律所要闻 / 條目

Digitization boost by COVID-19

According to the German Civil Procedure Code (ZPO), online court hearings have been permitted for some time now, but have almost always failed due to the sceptical attitude of many judges. Against the background of the current crisis, a slow change of mind is now becoming apparent: PASCHEN had their first opportunity to try out going “digital” in the Hanover Regional Court.

“It was not a problem at all, as the courtroom was fully equipped and the judge had no fear of contact with technology”, summarises attorney at law Anja Beyer, who was enthusiastic about the possibility of participating in the hearing of evidence with several witnesses via Skype.

Not just the opinion of the presiding judge, but also our entire PASCHEN team think that online hearings should take place more frequently in the future, and thus not only saving the parties involved a lot of time and money by removing the burden of travel, but also the environment. As digital pioneers in our industry, we at PASCHEN have been working almost exclusively digitally for years – virtual court hearings in all suitable cases are, in our opinion, a long-overdue step to ensure that the rule of law continues to function well in the future in an increasingly complex environment and at the same time contributing to climate protection on the part of the judiciary.

You can watch the video (in German language) on this topic here.