Anyone who refuses to undergo an official medical examination despite repeated written requests to do so without sufficient reason can be treated as if their incapacity to work had been established. This has now been decided by the Service Court of the State of Brandenburg (Ref.: DGH 5/25 of 15.04.2026). The court based its decision on the legal concept of Section 444 of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO), which regulates the obstruction of evidence or the rendering unusable of documents.

This case concerned a judge who was repeatedly absent for long periods of time due to illness, but refused to have his state of health examined by an official doctor. After both the objection to the examination order and a previous summary procedure were unsuccessful, the judge was retired.

The court has now declared the examination order to be lawful. As the judge had not been willing to undergo a medical examination and was unable to provide an expert opinion, he would now have to bear the consequences. In addition, he is not expected to regain his ability to work in the future. In the court's opinion, the retirement was not disproportionate because the employer had no more lenient measures at its disposal.