Communication platform for civil proceedings

One of the goals of the digitalization projects in the “Access to Justice” division is to implement more efficient processes to relieve the strain on the judiciary in the long term. Consequently, we are working with the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) to trial and fundamentally rethink procedural communication in civil proceedings – ensuring it is rapid, synchronous, and data driven. This approach has led the project to the national communication platform.

In future, the communication platform will ensure more efficient and more transparent procedural flows in civil proceedings. Particularly in cases of so-called ‘large-scale’ procedures, but also more generally for pecuniary claims before local courts, it will facilitate the legally secure exchange of procedural information in the form of structured data. Using the communication platform, we want to significantly simplify workflows both for parties to the proceedings and for court employees, tangibly reducing the duration of court proceedings. At the same time, the platform will facilitate the transition from mail- and document-based operation to data- and platform-based operation for civil proceedings. This will lay the foundations for greater efficiency gains and the automation of administrative steps, such as procedural data management.

We are currently working on a user-centered Minimum Viable Product (MVP) which incorporates the basic features of a communication platform, e.g. an overview of all ongoing proceedings and an online data room, shared with all parties to the proceedings, enabling the provision and consultation of the relevant documents. We would like to trial these basic features, and additional iteratively developed functionalities, under real conditions to see what benefits for courts and parties to the proceedings emerge from new forms of communication, exchange, and transmission.

A communication platform is being called for by different voices from the judiciary, the legal profession, and the political sphere, including the Reform Commission “Civil proceedings of the future” and the coalition agreement for the 21st legislative period.

The communication platform belongs to the online procedure in civil jurisdiction, which is both part of the federal modernization agenda and a real-world application of the federal modernization agenda.

A technical interface to state judiciary IT systems is also being developed as part of the communication platform.

This project is being financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

• Collaborative cooperation with SINC GmbH, state judicial administration bodies, local courts, and the federal law society
• Pilot in partnership with states and pilot courts
• The legal framework for the communication platform was established by the bill on the development and testing of an online procedure in civil jurisdiction (OVErpG) (German only)