Digitization of the judiciary
New online portal for lawsuits from passengers
With a few clicks for compensation. Many passengers want this, whose flights have been very late, without them or not at all. A test by the Ministry of Justice is now underway.
The Federal Ministry of Justice has put on an online portal for digital lawsuits on passenger rights. There, passengers can find out with standard questions via a pre-check whether a claim to compensation could be considered in your case. You can then digitally create a lawsuit.
At seven German courts – Bremen, Düsseldorf, Königs Wusterhausen, Erding, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Nürtingen, which are near larger airports, the lawsuit can then be submitted digitally.
However, a prerequisite for the digital transmission of the passenger lawsuit is the establishment of a citizen account “my judicial mailbox”. Anyone who has an online ID and a BUND-ID can do this.
More than 130,000 complaints submitted
According to a survey by the “German Richterzeitung”, around 131,000 lawsuits from passengers were received by the courts at the locations of the 20 largest airports in Germany in 2024 – around 6,000 more than in the previous year. Customers usually charge compensation for unusual or late flights, sometimes it is also about cases of travel contracts.
The business model of Legal-Tech platforms in the area of passenger rights is based on enforcing claims for compensation according to the EU Passenger Rights Ordinance. The passengers make their demands on the platform, which receives a commission if successful. In the event of failure, customers do not incur any costs.
If you want to enforce your claims to an airline through the new portal itself, you do not have to share the compensation amount. However, he must pay a advance of court costs and be prepared to bear the court costs and the legal costs of the other side if failed.
Online service as a test case for digital contact between citizens and the judiciary
The ministry has selected passenger rights as the first application for the new online service, since these are frequently occurring lawsuits that are often similar in case design. But it shouldn’t stay that way. “Experience with the new offer will help us achieve a major legal goal: a rule of law on the amount of time when many claims can be easily and digitally enforced,” says the executive Federal Minister of Justice, Volker Wissing (non -party).
dpa
Source: Stern
