What is it?

In the summary penalty order, the public prosecutor’s office states that you are charged with a criminal offence and how you are to be punished.

Once you have been served with the summary penalty order, you have ten days to lodge a written rejection. By lodging a rejection, you declare that you do not agree with the penalty order. As the accused, you do not have to state the grounds on which you object.

If you do not lodge a rejection within these ten days, the penalty order will become a final and enforceable criminal judgement. In other words, this means that you will be convicted of a criminal offence and, in most cases, you will no longer be able to defend yourself against the sentence imposed, even if you never stood trial.

What to do?

You need to decide as soon as possible whether you want to object to the summary penalty order or not.

Agreement: If you agree with the summary penalty order, you do not have to do anything.

Disagreement: If you do not agree with the summary penalty order, you must lodge an objection in written form within ten days of being served with the penalty order. It is best to send the objection by registered post. The ten-day deadline must be observed.

Uncertainty: If you are unsure whether you want to take action or not against the summary penalty order, it is advisable to file a rejection anyway. After you have lodged a rejection, you have time to look at the case files and discuss the case with an expert. Afterwards, you can still decide whether you want to maintain or withdraw the rejection.

How we can support you

We explain the contents of the summary penalty order to you and discuss the risks and benefits of a rejection.

If you wish to lodge a rejection, we can do so on your behalf and at the same time request to see the case files. The case files contain all documents and objects that have something to do with your case. On the basis of the files, we can assess on what evidence the accusations made against you are based and what further actions can be considered.

You can contact us either by telephone or by using the contact form below without obligation. We will then check whether we can represent you and determine the next steps of our cooperation with you.

We speak German, French, English, Spanish and Italian. Do you speak another language? Then we can involve an interpreter or you can bring someone along yourself to interpret for you.