CMS Expert Guide to Digital Litigation in Czech Republic

Digitalisation of the Czech civil justice system has frequently been the subject of various drafts, discussions and calls for changes in how courts operate. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic shed light on the need to upgrade the rules of civil proceedings in connection to the rise of IT and AI tools.

In 2008, the amendment to the Act No. 99/1963 Coll., Civil Judicial Procedure Rules (Občanský soudní řád) introduced electronic payment order (elektronický platební rozkaz), which is a form of shortened court procedure. This step established an electronic form that the plaintiff fills in at the judiciary website in the section for filing all applications in general (ePodatelna). With an electronic payment order, the amount up to CZK 1 million (EUR 40,000) can be claimed. This amendment has been successful with the public and hastened proceedings. However, some judges point out that many of these orders fail to be delivered, and thus are not successful.

Czech courts accept various claims of any type not only in written submissions, but also electronically. There are several ways to do it (e.g. e-mail, databox, ePodatelna), all in accordance with several legal acts (e.g. the Act No. 300/2008 Coll. on electronic operations and authorised conversion of documents, or the Act No. 227/2000 Coll. on electronic signatures, etc.). Pursuant to sec. 42 of Civil Judicial Procedure Rules, electronic submissions are equal to written submissions. Claims submitted via databox do not require a qualified electronic signature (QES) contrary to the e-mail submissions. Courts publish information of databoxes and e-mails on their websites. In case of lack of access to a QES, sec. 42 imposes an obligation to deliver the submission in standard written form or by databox or signed by QES within three days. The fees are the same as those for standard written submissions.

Sec. 45 of the Civil Judicial Procedure Rules sets out rules for the service of documents by courts. Courts serve documents by databox if the document cannot be delivered during the hearing. Courts might also serve documents through e-mail with a certified signature, which the addressee has provided to the court. The service takes effect only if confirmed within three days of the sending of the documents by a message signed with addressee’s guaranteed electronic signature.

Also, for specific insolvency proceedings, the Insolvency register (IR) (insolvenční rejstřík) represents one of the first steps towards the digitalisation of court files and gaining access to them. Act No. 182/2006 (the Insolvency Act) regulates the IR, which is publicly accessible online, contributes to the publicity of proceedings, and enables the service of documents. Everyone has the right to search and copy data from the IR that includes court decisions, filed submissions, etc. Therefore, apart from what has already been mentioned, any person may seek information about individual insolvency proceeding, debtors, creditors, insolvency trustees, and other relevant information required by the Insolvency Act. The IR provides notification about insolvency proceedings within two hours of the submission of a petition. However, the IR will be subject to further digitalisation, which will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter.

Quite recently, an application called NaSpis, which enables remote access to the electronic court files of the Constitutional Court, has been introduced. For the time being, the application allows access to documents from the file only to the legal representative, not to the party in the proceedings. The Application enables access to electronic documents in proceedings initiated after 1 January 2016, whereas only documents already in electronic form are accessible.

In addition, the Czech judicial system established online access for the public to view the status of individual proceedings (website infoSoud), information about the trials (website infoJednání), court decisions (websites of the Czech judiciary), and statistics about the courts’ activities (website infoData). Since 2008, InfoSoud allows parties to view basic information about the proceedings after entering the name of the court and the file number. However, the website does not include any decisions or information about the subjects to the proceeding, and thus for detailed information the court must be contacted. InfoJednání provides the date, courtroom number, file number, name of the judge, and whether the hearing is public. InfoData divides statistics into civil, criminal, insolvency, commercial, and guardianship proceedings.

There are some technical measures available in litigation, many of them mentioned in the previous point. However, Czech judicial proceedings still remain offline for the most part and the government has initiated a few projects aimed at improving digitalisation (more on this later in the chapter).

