SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Simon Arvmyren, Christopher Stridh and Mikaela Tysk, Delphi
The Trial Proceedings First, the court will make sure that there are no pro- cedural impediments such as a party or a witness not presenting themselves, or the more unusual situation that a party has submitted new factual allegations or evidence shortly before the start of the hearing or even at the beginning of the hearing. If that is the case, the other party will be allowed reasonable time to answer or the new material may be ruled inadmissible. If the court determines that there are no impediments, the hearing will proceed. The hearing starts with opening statements, which shall be oral according to the principle of oral proceed- ings. The parties may only submit written memoran- dums of their opening statements if the court makes the decision that it would ease the understanding of the opening statement or assist the proceedings in another way. The plaintiff begins by stating its request for relief, whereby the respondent presents its reply and pos- sible request for relief regarding counterclaims. Dur- ing the opening statements, the parties, each in turn, present the factual basis for their respective claims or position together with a presentation of written evi- dence. In comparison, opening statements take more time in a main hearing under Swedish procedure than in many other jurisdictions, since written evidence will not be presented during the witness testimonies unless it is necessary to refer the witness to a docu- ment in order to put a question to them. Presentation software is commonly used by parties in more com- plex cases. After opening statements, oral witness examinations will take place, starting with any party representatives followed by the plaintiff’s witness and experts and thereafter the respondent’s witnesses and experts. Closing Arguments and Deciding the Case The main hearing will be finalised with closing argu- ments from each side. Post-hearing briefs are not allowed, and if there is any reason to continue the trial, such as new and unknown evidence surfacing after the main hearing, the hearing will instead be re- opened.
the applicant wishes to have the judgment enforced (see Chapter 15, Section 10 of the Procedural Code). If the injunctive relief was awarded under the penalty of a fine, a non-complying defendant may risk having to pay the fine. In addition to the above, a non-com- pliant party will, of course, also always increase the risk of the court drawing negative inferences. There are, however, no rules regarding contempt of court that would apply.
7. Trials and Hearings 7.1 Trial Proceedings Initial Proceedings
Once an application of summons has been served on the defendant (see 3.4 Initial Complaint ), the proce- dure provides for an initial exchange of written plead- ings commencing with a written answer or statement of defence. This is part of the so-called preparatory phase of the trial. The preparatory phase also includes an oral preparatory hearing with the main purpose of clarifying the parties’ respective positions in relation to the request for relief and factual allegations. At the preparatory hearing the court will normally also pro- ceed with other issues such as document production and planning of the remaining part of the trial. The court also has an obligation to investigate if the par- ties are interested in finding an amicable settlement of the dispute. Following the preparatory hearing, there is often another round of exchange of written pleadings together with submission of final statements of evi- dence. For larger and more complex cases, there may of course be additional rounds of written pleadings, as well as additional oral preparatory hearings. The case must be decided after an oral main hear- ing, except regarding disputes concerning very low amounts or if it is otherwise appropriate to decide the case without a hearing. Rules regarding the main hearing can be found in Chapter 43 of the Procedural Code. All main hearings, with some exceptions, are open to the public, in both civil and criminal cases. See 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings .
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