The office of lay assessor

In a modern society, little can be done without voluntary work. Despite innovative technologies, commitment to society is an important part of living together.

When we talk about volunteering, many people first think of the commitment of those who are involved in the emergency services, civil protection or training at sports clubs.

In addition, your commitment as a volunteer is required in various areas of jurisdiction. Here, you support the full-time judges on an equal footing in their decision-making process. They act as an important link between the judiciary and civil society. Your involvement helps to create an understanding of the motives behind a judgment among outsiders. The transparency of state and legal decision-making processes is promoted by the fact that volunteer judges bring a different perspective to events, which is shaped by life experience and, in some cases, specialist knowledge.

The aim of deploying honorary judges is to strengthen the public's trust in the decisions of the courts.

Where are volunteer judges deployed?

Honorary judges are deployed in all areas of jurisdiction.

The best-known volunteers are probably those who work in the criminal courts: the lay assessors. A distinction must be made between the district court and the regional court. While proceedings at the local court are usually limited to a few court days, proceedings at the district court can sometimes last several months.

However, administrative courts, labor and social courts, commercial courts, agricultural courts and tax courts also rely on the support of volunteer judges, whose expertise is important here.

How and where can I apply to be a volunteer judge? Who has further information for me?

Lay judges: City of Aachen, Elections Team; schoeffen@mail.aachen.de

Youth Jurors: City of Aachen; jugendschoeffenwahl@mail.aachen.de

Labor Jurisdiction: Trade Unions and Employers' Associations

Commercial Courts: Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Aachen

Agricultural Courts: Chamber of Agriculture

Labor Courts: Labor Unions and Employers' Associations

Financial Jurisdiction: Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Labor Unions

Honorary judges at criminal courts in Germany are called lay judges. The term has a long tradition in German law and refers solely to the involvement of lay judges in criminal proceedings. With the introduction of jury courts in the middle of the 19th century, the office of lay judge became an integral part of the administration of justice.

"In the name of the people": lay assessors take part in criminal proceedings as representatives of the people. They are therefore the link between the judiciary (i.e. the professional judges), the parties involved in criminal proceedings (public prosecutors and defendants) and the general public.

The main function of lay assessors is to strengthen the public's trust in the administration of justice. They bring with them life experience and extrajudicial perspectives. Lay judges come from all parts of society: whether they are tradespeople, housewives or professors - anyone can contribute to society as an honorary judge. No previous legal knowledge is required - in fact, legal training and work are not desired.

Aldermen and alderwomen are elected for 5 years and then appointed to all instances of the criminal courts in their place of residence, whereby each alderman or alderwoman may only serve in one court.

As this is an honorary position, the number of days that lay assessors are deployed is generally limited to 12 per year; exceptions can of course occur in complex criminal proceedings.

Juvenile lay assessors are appointed in criminal proceedings against young people. It is important that they have professional experience in the education of young people and can therefore have an educational impact on young people with their judgment.

In this case, applications for the relevant list of nominations should be submitted via: jugendschoeffenwahl@mail.aachen.de

• German citizenship
• Minimum age: 25 (juvenile jurors 30)
• Maximum age on taking office: 70
• Good German language skills to be able to follow an oral hearing - You have little access to files or evidence
• Health, mental and physical fitness to follow a hearing for several hours or days
• Good and independent judgment
• A sense of responsibility towards the matter, the people and the consequences of a judgment for the parties involved and society
• Main residence in Aachen / at the seat of the respective local court
• Impartiality and freedom from prejudice
• Social understanding
• Empathy and knowledge of human nature
• Professional and life experience
• Logical thinking

• Good communication skills

• Assertiveness

• Persons who have been sentenced to more than 6 months' imprisonment for an intentional offense or who are the subject of a pending investigation, the outcome of which could speak against the exercise of a public office
• Unable to attend a hearing for health reasons
• Lack of command of the German language
• Persons who have become insolvent or are threatened with insolvency

• Professional reasons that lead to a conflict with the office of lay assessor, thus precluding an application:
  • Federal President
  • Members of federal or state governments
  • Judges, public prosecutors, notaries, lawyers and attorneys-at-law
  • Civil servants and other staff from the following areas: Courts, penal system, probation service, court assistance, police
  • Religious servants and members of religious communities

• Persons who have violated the principles of humanity and/or the rule of law
• Full-time or unofficial employees of the State Security Service of the former GDR - if necessary, an affidavit must be submitted that Stasi collaboration is excluded
• Special case: If a lay judge selected by lot for a proceeding is related to, or is a friend or enemy of, a person involved in that proceeding, or if the lay judge is a witness in the proceeding, this constitutes grounds for recusal in that specific case, but not for the office of lay judge as such

• Members of the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, the EU Parliament or a state parliament
• Persons who are already serving as honorary judges of a court other than the criminal division
• Persons who served as lay judges in the current and the immediately preceding term of office
• Persons who were deployed on more than 40 trial days in the current term of office
• Doctors, dentists, hospital nursing staff, midwives, pharmacists
• Persons who can credibly demonstrate that caring for their family (caring for relatives, etc.) makes the performance of their duties particularly difficult