Civil Judicial Procedure Rules in sec. 122 allow for evidence to be obtained using videoconferencing devices. So far, hearings and court proceedings cannot entirely take place virtually, only to obtain evidence. Therefore, the hearing of witnesses or expert witnesses can be carried out without their physical presence. In this case, criminal proceedings are one step ahead in this process, providing for the possibility of using videoconferencing in hearings. The biggest struggle for the wider use of videoconferencing in proceedings is verification of the identity of the person on the other side of the camera. For this reason, sec. 102a of Civil of Judicial Procedure Rules imposes the obligation for an employee of the court to conclude the verification and be present at the same place as the distant party to the proceeding. The court has discretion to use the videoconference method on the basis of a party’s proposal or ex officio. The Supreme Court in its decision in 2019 (21 Cdo 4132/2018) provides the criteria that must be taken into account in order for videoconferencing to become a procedural step. These criteria include costs, difficulty, and impossibility of taking evidence before the court in person. Czech judges often still adopt a conservative approach, which means courts use videoconferencing method as a supplement (or more likely an exception) and not as the standard way. Between 2014 and 2016, the Ministry of Justice installed almost 200 videoconferencing devices in courts and at other authorities (e.g. prosecutor's offices).

Contrary to general court proceedings, arbitration proceedings (i.e. proceedings at the Arbitration court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic) allow on-line arbitration.

Judicial file digitalisation is only a subject of discussion in the development of the digitalisation of the Czech judicial system. Automation could be partially used in the anonymisation of published court decisions, and thus would enable the publishing of all decisions (at least, in some court agendas). Currently, digitalised files are being tested in insolvency proceedings and could be implemented more widely in the upcoming years.

Most of the tools remain optional for parties with a few exceptions. Electronic payment orders, for example, must be concluded electronically.

Also, videoconferencing in civil proceedings is a matter of discretion of the judge. Parties to the proceeding have the right to be present during the taking of evidence concluded in this way. The parties can also object to the quality of the sound or audio transmission in accordance with sec. 102a of Civil of Judicial Procedure Rules.

Additionally, attorneys at law in the Czech Republic are obliged to have databoxes. However, in cases where the party to the proceeding has no representation by an attorney, the party does not have to set up a databox. Czech law does not impose the obligation to submit anything electronically (except for an electronic payment order). Hence, it is up to the parties to choose whether to submit documents in electronic or paper form.

The possibility to file cases electronically is also one of the topics regarding the digitalisation of the justice system (more on this to follow). Thus far, courts maintain case files in paper form, which is only available to the parties by arranging an appointment in person with the court. 

The digitalisation of the Czech judicial system is an ongoing process, which will take considerable time, effort and finances to complete. At this point, judicial proceedings cannot be called fully digital at all. Whereas some (rather marginal) steps or tools managed to undergo digitalisation (fully or partly), the system in general is only beginning its transformation into a more digitalised form.
For example, the IR is the first step towards realising electronic case files. However, fully electronic case filing appears in projects only and it is not clear how and when it will be fully implemented into practise. Also, the use of videoconferencing for a wider range of procedural steps within civil proceedings is a factor in this discussion since this technology would save time and make proceedings more efficient. Judges have pointed out that although the courts are often provided with the necessary devices, they find that adapting the room for videoconferencing is a challenge.

The lack of financial and technological resources complicates the work of developing digitalisation and realising its full potential. In addition, in the Czech Republic, for a software system to be used in the courts it must go through public procurement. However, the Chairman of the Czech Bar Association emphasised that the IT sector is changing and evolving quickly and therefore public procurement (at least, under the current rules) is not suitable for choosing software for digitalisation. 

Except for the regulations mentioned above, Czech law does not specifically address the use of technology in litigation. The government has been focusing on several projects available on websites of the Ministry of Justice, some of which focus on technology: videoconferencing, audio recordings from hearings and their transcripts. The videoconferencing initiative responds to the errors of the previous project in installing videoconferencing devices. The government is promising the further installation of devices and faster proceedings. Also, health and safety is an explicitly important consideration after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The audio recordings and transcripts project aims at the installation of recording devices in court rooms and the reconstruction of these room in order to make them suitable for these devices. Audio recordings could enhance the transparency of proceedings and the ability to record them truthfully and objectively. This technology will also reduce manually written protocols and foster faster proceedings. 

