Thick paper files should be a thing of the past in the judiciary by 2026. Digital files are then standard. Saxony-Anhalt is still a long way from that.
Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – Saxony-Anhalt’s public prosecutor’s offices and courts should be working with electronic files by 2026 at the latest. To achieve this will be a major effort from the point of view of Justice Minister Franziska Weidinger (CDU). “The topic has top priority. We are still in the development phase here. We have an unlikely need to catch up when it comes to digitization of the judiciary in Saxony-Anhalt,” she told the German Press Agency in Magdeburg. The goal of 2026 must be met. “These are legal requirements. I’m not moving away from that. Everyone in the judiciary agrees that we have to do it,” said the minister.
“It is the case that more than 10, maybe even 20 years were missed in the digitization of the judiciary. Now everything has to be tackled and mastered at the same time, a real mammoth task,” said Weidinger. “We are currently working on three major issues at the same time: we need a high-performance data network, as well as state-of-the-art software that has to be reprogrammed and is currently being developed in the federal state associations, and we need new hardware, from monitors to video conference technology in the courtrooms .” A vacancy for IT administrators for the judiciary was recently published.
The pace in the different areas will vary, said Weidinger. “We’ll start with the specialized courts, which we’ll probably be able to supply with the completely new software products more quickly. In addition, the public prosecutor’s offices have already come a long way.” For example, there will still be individual paper files in the courts. “You can’t change everything from one day to the next, it will be a change process.”
So far, the courts have still printed out a great deal of what arrives electronically. According to Weidinger, this should also be significantly reduced. “There should be an automated process so that we don’t have to print out as much and can work more with the digital files. This is an interim solution that is necessary in order to prepare for full digitization.”
Only the bare essentials should be printed out in the courts in order to have a leading paper file, also for the next instance. “But there should also be an electronic solution for lawyers, experts and other authorities in parallel,” said the minister. “This will make work much easier for everyone involved.”
Weidinger said that the limits of e-files became clear during emergency planning for power or system failures. “Even then, the judiciary must be able to work. If you have completely switched to digitization, you will not be able to access your digital systems so quickly in the event of a power failure. Then, of course, the judiciary will switch to analogue work.”
With a view to video conferences and negotiations in courts, Saxony-Anhalt also has some catching up to do. “We don’t yet have enough video conferencing systems in the courts and want to change that quickly,” said Weidinger. “As a first step, we want to have a functioning video conference system at every judiciary in the country – that’s the goal.”
There are currently individual facilities. Some ran well, others stuttered because the network is not yet so powerful. “There are mobile systems, some of which have already been purchased for the courts, and the users are satisfied with them. It’s certainly well suited for certain cases of the hearing. And we’ll continue with that.”
The minister emphasized: “I wish that we would have made more progress there, because the judges are willing to use it in suitable cases. But if the new system just stands there and doesn’t work reliably, it doesn’t have one either Purpose and gets nobody further.”
It is important to her that the judges get involved in how the system in the courtroom should work. “They then have to digitally ensure their conduct of negotiations from a distance. This task relates to the core content of judicial work: How do I switch microphones, when can I see someone sufficiently in the camera, when can I mute them, what happens if someone disappears from the picture, which Cases are amenable to video trial.”
