Legal Settlement Reached in Court Case Involving Violation of Rights - Public prosecutor's offices have been overwhelmed since the coronavirus pandemic.
Because of a lack of employees, the public prosecutor's offices in Lower Saxony can't handle investigations as promptly and comprehensively as they should. "We're approaching our limits when it comes to criminal justice," explained Katrin Ballnus, the head of the public prosecutor's office in Celle to the German Press Agency. "The workload of the public prosecutor's offices has been increasing since the pandemic, and it's higher in Lower Saxony than anywhere else in the country. The Public Prosecutor General's Office in Celle oversees the public prosecutor's offices in Hanover, Hildesheim, Bückeburg, Verden, Lüneburg, and Stade."
The Lower Saxony Association of Judges (NRB) had already highlighted the overwhelmed public prosecutor's offices at the end of 2023. "Now, there's a shortage of at least 150 public prosecutors statewide," said NRB chairman Frank Bornemann to dpa. According to the Ministry of Justice in Hanover, there were 73,800 open investigations across the country at the end of 2023 - that's about 20% more than there were two years before. "The workload has become unprecedentedly massive," said Bornemann. At the public prosecutor's office in Hanover, for example, the workload has increased by 170%. This means that a public prosecutor would need to work 68 hours a week instead of 40 just to keep up with the ever-growing backlog of unfinished cases. "We've got a mountain of 900,000 unfinished investigations in Germany," Bornemann lamented.
Ballnus also bemoaned how investigations are now taking longer and longer. "Often, we can't give citizens thorough explanations as to why cases are dropped after a complaint," she said. "That leaves them feeling unsettled. It's particularly bad when everything takes a long time. That can lead to a sense of disillusionment with and disappointment in the justice system and the state authorities." Ballnus urged the state government to quickly fill more positions in the public prosecutor's offices.
"The state has a responsibility to equip the judiciary and prosecution authorities so they can defend against offenders," Ballnus underlined. The aim is to swiftly and effectively prosecute crimes, not manage them. "A judiciary that can act will help prevent democratic fatigue and disenchantment with the state."
According to the Lower Saxony Association of Judges, the cause of the increased workload is due to the rise in crime in specific areas, such as juvenile delinquency, as well as increased complexity in numerous proceedings. For example, asset recovery, or confiscating money and valuables from criminal offenses, has become a more significant task for public prosecutors.
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Source: www.stern.de