Pandemic may finally push Germany’s courts into 21st century

A court room in Germany, March 18. The court systems in the 16 German states don’t even all use the same technology. — Reuters

In late March, a Berlin judge told the people in his packed courtroom that it could take just 15 minutes for a single person with the coronavirus to infect them all.

For a group of lawyers and legal-technology firms in Germany it was a compelling moment: They wrote to state and federal justice ministers demanding an end to years of foot-dragging toward the roll out of digital justice.