A judiciary is an essential part of every modern society. In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) alone, every day
about 35,000 people ensure that citizens have access to the justice system.
At the same time, the judiciary offers a wide variety of professional careers – from prison chaplain to
the president of the Constitutional Court. Adding up all the courts, prosecution offices,
affiliated authorities and correctional facilities, there are 278 justice facilities in NRW.
The majority of people working in the legal system – approximately 14,000 people – work at the 130 local courts.
They are often the first point of contact for our citizens, for example in many criminal, civil, and family proceedings.
On average, we have 650,000 proceedings per year. But the work of the local courts goes way beyond that.
They help people in inheritance matters, manage the company register and the register of associations,
the land registry and much more.
The 19 regional courts in NRW are in charge of civil proceedings with a disputed amount of more
than 5.000 and for large criminal proceedings as the court of first instance.
Around 8,000 people work in various positions at these courts. More than 90,000 civil actions and
criminal proceedings are handled there in an average year. In addition, the regional court is the court of appeal
for many decisions of the local court. This is equivalent to an average of 27,000 further proceedings.
In certain proceedings, a case ends up before one of the three higher regional courts in Dusseldorf, Cologne or Hamm.
On average, over 20,000 civil, criminal or family proceedings are dealt with each year in
the higher regional courts.
In criminal matters, the prosecution services come into play. They are primarily responsible for
investigating criminal offences. In the 19 prosecution offices in
North Rhine-Westphalia, around 1 million investigative procedures are carried out annually.
Criminal convictions are enforced by the public prosecutor. Naturally, the staff working in the judicial system
also includes correction officers. They take care of the 17,000 prisoners serving their sentences in the
37 prisons in North Rhine-Westphalia. The probation service currently employs 800 people.
They work in probation, court assistance and supervision of conduct.
In addition, there are over 1,000 bailiffs, who take on a variety of tasks in the field of enforcement.
Each bailiff collects an average of almost 300,000 Euros per year on behalf of creditors.
Courts are not only responsible in the event of a lawsuit. They help citizens, for example through
care arrangements or in the establishment of associations. Interested parties can call their local court
to obtain quality information.
For certain cases, there are specialised courts. Thus disputes with an employer are handled by
the labour court. Those who feel unfairly treated by the tax office can file proceedings in the fiscal court,
and citizens who have difficulties with the public pension fund or the employment office
will get help from the social court.
If you object to an authority’s decision, you can turn to the administrative court.
In an average year the specialised courts in North Rhine-Westphalia deal
with more than 220,000 proceedings.
And that figure does not even take into account the numerous fast track proceedings.
You can find a lot of information about the legal system on the web. You can download forms and templates
from the NRW judiciary pages.
In future, all correspondence within the justice system will be handled electronically.
This means less paper and lower costs.
Even though the courts are adapting to the requirements of the digital age, they remain accessible
on a personal level at any time. If you have any questions,
do not hesitate to contact your regional court. We will try our best to help.