Start 2020 With The Latest Trends And Developments In Austrian Litigation

In recent years, the caseload in Austrian courts regarding civil and commercial litigation has decreased by approximately 20%, from 0.5 first instance litigation cases pending per 100 inhabitants in 2010 to 0.4 in 2016. In comparison, cases in Germany have doubled and Italy and Croatia have had almost ten times as many commercial and civil disputes (see CEPEJ Studies No 26, Edition 2018).

It is fair to assume that this decrease is largely the result of the courts having cleared the disputes resulting from the financial crisis, particularly the large-scale investors' claims that blocked entire court departments for years at a time.

Factors keeping the caseloads low are the Austrian court fee system and the continuing popularity of ADR methods.