Verfahrenscheck · For employer-side Fachanwälte für Arbeitsrecht
The question is not whether your client can terminate. It is whether the file can still carry the decision eighteen months from now.
A pre-notice adversarial read of the termination file. Not Rechtsberatung. Not a legal opinion.
Verfahrenscheck reconstructs the employment file and tests whether it can still explain the decision before notice is delivered — reading the file the way opposing counsel and the Arbeitsgericht will. With adverse facts, witness-recollection gaps, and full disclosure on the table.
Every finding is anchored to a cited provision and flagged where authority cannot be verified — built to be inspected and challenged, never merely accepted. You remain principal; the engine surfaces, you judge.
Statutes the review attacks
- §102 BetrVG
- §626 BGB
- §1 KSchG
- §1 Abs. 3 KSchG Sozialauswahl
- §168 SGB IX
- §22 AGG
- §17 MuSchG · §18 BEEG
Counsel-vendor confidentiality regime
- §43e BRAO
- §203 (1), (3), (4) StGB
- GDPR
How it works
Input
- HR file
- Investigation materials
- Draft termination package
- Supporting documentation
Review
- Procedural reconstruction
- Evidence-tier assessment
- Statutory control checks
- Adversarial challenge analysis
- Documentation completeness review
Output
- Procedural defects
- Documentation gaps
- Timing risks
- Evidentiary weaknesses
- Remediation opportunities
A documented defensibility report identifying the items above.
Available for review
- Sample defensibility report
- Methodology paper
- Doctrinal mapping framework
- Data handling architecture
- Sample remediation workflow
Where files actually collapse
The cases that go wrong rarely go wrong on the legal theory. They go wrong because the file can no longer prove, document, and explain the decision once memories fade, witnesses drift, and every document is on the table. The same handful of gaps appear repeatedly:
- §102 BetrVG completeness — a Betriebsrat hearing that omits a ground, misstates tenure, or proceeds prematurely.
- §626 Ausschlussfrist clock — the two-week window continues to run while facts are being gathered; the timeline becomes vulnerable before anyone notices.
- Abmahnung without Warnfunktion — the record exists, but the function does not.
- Sozialauswahl-Plausibilität — §1 Abs. 3 KSchG factors that appear reasonable internally and arbitrary externally.
- Verdachts- vs. Tatkündigung drift — a suspicion-based termination later defended as though it were conduct-based, without the required Anhörung.
- AGG timing correlation — a termination that follows a protected event creates exposure independent of the underlying rationale.
- Evidence hierarchy weaknesses — a narrative dependent on recollection where contemporaneous records should exist.
One concrete shape this takes: a file that reads as complete in-house — grounds documented, Betriebsrat heard, notice served inside the window — and still collapses eighteen months later because the §102 hearing, reconstructed under disclosure, can no longer prove it stated the operative ground. Not because anyone was careless. Because the record has to carry the decision once memories have faded and every document is on the table.
Verfahrenscheck reviews these as a connected process chain, not as isolated checklist items.
Adversarial replay (ERE): collapse the file before the other side does.
Before any report is issued, the file is replayed once through the standard reconstruction (EDE) and again through the Evidence Replay Engine (ERE) — an adversarial pass that re-runs the gates under the five attack archetypes employee counsel will mount, in collapse-priority order. Each attack produces a collapse dossier tied to the gate it attacked and the BAG warrant licensed under that gate. The verdict only stands when the EDE outcome and the ERE outcome agree (replay equivalence).
The five archetypes correspond one-for-one to the attack tabs on the attack catalog.
A1 · Formal Defect (§623 / §174 BGB)
Written-form compliance and authority to sign. Re-runs G2.WF: signature originality, delivery proof, Vollmacht where a proxy signed. Decisive on its own — a defective Kündigung is void irrespective of the merits.
A2 · Works Council Hearing (§102 / §103 BetrVG)
Hearing initiation before notice, completeness of the Anhörungsschreiben, route stated equals route on the letter, response window respected, and §103 consent for a BR-member extraordinary termination. Re-runs all eight G1 subgates as a single timeline math attack.
A3 · Special Protection (G0)
Pregnancy (§17 MuSchG), parental leave (§18 BEEG), severe disability (§168 SGB IX), BR member / election board / DPO / military service. Tests external-authority consent against termination_issued_at — approval after notice is the same as no approval.
A4 · Substantive Justification (§1 / §626 / §1 Abs. 3 KSchG, §167 SGB IX)
Route-conditional re-run of G2 substance: A1–A3 conduct, B1–B2 health and BEM, C1–C7 redundancy and Sozialauswahl, D1–D3 important reason / §626 Abs. 2 / warning-necessity. Existence of evidence is not defensibility — this attack tests quality.
A5 · Discrimination / Tech (AGG §22, §87(1) Nr. 6 BetrVG, GDPR Art. 22)
Reverse burden of proof under §22 AGG once Indizien are shown; co-determination on technical monitoring; automated-decision transparency. Rarely first-line but high-impact when the file does not already address them.
