Reference file

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Reference files are made pursuant to German law, a litigant, a lawyer , tax advisor , auditor or the prosecutor collected domestic business and belonging to a particular legal case documents. According to § 143 ZPO , which applies to referral provisions in the other court codes, the court can order that the parties submit the files in their possession, insofar as these consist of documents relating to the decision and negotiation of the matter.

Rights and obligations

According to the Federal Lawyers' Act ( BRAO ), the lawyer is obliged to create a hand file for each individual case that he is working on (see § 50 BRAO / § 51b WPO / § 66 StBerG). This also applies to tax consultants ( StBerG ) and auditors ( WPO ). The reference file is intended to record all essential processes relating to the mandate. The progress of a matter is documented on the basis of these documents. In the case of fee or liability disputes, the reference file serves as evidence to be used. The reference file should contain everything that is available in the case at issue in the form of documents, including letters, documents, documents, pleadings, court orders, decisions, enforcement titles, reports, extracts from the register, notes received from the client, etc. Also meetings, consultations, Telephone calls and the like should be recorded in the hand file by means of a note made. All documents should be firmly integrated and thus become part of the reference file. Money and the like do not belong in the handbook. An inventory of valuables stored must be included in the file.

Based on the reference file, it can be understood after the end of the mandate what has happened in detail and what the lawyer pp. has been undertaken. A complete, clean filing also serves to protect him, as he would otherwise be exposed to liability allegations without protection.

Retention period and request for surrender

There is an obligation to keep the reference files (Section 50 Paragraph 2 BRAO, Section 66 Paragraph 1 StBerG and Section 51 b Paragraph 2 + 3 WPO). The retention period begins with the termination of the matter or the mandate. Normally it is six years according to Section 50 (1) BRAO, but can in fact be shortened to six months under certain conditions.

If a mandate ends or is prematurely terminated by the client, he has the right to surrender his original documents (e.g. contracts or other documents); he would have to have the other correspondence anyway, since he was regularly supplied with them during a procedure, either by him directed correspondence or through received copies of other correspondence.

The lawyer pp. can generally refuse to return the mandate documents as long as the client owes him the fee charged.

Public prosecutor's files

The files of the public prosecutor's office are not subject to the right to inspect files . Among other things, they can contain information about discontinued proceedings, see also closing statement . The prosecutor uses this additional information to assess the importance of the case and the accused . As in the case of proceedings that have already been discontinued, they cannot be used to the detriment of the accused in the ongoing proceedings.

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