SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Simon Arvmyren, Christopher Stridh and Mikaela Tysk, Delphi
for such claims, or that international regulations take precedence. Swedish courts will also accept jurisdiction of a case if the jurisdiction of the Swedish court has been agreed by the parties; there is no requirement for a written form. For disputes involving international matters, the recast Brussels I Regulation (EU Regulation No 1215/2012 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters) is of relevance for dis- putes involving parties from the European Union as is the Lugano Convention in relation to matters involving parties from Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland. 3.4 Initial Complaint A lawsuit is initiated by the plaintiff by submitting an application for summons. The application shall be submitted to the court which has jurisdiction (see 3.3 Jurisdictional Requirements for a Defendant ) and there is no need to send a copy to the defendant. The application must be signed in original (certain digital signatures are acceptable), must be in written form and include certain basic information about the parties as well as an original of the power of attorney. The application must contain: • the specific relief sought; • an account of the operative facts and circumstanc- es upon which the claim is based; • a preliminary statement of evidence including cop- ies of documentary evidence relied upon as well as a list of witnesses; • evidence of the court fee having been paid – the court fee varies but is capped at SEK2,800 (approximately EUR280); and • evidence that the court has jurisdiction to hear the claim. If the application does not comply with the above- mentioned requirements or is otherwise incomplete, the court may order the plaintiff to correct the deficien- cies. A failure to comply with such an order may result in the application being dismissed.
Once an application for summons is complete it will be issued on the defendant by the court. It is possible for the plaintiff to amend its relief sought as well as to invoke new facts and circumstances. In brief, a claim may be amended and new requests for relief may be introduced as long as the new claim is based on, in essence, the same set of circumstances as the initial claim. Once the final hearing has com- menced, the possibility to amend a claim is very lim- ited. 3.5 Rules of Service The applicable rules of service follow from the Swed- ish Service of Process Act. It is the responsibility of the court to serve the defendant with the application for summons as well as to ensure that the parties and witnesses are served with other documents (ie, sum- mons to appear) when necessary. Normally the court will first seek to serve the defend- ant by ordinary post and ask for the defendant to sign and return a certificate of receipt. If service through post is not successful, the court may seek to serve the defendant through other means, for instance a process server. The plaintiff may also petition the court to be granted the opportunity to serve the application on the defendant, which the court normally grants if it has not been possible to serve the defendant after a few attempts. If the respondent is domiciled outside Sweden, the manner of service will be governed by applicable international treaties or regulations. Between EU member states, the EU Service Regulation will apply. If the defendant is domiciled in the Nordic countries (Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), a Nordic agreement applies. In addition, Sweden has ratified the Hague Service Convention, which applies in relation to other parties thereto. If service is to be made in countries that are not party to any relevant international instrument, or where the applicable instrument so requests, the courts will turn to the County Administrative Board of Stockholm as it is the appointed Central Authority for international service of documents in Sweden and abroad. The
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