What started as a pilot programme at the Labour and Social Court of Vienna in September 2016 is now business as usual for more than 100 Austrian courts and public prosecutors’ offices. New proceedings are always conducted electronically, based on a “digital file”, no longer on paper. This pilot project was preceded by the Justice 3.0 initiative of the Federal Ministry of Justice and a cross-border project in cooperation with the Bavarian justice system.
 
The electronic registers maintained by the Austrian justice system, i.e. the “Grundbuch” (the Land Register, a public register of real property, tenancies, owners, rights), “Firmenbuch” (Commercial Register, a public register of companies, partnerships etc.) and “Ediktsdatei” (a public register of insolvencies, judicial auctions), have already enabled electronic inspection and retrieval of information via the Internet for several decades. The option of electronic file inspection and the Electronic Legal Communication System (ERV) were other major steps on the way to digital files.
 
Electronic file inspection has existed since 2004; it was originally limited to counsels to parties in civil-law and enforcement proceedings and to the electronic case management of the judiciary itself. By now, court files are entirely digitalised, including all pleadings, exhibits and orders issued by the decisionmakers.
The Electronic Legal Communication System is different from mere transmission by e-mail in that it enables the secure paperless transmission of documents between parties to proceedings and courts in compliance with legislation, thus replacing the dispatch of documents by post. 94% of all civil-law actions and 76% of all petitions for enforcement are filed electronically.

Since 1 July 2019, certified experts and interpreters in Austria have been obliged to work with the Electronic Legal Communication System subject to their technical possibilities, in particular for the purpose of transmitting expert opinions or translations (sec. 89a of the Austrian Act on the Organisation of the Courts/GOG).
If an expert is commissioned by a court, he/she will receive a notification from the court, providing the link and the information that he/she has been granted access to a specific electronic file. After accessing the website of the Austrian justice system with a personal access code transmitted to the mobile phone (“mobile phone signature”, qualified signature services), the expert will see a list of all court proceedings which he/she has access to under “Meine Verfahren” (“My proceedings”). Initially, the new commission is highlighted and thus recognisable as a new commission.
It is not only possible to view the file and all parts of the file online, it can also be downloaded as a PDF file and then searched for specific keywords. A table of contents displaying all parts of the file is generated for the purpose of orientation.

In civil-law cases, the entire file is, as a matter of principle, available to the persons who have been granted access. However, the system provides for various grades of access rights and also allows for an individualised attribution of access, e.g. access for experts may be restricted to the period when the expert report is prepared.
In criminal proceedings, the inspection of files requires a request to that effect. After a decision-making body has granted the request, the approved parts of the file are made available for online access by authorised persons.

After their registration in the list of judicial experts, experts receive a photo ID card as proof of their capacity (sec. 8 par. 1 of the Austrian Act on Certified Experts and Interpreters/SDG); they have to carry this ID when working and must present it upon request (sec. 8 par. 4 SDG).
When signing written expert reports, experts have to use a round seal. For expert reports submitted electronically, the use of a qualified certificate for electronic signatures is sufficient (sec. 8 par. 5 SDG).

Apart from querying the Land Register and the Commercial Register via the Internet, it is also possible to consult the Geographic Information System online. It links the classic map with much more information and statistical surveys: zoning information, water, danger zones, altitudes, geology, traffic, protected areas, agriculture and the like.
Another practical aid for preparing real-estate expert reports is access to the register of the Federal Office of Surveying, where property location plans can be queried.
The “Verdachtsflächenkadaster” (Register of potentially contaminated sites) contains all old landfills/waste dumps and old sites which may pose significant risks to human health or the environment due to former forms of use. Querying the register of potentially contaminated sites can be used to check whether a certain property is listed in there or the contaminated site atlas.
The Austrian Land Register in Austria is a public register in which real property and the rights in rem to it are entered: Ownership, liens, easements, encumbrances. This information is available online. The deeds on which the respective land register entries are based have also been available online since 2006.
Due to the practical online query option in the collection of deed in the Land Register, several private businesses have specialised in collecting, evaluating, analysing and recording comparative prices of real estate throughout Austria in databases, the so-called “comparative price databases”.

Experts may choose to draw up paperless expert reports, generating PDF files and signing them electronically. The electronic signature is added via qualified signature services (“mobile phone signature”). If experts prepare opinions on paper and then scan them, their quality – especially of photos and plans – is usually poor, which is why PDF creation and electronic signature are recommended. The limitation of data capacity which may come to bear when signing or uploading expert reports is problematic as it can also lead to poor quality of photos.
To avoid this, Austrian lawmakers already amended the Code of Civil Procedure in 2005 to the effect that expert reports may also be provided on electronic data media.
In order to transmit expert reports to the courts, experts access the JustizOnline platform by logging in using their mobile phone signatures and going to the section “My proceedings”. After the relevant file has been opened, the expert report can be imported and subsequently transmitted to the court.

The Austrian Electronic Legal Communication System has been in place since 1990 as a means of electronic communication between parties to proceedings and courts in addition to equivalent paper-based communication. The Austrian justice system can be described as a world leader in this field.

Irene Kreschischnig, certified real-estate expert