• The office of lay assessor is an honorary position to which any German citizen can be appointed
• Lay assessors have the same voting rights as the full-time judges; they all decide together on guilt or innocence and the sentence to be imposed
• Lay assessors are subject to the law alone and do not follow any instructions or influence from others in their judgment
• The highest duty is impartiality: affection or dislike for a party involved in the proceedings - whether perpetrator or injured party - must not have any influence on the judgment
• Private contact with parties to the proceedings, their representatives or relatives is not permitted before, during or for a certain period after the proceedings
• Lay assessors are not allowed to conduct their own investigations: Questions to the witnesses or defendants or inspection of the crime scene are largely taboo
• Duty of confidentiality: lay assessors are obliged to remain silent about all proceedings and the content of deliberations. Discussions with defendants, witnesses, journalists or other persons about what they learn and decide in the course of their work as lay judges are prohibited.
• Once appointed as a lay assessor for a trial, the same persons must attend all days of the main trial - even if the trial days extend over months, for example in murder or organized crime cases
• Punctuality: Always allow sufficient time for arrival, admission checks and, if necessary, finding a parking space If you are late for the hearing without an appropriate excuse, you may be fined.
• Basic Law: Aldermen are sworn in to the Basic Law in a public session before their first assignment and are therefore bound by this and all other laws.

You can become a lay assessor either by actively applying for the office of lay assessor, by being nominated by an organization (political party, trade union, etc.) or by agreeing to be re-admitted to the list if you are already a lay assessor.

What should I do before applying?

Before you actively apply for the office of lay assessor, there are a few basic considerations you should make:

Involve your employer: Let your employer know as early as possible if you plan to apply for a position or if an organization has nominated you, so that internal arrangements can be made to cover for your absence.

Clarifying rules regarding lost wages: Generally speaking, you can claim compensation for lost wages in court—your employer is not required to continue paying your wages or salary during the period you serve as a lay judge.

Personal considerations – Why become a lay judge? Am I up to the task? Etc.: Before actively applying to become a lay judge, you should give this careful thought.

What you hear and see during a criminal trial - where you are appointed as a lay judge - can be very emotionally stressful. A trial can sometimes take several weeks - weeks in which you have to follow reports on sexual offenses, domestic violence, murder or grievous bodily harm in order to be able to reach a verdict together with the professional judges present at the end. However, unlike them, in most cases you will receive neither professional training nor supervision. You must therefore be able to deal with what you learn during the trial on your own, as you are bound to secrecy and are therefore not allowed to talk to friends and family about the content or people involved in the proceedings. This also applies after the proceedings have been completed.

If you have relevant professional experience in an area that is suitable for another office as an honorary judge, you should also consider whether you would like to contribute your expertise there.

Information on this can be obtained from the relevant professional associations, trade unions and chambers. These also take care of the relevant application procedure and the lists of candidates.

Important: Once you have been involved in a trial as a lay assessor, you must remain involved until the end. Trial days may not be more than 21 days apart. For you, this means that you may be forced to postpone or interrupt a vacation. If you fail to attend the hearing without sufficient justification, you may even be charged a fine of €1000 and the costs incurred as a result of missing the hearing must be reimbursed - vacation does not count as justification!

The proposal list

Once your details have been received and checked, the list of candidates will be drawn up. As every applicant is checked via the Federal Central Criminal Register (police clearance certificate), we require the following information: Surname, maiden name, first name

• Place of birth (with district if in Germany or country if not in Germany)
• Birthday
• Occupation - in the case of the public sector, indicating the area of activity
• Complete address

First and foremost, people who actively apply for the honorary post or are nominated by an organization are included in the list of nominees.

Once the list of candidates has been drawn up, it is made available for public inspection for one week, but without details of place of birth or specific address. If there are any doubts about a person's suitability for the office of lay assessor, anyone has the right to submit reasons for this assumption within the inspection period.

The election procedure

After the end of the inspection period, the list of candidates is first examined by the city council and then forwarded to the election committee of the responsible district court together with any objections against candidates.

The election committee first decides on the objections submitted. If these have to be upheld, the respective person must be removed from the list of nominees.

The election committee then selects the required number of lay assessors from the remaining candidates.

Will everyone who has applied be employed?

We cannot guarantee that an application will be successful and that every applicant will be accepted. As the number of lay assessors required is predetermined, it is possible that you will not be included in the list of lay assessors at the local court despite fulfilling the requirements.

However, if you are on the list of principal lay assessors, the order of assignments is drawn by lot at the end of each year for the following year, so that everyone is assigned an assignment during the term of office. You will be invited separately to each specific day of the hearing.

The order of assignment of the alternate aldermen* is drawn by lot before the start of the term of office for the entire 5 years - so an assignment is not guaranteed here.

Compensation for loss of earnings

You are not entitled to continued payment of salary or corresponding remuneration for the time you serve as a lay judge. To ensure that you do not suffer any financial loss, you can apply for financial compensation from the court where you served as a lay judge. The application must be made within 3 months of the end of the term of office; if proceedings extend beyond the end of the term of office, you can apply for compensation up to 3 months after the end of the proceedings.

You can receive compensation for loss of earnings, lost time, travel expenses, etc.

Accident insurance

Honorary judges are covered by statutory accident insurance while performing their duties; this also includes so-called commuting accidents.