Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Hesse's Minister of Justice Roman Poseck (CDU) is campaigning for the streamlining of criminal and administrative offense law to relieve and make the judiciary more efficient. "I can imagine that lawsuits against fines of less than 100 euros will usually only be dealt with in writing and with less justification," said Poseck in an interview with the news magazine "Spiegel" published on Friday. He also thinks it is justifiable that an appeal is no longer possible for lawsuits with a fine of up to 500 euros. So far, the limit is 250 euros.
The minister advocated changing laws to simplify procedures. In the case of mass proceedings such as the diesel lawsuits against automobile manufacturers, it must be possible to appeal to the Federal Court of Justice much earlier than before. This could then give other courts an orientation at an early stage. In order to create clarity for parallel cases, the Federal Court of Justice should in future also be able to decide in cases in which the litigants agree on a financial settlement shortly before the end of the proceedings.
Poseeck explained that he could also imagine no longer subjecting fare evasion on public transport to criminal law if it was a first-time offender. He also spoke out in favor of the initiative by Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) to reduce prison sentences for people who cannot pay their fines. He thinks it is right to halve these so-called replacement prison sentences, said the CDU politician. In general, he was in favor of thinking about where the effort could be reduced elsewhere for each new task for the judiciary.