As previously mentioned, the Ministry of Justice introduced programmes within the National recovery plan (Národní plán obnovy). Two of these programmes have already been described in Question 5. The initiatives consist of two topics: 1) Digital services for citizens and companies, (websites of the judiciary – Portál Justice – and audiorecordings); and 2) Digital systems of the public service (assistance for infrastructure of digital operations, digital transformation and videoconferences). All initiatives should be fulfilled by the end of 2023 and in exceptional cases 2024.

Assistance for infrastructure is designed to provide new servers, data storage, proxy servers with licences, virtualisation platforms and more with the mandate to secure the conditions for wider use of electronic work stations and videoconferences.

Digital transformation contributes funds for data analysis (i.e. detailed identification of operations), which will be used in the future for further digital projects and the establishment of data storage of statistics or advanced analysis for the judiciary. Another target of the project is to design a tool for easy and fast creation of databases and registries in accordance with legal requirements.
In 2016, the Ministry of Justice also adopted the Resort strategy on development of eJustice for 2016-2020, which was focused on publishing court decisions (mainly of the lower courts). The document acknowledges the potential for automating the anonymisation of published court decisions, which court employees now do manually. This strategy has still been in development.
The Ministry of Justice has invested into the start of electronic case filing (eSpis). The parties to a proceeding will have the opportunity to view and reach the case file online, which will reduce costs of lawyers travelling across the country to view files in person that are stored with the courts. The Ministry announced the launch of a pilot system for eSpis in 2023. This tool will also be strongly connected to the automatised processing of data. A special type of electronic case filing is filings in insolvency agendas (eISIR, IR – see above), which will be the first file that is fully rendered in electronic form and accessible to eligible users. There is also the NaSpis application (see Question 1 above), which enables remote access to electronic court files of the Constitutional Court.

The Ministry, various universities and other subjects also contribute to the maintenance of websites onlinesoud.cz, which was introduced to the public as an online demo test version for negotiations, and to seek more information about the digitalisation of the judicial system in the Czech Republic and abroad. 

There are no specific rules for the use of AI in litigation.

AI may be used in the future to assist judges with data processing and the sorting of claims. Nonetheless, many judges distinguish between ‘mere’ data processing and involvement in decision-making about the subject matter of a case. Pursuant to article 81 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, “the judicial power shall be exercised in the name of the Republic by independent courts.” Only judges as human beings are entitled to decide upon cases in court. The use of AI in this process of decision-making would be a breach of the Constitution and a violation of human rights (i.e. fair trial) and shift judicial power from judges to AI.

Currently, there are no specific rules on prevention of unwanted access breaches for digital tools. 
European law has set down rules for data protection in Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR). These rules apply to all member states (providing the same legal title for data processing in Article 6).

Moreover, Act No. 110/2019 Coll. on the processing of personal data clarifies GDPR rules, but only for criminal proceedings. 

In the Czech Republic, there is currently no possibility for class actions for consumers, according to the law. The Czech Republic has not yet implemented the EU Directive on class actions, but the Czech Ministry of Justice has drafted a new legal act on class actions in business-to-consumer relationships. Thus far, for these kinds of claims, the use of digital tools has not led to new risks.

If, however, automated processes for claims and electronic case filing are established, businesses will surely face more claims. However, this risk can be assessed in the future after the projects on digitalisation mentioned in this chapter are finalised. 

Currently, the focus is on the projects (eSpis) outlined above, and legal chatbots have not yet been mentioned in plans. We can mention ePodatelna – a centralised digital platform for submitting claims in general, accessible on all websites of the judiciary.