Stefanie HubigJustice · Rights · Responsibility
§ 19 — Policy · Procedural Reform

Slow Faster procedure,
same rights.

Procedure is where rights are won or lost in practice. The ministry’s reforms, shown here as tracked changes, aim to shorten the path to a decision without shortening the guarantees.

Tracked changes
ProvisionBeforeAfterStatus
Local-court jurisdiction (civil) Claims up to €5,000 Claims up to €10,000; neighbour disputes always at local courts; certain specialist matters always at regional courts Since 1 Jan 2026
Filing small money claims Paper statement of claim or electronic legal transmission Pilot online procedure via a federal portal for claims up to €10,000 and passenger rights, at 18 local courts in 10 Länder Pilot since 1 Apr 2026
Court files Paper files Electronic files mandatory in principle; opt-out by ordinance until 1 Jan 2027 Since 1 Jan 2026
Criminal trials Long main hearings in complex cases Expert commission (approx. 90 experts, 6 working groups) preparing proposals to accelerate main hearings Under discussion
Securing digital evidence No general storage of IP addresses Three-month IP storage plus judicial preservation orders (proposed) Legislative process
Civil procedure

Bringing small claims within reach

Raising the local-court threshold to €10,000 means that more disputes are heard by a single judge, closer to the parties and without compulsory legal representation, rather than by the regional courts. Value limits had not been adjusted for decades despite inflation. The German Judges’ Association commented on the bill at the Bundestag hearing.

The online procedure, created by a law promulgated in December 2025, tests structured digital forms, electronic communication and simplified hearings for typical consumer claims. If successful, it could become a standard route for mass claims, such as passenger-rights cases. The Pact for the Rule of Law funds its further development from 2027.

Criminal procedure

Faster trials, intact defence rights

An expert commission on reforming the Code of Criminal Procedure first met on 25 September 2025, chaired by the ministry. Its mandate is to accelerate main hearings, particularly in complex cases. Its proposals were due by autumn 2026; whether the final report has been published could not be verified as of 8 October 2026.

Any acceleration must respect the right to a fair trial (Art. 6 European Convention on Human Rights), the right to be heard (Art. 103(1) Basic Law) and the presumption of innocence. Defence lawyers’ organisations typically warn against limiting evidentiary motions; prosecutors and judges point to trials lasting years.

Unresolved

What procedure cannot fix

Judges’ and lawyers’ associations stress that procedural law cannot compensate for missing staff and slow IT. The postponement of the electronic-file deadline was criticised as evidence that the justice system had been slow to modernise. The Pact’s personnel and digital pillars are designed to address this, but their effect will take years to measure.

An administrative-procedure pillar — modernising the Code of Administrative Court Procedure — is also part of the Pact; no concrete bill could be verified as of October 2026.

Sources

  1. Law strengthening the local courts in civil matters, in force 1 January 2026 (reporting by l-iz.de); German Judges’ Association statement, November 2025 — drb.de
  2. otto-schmidt.de, start of the online procedure pilot, April 2026; Bundestag printed paper 21/1509
  3. LTO, new commission on reform of the StPO, September 2025 — lto.de
  4. LTO, e-file postponement to 2027 — lto.de
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