New digital platform for legal transactions expected to cost 28 million

The new digital service will be developed and financed jointly by the federal government and the cantons. It is planned that the federal government will contribute 25 percent, as the Federal Council stated in the dispatch on the new Federal Law on Platforms for Electronic Communication in the Judiciary BEKJ, which was approved on Wednesday. Accordingly, the national government wants to finance the operation and further development for around 7.4 million Swiss francs annually via fees.

The Federal Council does not want to force the cantons to participate in the specific project. They also have the option of setting up and operating their own platforms, it said. The BEKJ regulates minimum technical standards for this case, so that all platforms remain compatible. The central platform is only intended for judicial proceedings. For administrative proceedings before federal authorities, a separate platform would have to be developed.

The Justitia 4.0 project is intended to drive the digital transformation in the federal courts and the cantonal criminal and correctional authorities in criminal, civil and administrative proceedings. For professional users, such as lawyers, courts or authorities, electronic legal transactions are to become mandatory.

Because of the rapid pace of technological change, the Federal Council wants to include only the most necessary provisions in the law, which would necessarily have to be regulated at the national level. These include, for example, financing, fees, data protection and liability. The possible obligation to use a platform is to be regulated in the respective process laws. (SDA)