SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Georgios Eleftheriadis, Hellström Law Firm
mandatory legal counsel (ie, the claimant must have a legal counsel, such as an attorney). Under Chapter 42, Section 2 of the Code of Judicial Procedure, the statement of claim must include: • the specific redress being sought; • an account of the facts that are being relied upon for the action; • statement of evidence for those facts; and • an account of whichever facts render the court competent. In addition to these general rules, Section 9 of the Group Proceedings Act mandates that the statement of claim for a class action must include: • information on the class covered by the action; • the circumstances that are held in common between the class members; • any facts that to the claimant’s knowledge are rel- evant to the assessment of the claims of only some of the members of the class; and • any other circumstances relevant to whether the claims should be tried as a class action or not. 3.2 Overview of Procedure Once a statement of claim has been submitted (see 3.1 Mechanisms for Bringing Collective Redress/ Class Action ), and assuming that the court is com- petent (ie, it has jurisdiction), the process will begin with an admissibility assessment. Under Section 8 of the Group Proceedings Act, a class action must meet five requirements (in addition to the basic requirements applicable to any claim which fol- low from the Code of Judicial Procedure) in order to be admitted – namely, that: • the action is based on facts held in common between (or which are similar to) the claims of the members of the class action; • the class action does not appear to be inappro- priate as a result of some of the class member’s claims being materially or substantially different to the claims of other members of the same class action;
• the majority of the claims that fall under the class action cannot be equally well served individually by each class action member as a regular civil case; • the class action members are appropriately defined in terms of the group’s size, boundaries, and other relevant factors; and • the claimant is a person appropriate as a repre- sentative of the class in the case, with regard to: If the admissibility requirements are met, the court will then initiate proceedings by serving the statement of claim to the respondent (Chapter 42, Section 5 of the Code of Judicial Procedure), with a requirement for the respondent to provide a response within a given time- frame. Failure to meet this timeframe will result in a default judgment in favour of the claimant. Again, this procedure does not differ from regular civil litigation procedure. There is no requirement for any authorisa- tion by any public authority, there are no specific pub- lications made regarding the ongoing process (see 3.3 Standing ), nor are the parties expected or obligated to initiate the procedure with any settlement phase. Any claimant who brings a class action must also pro- vide the names and addresses of known members of the class action. The process will then involve the exchange of addi- tional written submissions between the parties until the court decides that the positions of the two parties are sufficiently clear to schedule a preliminary hearing. The purpose of the preliminary hearing is for the parties and the court to jointly discuss and settle any major substantive questions and certain procedural ques- tions (for instance, relating to document disclosure). Furthermore, the court will decide on the remainder of the procedural schedule, including deciding how many additional submissions each party will submit. Finally, the court is obligated at this stage to assess whether there are any prospects of reaching a settle- ment. This obligation formally does not extend beyond consulting with the parties on the matter. As a rule, however, courts do tend to devote significant effort and time to settlement discussions. (a) their interest in the matter; (b) their financial capacity; and (c) other relevant circumstances.
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