page_title: Judiciary of Austria
section_title: Regional courts
hierarchical_section_title: Judiciary of Austria / General courts / Regional courts
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Landesgericht Feldkirch an der Schillerstrasse 1 in Feldkirch im österreichischen Bundesland Vorarlberg &#160; This media shows the protected monument with the number 31002 in Austria. (Commons, de, Wikidata)
context_page_description: The Judiciary of Austria is the branch of the Austrian government responsible for resolving disputes between residents or between residents and the government, holding criminals accountable, making sure that the legislative and executive branches remain faithful to the European and Austrian constitutions and to international human rights standards, and generally upholding the rule of law.
  The judiciary is independent of the other two branches of government and is committed to guaranteeing fair trials and equality before the law. It has broad and effective powers of judicial review.
  Structurally, the Austrian judiciary is divided into general courts and courts of public law.
  The general courts handle civil and criminal trials as well as non-adversary proceedings such as inheritance cases or legal guardianship matters.
  The courts of public law supervise the other two branches of government: the administrative court system reviews the legality of administrative acts; the Constitutional Court adjudicates on complaints regarding the constitutionality of statutes, the legality of ordinances, and the conduct of elected officials and political appointees in office.
context_section_description: There are 18 regional courts (Landesgerichte) in Austria; their seats are in Eisenstadt, Feldkirch, Graz, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Korneuburg, Krems an der Donau, Leoben, Linz, Ried im Innkreis, Salzburg, Sankt Pölten, Steyr, Vienna, Wels, and Wiener Neustadt. In Graz and Vienna, the civil and criminal chambers set up as two separate courts, meaning that Graz and Vienna each have a civil regional court (Landesgericht für Zivilrechtssachen) and a criminal regional court (Landesgericht für Strafrechtssachen).
  Regional courts are responsible for
  exercising original jurisdiction over all civil and criminal matters not handled by district courts;
  hearing appeals on facts and law (Berufungen) against district court decisions;
  keeping the company register.
  In cases for which the regional court has original jurisdiction, the trial is usually a bench trial decided by a single professional judge, but there are several exceptions:
  Suits at employment law or social assistance law are decided by a panel of three judges, one professional judge (Berufsrichter) and two lay judges (Laienrichter). The lay judges are expert lay judges (fachkundige Laienrichter) and are effectively meant to double as court-appointed disinterested expert witnesses.
  Other civil suits can be tried by three-judge panels upon request of the parties if the amount in dispute exceeds EUR 100,000. In cases at mercantile law, the panel consists of two professional judges and one expert lay judge (fachmännischer Laienrichter here). In other cases, the panel consists of three professional judges.
  Criminal trials are held before three-judge panels, four-judge panels, or juries in cases of alleged homicide, sexual assault, robbery, certain types of grand larceny or fraud, and in any case where the alleged crime carries a maximum jail term of more than five years. The specifics are somewhat involved; the following is a rough outline:
  Most of the cases outlined above go before a three-judge panel consisting of one professional judge and two lay judges (Schöffen).
  In cases of alleged manslaughter, aggravated robbery, rape, membership in a terrorist organization, abuse of official authority, or financial crimes causing more than EUR 1,000,000 in damage, a second professional judge is added to the panel.
  Charges of murder, actual terrorist violence, or armed insurrection are jury trials decided by three professional judges and eight jurors (Geschworene). The same is true for treason, a number of other political crimes, and all other crimes with minimum jail terms of more than five and maximum jail terms of more than ten years.
  In criminal trials, some effort is made to prevent panels and juries from being biased or unable to empathize with either defendants or alleged victims. If the crime alleged is a sexual assault or some other violation of a person's sexual integrity serious enough to warrant a panel, then at least one of the judges must belong to the same sex as the alleged victim. If there is a jury, then at least two of the jurors must be of the same sex as the alleged victim. If the defendant is juvenile and the alleged crime is serious enough to warrant a panel, then at least one of the judges must be of the same sex as the defendant and at least one of the judges must be a present or former educator or competent social worker. If there is a jury, at least two of the jurors must be of the relevant sex and at least four must have the relevant job experience.
  Appeals of district courts decisions to regional courts are decided by three-judge panels: two professional judges and one expert lay judge in trials at mercantile law, three professional judges in all other civil matters and in all criminal cases.
  Routine company register decisions are made by single judges or by judicial clerks.
  Attached to every regional court dealing with criminal trials, there is a branch of the state prosecution service (Staatsanwaltschaft) and a prison (Justizanstalt). Regional courts and regional-level state prosecutors organize and supervise most of the pre-trial work (Ermittlungsverfahren)
caption: The seat of the Feldkirch regional court
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