Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – According to the presidents of the German state social courts, the oral hearing on site should remain the rule. At a conference in Stuttgart on Wednesday, they advocated that virtual participation in negotiations, introduced in the course of the corona pandemic, should remain possible. It offers advantages, for example when the process participants have to travel long distances to get there.
In principle, however, video conferences should not be given priority over oral hearings in person, as the Baden-Württemberg State Social Court announced. The peculiarities of the citizen-oriented social justice system, which is important for many people, stand in the way of this. “As before, many people appear before the social courts without professional representation by lawyers or social organizations.” They often lacked the technical or financial means for a video conference. It must also remain possible for the plaintiffs to present their concerns personally to the court and to the opposing party, usually an authority of the social administration.
