Litigation 2025

AUSTRIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Bettina Knoetzl and Katrin Hanschitz, KNOETZL HAUGENEDER NETAL GmbH

with lower disposition times and higher clear- ance rates than most of its neighbours. This is presumably related to Austria’s continuing investments into improving and modernising the judiciary. High court fees generated within the system – the Austrian judicial system remains the only one in Europe to not only fully finance itself (eg, EUR 1.8 billion in 2022) but to generate additional income – provide the resources for such investments. The ongoing “Judicial 3.0” (e-Justice) project is formidable in its scope, positioning Austria as a pioneer in judicial technology. • The interface between the courts and court experts and translators as well as lawyers and parties has already been electronic for many years, with many courtrooms now out- fitted with high-range electronic equipment and files being handled electronically (no hard copies). By the end of 2025, all courts should be completely digitalised. • The public prosecutors’ offices are already using an AI-supported tool, “EliAs”, which organises and assigns incoming police reports and assists in file management. This application is a key element of managing Austria’s increased caseload, especially in complex criminal and cybercrime matters. • Most recently, AI is being incorporated increasingly to enhance judicial efficiency and accessibility. Besides being incorporated into document management tools, efforts are currently underway to improve the use of AI in the form of text-generation tools to assist in drafting routine court documents and judgments, allowing judges to focus on more complex decision-making. The use of AI to create automatic minutes during hearings using speech recognition is under develop-

ment (currently, judges use a dictation device to summarise the proceedings and testi- mony). More sophisticated AI applications are currently being explored, such as using machine learning to identify case patterns and analyse legal data across extensive case archives. These tools could ultimately sup- port judges by offering data-driven insights or precedent-based suggestions. Such appli- cations are still in experimental stages, with the Austrian judicial authorities maintaining a progressive, but cautious approach to ensure that the enhancement of procedural efficiency does not come at a cost to fairness and transparency of judicial proceedings. AI in Law Firm Practice Dispute resolution practitioners worldwide are facing similar challenges in the form of economic uncertainty and rising costs. At the same time, highly motivated and skilled “next generation” lawyers are in high demand, but scarce. For law firms in countries that are hit particularly hard by inflation, such as Austria, this sets a particular challenge. In this environment, the willingness to engage with the ever-improving AI-enhanced legal tech- nology tools are likely to prove the key element for successful dispute resolution. Handling cas- es using AI-enhanced tools will mean that fewer lawyers and support staff will be needed. They will be freed from repetitive and routine work so that they can expend their time and creative energy on complex and strategic work and on client interaction. One area that has seen particularly rapid devel- opment in the last year is legal research. The two main legal databases in use in Austria – LexisNexis and Manz (RDB) – are offering early access to AI enhanced “research assistants”.

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