Category

Civil action

Civil actionLitigation in Germany

Same Cue, Different Game: Why Litigators Lawyers Can’t Just Switch Tables between Germany and the UK

Meet the German Lawyer many UK Firms rely on to help navigate continental Clients and Witnesses through the High Court You wouldn't expect a World Snooker Champion to seamlessly dominate a fast-paced American pool tournament; despite using the same cue, the tables, pockets, and strategic angles are fundamentally different. The exact same trap awaits elite trial lawyers attempting to cross the English Channel. While a top-tier German litigator (Prozessanwalt) and a UK barrister share the…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
October 27, 2026
Civil actionGerman LawGoing to courtProfessional Regulations

Hiring a Lawyer in Germany: Everything UK Clients Need to Know

If you are a UK business or individual facing a legal dispute in Germany, your first instinct might be to brace yourself for mountains of paperwork, extensive "know your client" (KYC) checks, and lengthy engagement letters. Fortunately, the German legal system works quite differently. In Germany, civil law is a highly codified system, meaning that almost every aspect of the client-lawyer relationship is already regulated by federal black-letter law. Because these statutory protections are already…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
October 20, 2026
Civil actionGerman Corporate LawGerman Labor LawGerman LawGerman ProbateInternational Litigation

SJE Reports on German Law for English Courts

Experienced German Lawyers provide Expert Reports in Matters of German Law for Litigation in the UK In many legal disputes before the courts in England and Wales – ranging from cross-border commercial litigation, international family law cases, to inheritance and probate matters – the way in which German law governs certain facts of a case may become relevant at one point or another. From the perspective of an English judge, this foreign law aspect of…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
October 2, 2026
Civil actionGerman Tort LawInternational LitigationLitigation in Germany

When do German Courts have Jurisdiction in Cross-Border Civil Proceedings?

International Jurisdiction of German Civil Courts This article deals with the assessment of the jurisdiction of a German civil court in disputes where the parties have not entered into a contractual agreement on the international venue (Gerichtsstandsvereinbarung). The primary source of law governing international jurisdiction within the EU is the Brussels Ia Regulation (EuGVVO). This Regulation governs the jurisdiction of the courts of a Member State where the defendant is domiciled within the territory of…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
September 16, 2026
Civil actionDebt collectionGerman LawGoing to courtInternational LitigationLitigation in Germany

German Court Files are Confidential

Even German Court Judgments are not being fully published German Civil Court Case Files are not Public Record American and British lawyers naturally assume that court files are public record and can be easily accessed and inspected by anyone. Not in Germany! Germany is rather secretive when it comes to legal documents. Under German law, there is no general right to access court records in order to inspect and copy them. Instead, the written documents…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
August 24, 2026
Business in GermanyCivil actionDebt collectionGoing to courtInternational LitigationLitigation in Germany

German Commercial Litigation Lawyers for UK Businesses

B2B Debt Collection and Litigation Strategy in Germany Litigants from Britain will find themselves in a very different legal and cultural environment when they have to chase a debt from their German business partners. Many of the legal tools used in England do not exist in Germany. For instance, the German Civil Procedure Rules (Zivilprozessordnung) do not know: a pre-action protocol (a debtor can be immediately sued without any prior warning) any disclosure obligations, much…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
August 24, 2026
Civil actionCriminal LawEstate PlanningWills and Succession Planning

Bristol Will Writers cheat German beneficiaries out of their £400k inheritance from UK aunt

WDS ASSOCIATES LEGAL SERVICES LTD "LOSES" £1.6 MILLION CLIENT FUNDS Will Writers do not have the best reputation. Already back in 2010, BBC One aired a 30 min report titled "Wills - The Final Rip Off?"  accompanied by this article.  A current case involving the Bristol based "law firm" WDS ASSOCIATES LEGAL SERVICES LTD shows that this bad reputation is not entirely undeserved. That firm, which has earned a large number of horrific client reviews on Google…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
May 22, 2025
Business in GermanyCivil actionDebt collectionGoing to courtInternational LitigationLitigation in Germany

Costs of Debt Collection in Germany

Pre-action letter and issuing civil claim against debtor in Germany If you have a claim against a person or a business who are based in Germany and who are unwilling to pay, you will in many cases have to take that debtor to court in Germany, unless you have been able to agree your own country as place of jurisdiction in a contract (which is not quite that easy to do, especially in consumer contracts).…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
May 17, 2024
Civil actionCriminal LawGerman LawGerman Tort LawGoing to courtInternational Litigation

Covert Audio Recordings are illegal in Germany

Recording phone or video calls without all-party consent is a criminal offence Journalists from common law jurisdictions are often surprised or even shocked when they learn that any kind of audio recording - whether covert or open - is illegal under German law, unless the speaker who is being recorded addresses "the public", for example makes a political speech. Such an audio recording without all party consent is even a criminal offence in Germany, see…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
February 9, 2024
Business in GermanyCivil actionGerman Corporate LawGerman Labor LawGerman LawGerman ProbateGerman Succession & Inheritance Law

Less Cricket. More Baseball!

GrafLegal creates US-German Legal Desk Too much cricket, not enough baseball! That's essentially what our marketing people told us after finding that 65% of all posts on our various law blogs deal with UK-German legal issues, only 35% with USA related topics. We may just have gone a bit too much Downton Abbey on everyone. Enough of that, let's balance the scales! The German law firm for US-German legal matters To start off our US…
Bernhard Schmeilzl
March 29, 2022