The collapse-priority order is doctrinal, not heuristic. A void Kündigung (A1) does not need a substantive review (A4); an A2 hearing defect collapses the file before the §1 KSchG test is reached. The dossier surfaces what would collapse the file first, not what reads worst on the page.
Evidence tiering — where the narrative depends on weaker proof
The review reconstructs the procedural timeline from first incident through investigation, Abmahnung, employee response, Betriebsrat process, and delivery, and tiers the evidentiary record: contemporaneous records and system logs · witness evidence · manager recollection · undocumented conversations. Where the narrative leans on the weaker tiers, the review says so — and surfaces the arguments employee counsel are likely to make and the questions the court is likely to ask.
What comes back: a defensibility assessment, not a verdict
Verfahrenscheck does not determine whether a termination is lawful. It does not predict outcomes. It does not recommend settlement positions.
Those decisions remain legal judgments.
What it provides is a structured review of the file itself:
- Where the file is procedurally complete
- Where evidence is strong
- Where documentation is thin
- Where deadlines, sequencing, or process controls create exposure
- Where remediation remains possible
The objective is straightforward:
Find the collapse point while it can still be repaired.
Two tiers, one clean line
The distinction is deliberate.
Tier 1
Verfahrenscheck Completeness Review
Verfahrenscheck maps the file against the procedural chain and underlying doctrinal controls, identifies gaps, and assesses evidentiary strength.
The Tier 1 review identifies:
- Completeness risks
- Procedural gaps
- Documentation deficiencies
- Evidentiary weaknesses
It does not determine whether a termination is lawful.
It does not replace legal advice.
It does not provide a legal opinion.
Its function is completeness review.
Tier 2
Named-Fachanwalt Legal Opinion
Optional. Separately commissioned. Separately billed.
Where legal advice or a formal opinion is required, a senior Fachanwalt provides that analysis under their own name and professional responsibility.
The distinction is not a limitation. It is what allows counsel to deploy the review process without blurring the line between procedural assessment and legal advice.
Doctrinally sourced. Inspectable like a Schriftsatz.
Every review gate is anchored to a statutory provision or established authority (KSchG, BGB, BetrVG, AGG, SGB IX, Massenentlassung requirements). Where authority cannot be verified, the review identifies the limitation rather than asserting certainty. Each finding is linked to the relevant procedural control, the supporting evidence, and the underlying authority — meant to be inspected, challenged, and verified, never merely accepted. The methodology record is available on request.
Privilege-preserving by design — mapped to the regime you already operate under
The most sensitive matters are the ones that require the most scrutiny. The architecture reflects that — and the vendor is committed to the three regimes that govern lawful counsel-vendor engagement in Germany:
- §43e BRAO — the service-provider engagement framework that permits attorneys to engage external providers without breaching attorney secrecy, where the §43e conditions are met. The intake workflow, contract, and obligations are designed to fit that frame.
- §203 (1), (3), (4) StGB — Berufsgeheimnis. Vendor personnel are bound to the professional-secrecy obligation as mitwirkende Personen under §203(3), within the §203(4) framework for service-provider arrangements; the secrecy duty travels with the file.
- GDPR — AVV (Art. 28) and DPIA (Art. 35) templates available; German/EU data handling; no runtime cloud inference; on-device local deployment available on request.
De-identified intake is generated locally: the review operates on structure, chronology, and evidentiary relationships rather than personal identity. Decisions remain human decisions — the system identifies completeness issues and evidentiary gaps; it does not resolve them.
Two ways counsel put this to work
The review fits a live mandate or a client relationship — without displacing your judgment in either. In both, you stay principal.
On a live mandate
A pressure-test before delivery
Run the file through the adversarial replay before notice goes out. The collapse dossier surfaces what employee counsel will reach for first — so the §102 hearing is rewritten, the Ausschlussfrist caught, and the Abmahnung's Warnfunktion repaired while remediation is still possible. The leverage is yours; the file stays yours.
As a referral
A read your mandator will thank you for
Where a client is about to act, a documented pre-notice completeness read is a safeguard you can put on the table. Where the matter warrants formal analysis, the Tier 2 opinion routes back through you, under your name. The relationship stays yours; the defensibility is what you brought to it.
Now onboarding a select first cohort
Verfahrenscheck is opening to a limited number of employer-side Kanzleien. The first cohort is intentionally small: the calibration against live matters — and the judgment of the experienced employment counsel in it — is what shapes the engine. Senior Fachanwalt validation available on demand for matters that warrant formal legal review.
Start before the record hardens
Three steps, each asking more of the file and nothing of your standing. Start wherever you like — you stay principal throughout.
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Open the sample →
See a sample read
A de-identified matter, end to end. One click, nothing to submit.
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Run the diagnostic — 3 min →
Run the diagnostic
See the five angles opposing counsel attacks from, and how the replay tests a file against each.
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Submit a live matter →
Submit a live matter
One real file. De-identified intake generated locally; defensibility assessment returned within the agreed window.
Or request the methodology package · join the first-cohort waitlist.

