German jurisdiction offers those seeking justice a number of advantages that they can use when pursuing claims. It can be assumed that civil court proceedings will be completed or at least negotiated after a trial period of around six months to nine months. In an international comparison, the average length of the process is in some cases considerably longer.

The pursuit of claims arising from foreign law is also possible without any problems, since German courts also decide on foreign law. In this case, however, it is advisable to consult a competent lawyer from the respective jurisdiction in order to explain the application of the relevant legal norms to the adjudicating court in detail.

Furthermore, the person seeking justice does not have to worry about the legal certainty of the court decision. German law is consistently codified in laws and is interpreted and further developed by the case law of the Federal Court of Justice as the highest instance. Written law must be observed by every court and as a rule the lower courts follow the supreme case law of the Federal Court of Justice. In addition, corruption and nepotism play no role in German courts. The corruption index for the German Federation is very low from a worldwide perspective.

Another advantage is the far less effort compared to arbitration. Arbitration is much more expensive and the communication with the court is much higher compared to a state court case, which invariably drives up attorneys‘ fees. In contrast, conventional proceedings before German courts only incur precisely defined court fees, which do not increase even if the proceedings take a long time. In the event of a settlement, 2/3 of these fees will be reimbursed and the rest is distributed among the parties according to the settlement.

Neither do the parties have to worry about technical expertise. This is consistently present in German courts, often even in the form of special chambers that have special knowledge and experience in dealing with certain areas of law, such as commercial law, banking law or construction law.

The judiciary and the legal profession are also equipped with modern means of communication, which contribute to speeding up the process. All pleadings and other documents are exchanged between the legal profession and the courts in electronic form, so that there are no longer any postal delays for the transmission of paper-based documents. Further technical innovations are also planned, such as the introduction of an online complaints tool with which complaints can be created and sent electronically.

It is therefore worthwhile, if possible, to choose a city in Germany as the venue. As a rule, each party will have an interest in being able to conduct possible lawsuits before the court of their own place of business. If you are based in Germany or otherwise have a connection to Germany, you should definitely think about choosing German jurisdiction. The latter is especially true if you prefer to conduct your legal disputes in English [Link: Conducting court proceedings in English in Germany] and this should not possible in another jurisdiction.