Missing file parts and bureaucratic barriers: Renowned Viennese lawyers demand better insight into the electronic file. The judiciary would make the work of lawyers “unnecessarily complicated”.
Digital file management saves travel, time and tons of paper. But even a system that promises simplification can lead to complications; Vienna’s criminal lawyers can tell you a thing or two about it. In the Vienna Café Edison next to the Vienna Regional Court, several top lawyers complain about the obstacles they have faced recently.
Criminal record classified as ‘sensitive’.
As a result of an arrangement by the Viennese Public Prosecutor’s Office, everything changed at the service center in Landl on February 1: “With the power of attorney we were able to obtain compact information about the status of the case there for years. Now this can only be done by accessing the files, for which we have to continuously reapply,” says Peter Philipp, doyen of Vienna criminal lawyers.
What causes additional problems is that the police classify parts of the electronic file as “sensitive”, which are then not visible to the lawyers: “We have not had access to relevant information for several months. For example, the extract from the client’s criminal record,” criticizes Alexander Philipp, also a criminal lawyer.
And receives support from top lawyers Rudolf Mayer, Philipp Wolm and Manfred Ainedter. “Knowing what prior convictions a client has is the core of our work,” Ainedter said, noting that the Supreme Court ruled in August 2022 that such restrictions on access to records are not in accordance with the law. “Things that worked perfectly are made unnecessarily complicated by the legal system,” the lawyers agree.
Source: Krone
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