Faster and cheaper e-lawsuit

Electronic communication with the court will be mandatory in civil proceedings from July 1, metropol.hu reported.

The National Judicial Office (OBH) promised help yesterday, by providing customer information on the transition with an ‘E-lawsuits 2016’ menu at birosag.hu website. They added that legal representatives, business organizations, administrative authorities also have to be prepared and they have to learn the system. In addition to the detailed descriptions of proceeding types and the documents, the customers receive information on how they can pay the electronic court fees and what knowledge they need to the use of the system.

Since January 1, 2013, it is possible to choose electronic contacts in civil proceedings. 444 cases have been initiated so far electronically, and 2502 submissions have been received by the courts so far. OBH said: the documents of the civil proceedings are still handled on paper, so they are available in paper form as well.

According to OBH, e-lawsuits will reduce the customers’ paperwork and postage. Lawyer Péter Homoki, member of the Budapest Bar Association said that e-trial is not optional for lawyers.

Electronic documents have an obvious advantage only in a narrower area during the court administration, since the documents will be printed anyway, metropol.hu wrote.

Márton Hegedüs, CEO of Microsec Zrt, said that electronic documents can be forwarded easier and quicker, and in the case of an appropriate informatics system, the electronic messages can be processed partly automatically.

Lawyers and solicitors have to have a qualified electronic signature which 80-90% of them already have. According to Hegedüs, although lawyers are experienced in electronic document management and electronic signature, the procedure will be different in the new system, so it requires preparation.

The electronic communication and the forms of each petition can be found on the www.birosag.hu website, metropol.hu said.

Copy editor: bm

Source: http://www.metropol.hu