Ask a lawyer on the topic of Criminal law

duty to provide information

March 3, 2017 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Jan Wilking

Can one force a public prosecutor's office to provide information on the status of a case that I reported and that was opened by the public prosecutor's office in 11/2016? If so, I am looking for a specialist criminal defense attorney who knows how to assert this situation forcefully at a politically motivated court, uncompromisingly and with unwavering loyalty, in a timely manner.

Jan Wilking

Dear inquirer,

Thank you for your inquiry.

Although the draft of the 1st ORRG did indeed provide for an obligation to provide information at least to the victim, its implementation failed due to resistance from the Federal Council. According to current law, the victim must only be informed upon request about the conclusion of the proceedings and about instructions and deprivation of liberty measures, § 406d StPO. If there is a legitimate interest, the victim can request access to the files through a lawyer, if there are no legitimate interests of the accused or third parties opposing it, § 406e StPO. If you have only reported the case but are not involved as a victim, the only right to information remains under § 475 StPO:

For a private individual and for other entities, a lawyer can obtain information from files that are available to the court or would be presented to it in the event of public prosecution, without prejudice to the provision of § 406e, as long as they demonstrate a legitimate interest. Information shall be denied if the person affected has a legitimate interest in denial. Under the conditions of paragraph 1, access to the files can be granted if the provision of information would require a disproportionate effort or if, after presenting the request for access to the files, it would not be sufficient to exercise the legitimate interest.

For the search for a competent specialist lawyer for criminal law locally, I recommend the lawyer search at www.anwaltauskunft.de.

I hope I could help you and remain

Yours sincerely