since been completely rectified. There was no loss of data.

Banana software for the police?

The Association of German Criminal Investigators (Bund Deutscher Kriminaleamter, BDK) in Schleswig-Holstein had therefore called for software errors to be rectified and operations to be stabilized. "For extensive procedures, it is becoming apparent that the software is not yet sufficiently mature for the requirements that arise," said the BDK. In too many places, the motto "workaround instead of workflow" applies. "Unthought-out or missing functions" would also force detours in order to achieve goals.

In addition, the BDK would like to see "the rapid implementation of further necessary functions, such as text recognition, a user-friendly citation function for easy linking directly to the references or a file reader for continuous reading of the entire file and not just individual documents". Nevertheless, the association wants to remain constructive "and campaign for a practicable solution that meets the requirements of a modern criminal investigation department and is not just ergonomic in name only".

According to the report, all local courts in the Hessian judiciary "now work with the leading eFile in civil, family, insolvency, care, probate, chattel execution, forced sale and forced administration cases". "All regional courts in civil proceedings and all specialist courts in Hesse also work with the leading eFile. The Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court has also successfully switched to the leading eFile in civil and family cases," said the spokesperson.

(mack)