Regulations on the Preservation and Archiving of Documents of the Courts of Basel-Stadt (Archivierungsreglement) - Scope

1. This regulation governs the preservation of records of the Basel-City courts, the Court Council, the Supervisory Commission for Lawyers, and the Bar Examination Commission, including their retention period, transfer to the State Archive, and their destruction.

2. For ongoing proceedings, procedural law shall remain reserved.

3. The Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Office and the Inheritance Office shall issue their own retention and archiving guidelines, which must be approved by the Civil Court.

1. For the definition of the terms used, reference is made to § 3 of the Archives Act as well as §§ 10-12 of the Regulation on Records Management and Archiving (Records Management and Archiving Regulation) dated October 13, 1998.

1. Each court shall designate one or more persons responsible for the orderly management and preservation of records.

1. In court proceedings, the following documents shall be retained

a) the legal pleadings;

b) the object of appeal;

c) in criminal matters, the investigation files and the indictment or the penal order;

d) the correspondence conducted within the framework of the court proceedings (including return receipts);

e) the orders and resolutions issued in the context of the court proceedings along with the procedural record;

f) the minutes of the hearing;

g) the judgment or decision;

h) other documents as determined by the respective court.

2. The remaining documents from the court proceedings shall be returned to the respective senders or destroyed upon the conclusion of the proceedings.

1. Documents shall be retained in the form in which they are created, taking into account § 8. Documents that are generated exclusively electronically may be retained solely in electronic form.

1. The retention period generally commences after the final and binding conclusion of the proceedings. For sufficient reason, particularly when the documents are consulted in another pending proceeding, the retention period only begins at the conclusion of this further proceeding.

1. The following minimum retention periods apply to documents from court proceedings

a) Civil Court

1. Substantive civil cases: 15 years;

2. Family law cases: 15 years;

3. Labor law cases: 15 years;

4. Tenancy law cases: 15 years;

5. Single judge daily business cases: 15 years;

6. Mediation proceedings: 10 years;

7. Judicial prohibitions: At least as long as the prohibition notice is posted;

8. Decisions issued in judgment form in family law proceedings: 70 years.

b) Criminal Court

1. Criminal court cases: 30 years;

2. Objection cases: 30 years;

3. Private prosecution cases: 10 years;

4. Reporting cases: 10 years;

5. Detention reporting cases: 10 years;

6. Compulsory measures court cases: 10 years.

c) Appellate Court

1. Substantive civil appeals and direct action cases: 15 years;

2. Family law appeal cases: 15 years;

3. Child return cases under the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: 15 years;

4. Protective letters: 10 years;

5. Appeal cases in child and adult protection law: 30 years;

6. Civil appeal cases: 15 years;

7. Criminal appeal cases: 30 years;

8. Criminal appeal cases from the single judge: 10 years;

9. Criminal appeal cases from the three-judge panel: 30 years;

10. Various cases (DGZ, DGS, DGV): 10 years;

11. Administrative law appeals and constitutional complaints: 20 years.

d) Social Security Court: 20 years;

e) Court for Protective Custody: 30 years;

f) Juvenile Court: 30 years;

g) Supervisory Commission for Lawyers: 10 years;

h) Cases of the Appeals Commission for the Correctional Facility Bostadel under the chairmanship of the Canton of Basel-Stadt: 10 years.

2. To the extent that the courts maintain (physical or electronic) collections of judgments, they offer the holdings of judgments that are at least 30 years old to the state archive for archiving. The courts are authorized to retain copies of these collections permanently.

3. The following minimum retention periods apply to other documents

a) Administrative documents: 10 years after the conclusion of the transaction;

b) Minutes of the court council and presidium conferences: 30 years;

c) Personnel files: 10 years beyond the departure of the respective person;

d) The courts are authorized to retain copies of the documents under lit. a and b above beyond the retention period.

1. The entities referred to in § 1 shall maintain the documents in an orderly form until they are offered to the state archive and protect them from damage, loss, and unauthorized access. In particular, the following must be considered

a) Business transactions must be traceable at any time from the archived documents. For this purpose, the documents must be complete and reliable;

b) The reliability, readability, and authenticity of offered documents, particularly those from electronic systems, must be ensured with appropriate organizational and technical measures;

c) The technical aids used must comply with the technical standards of the canton, particularly in the area of office automation;

d) Durable information carriers must be used to ensure a sufficient lifespan. Writing materials and other aids must be used that do not decompose the information carriers.

1. Each entity mentioned in § 1 shall prepare an organizational overview of their records along with supplementary finding aids and shall maintain these accordingly. They shall file their documents following this organization.

2. The instructions provided by the State Archives regarding the organization and security of documents are to be taken into account.

3. The aforementioned entities shall coordinate with the State Archives when creating new organizational overviews and finding aids, so that these can later be adopted by the State Archives with minimal alterations and used for the verification of the corresponding documents.

4. The current organizational overviews shall be made accessible to the State Archives, and any fundamental changes shall be promptly communicated to the latter after their implementation. The organizational overview shall record

a) a system for the organization of the documents;

b) statutory and administrative retention periods;

c) regulations for the management of documents;

d) any decisions made by the State Archives regarding the appraisal of documents.

1. After the expiration of the retention periods, all documents are to be offered to the State Archive for archiving.

2. The scope of the documents to be delivered to the State Archive is determined by agreement between the courts and the State Archive.

3. The documents are to be delivered to the State Archive in an organized manner and accompanied by an inventory. The courts shall coordinate with the State Archive regarding details of the delivery.

4. Documents not accepted by the State Archive are to be destroyed. This may be disregarded if they do not contain personal data (cf. § 16 of the Law on Information and Data Protection, [Information and Data Protection Act, IDG] of June 9, 2010).

5. After the transfer of documents to the State Archive, the substantive jurisdiction for deciding requests for file inspection lies entirely with the State Archive.

1. Documents for which the retention period according to § 7 of these regulations had already expired at the time of its entry into force shall be offered to the State Archives by the deadline of December 31, 2023, in accordance with § 10.