FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Marja Norrena, Maija Ahtiainen and Valmari Keskimäki, Lieke Attorneys Ltd
10. Appeal 10.1 Levels of Appeal or Review to a Litigation
The amount of interest payable for late payment is 7% or 8% above the European Central Bank’s refer- ence rate. 9.4 Enforcement Mechanisms of a Domestic Judgment In Finland, the National Enforcement Author- ity is responsible for the enforcement of judgments. Enforcement may involve payment obligations, the transfer of property (whether immovable or movable), eviction or an obligation to vacate certain premises, an obligation to perform a certain act, a prohibition against performing a certain act, or an obligation to permit another party to perform a certain act, as well as seizures or other precautionary measures. Final judgments are directly enforceable. The situa- tion is different in relation to judgments that have not become final – ie, where the appeal period has not ended or an appeal is pending. In such cases, enforce- ment usually requires the party seeking enforcement to provide security, and it may be prevented if the other party provides security. 9.5 Enforcement of a Judgment From a Foreign Country The enforcement of a foreign civil judgment depends on the nature of the judgment and the country in which it was issued. Foreign civil judgments will only be rec- ognised and enforced if recognition is provided for in an international treaty binding on Finland, or in appli- cable EU legislation or national law. For EU member states, the most relevant regulation is the Recast Brussels I Regulation. Under this regula- tion, civil judgments issued within the EU are directly enforceable and do not require confirmation of their enforceability by a Finnish District Court. For other countries, enforcement requires the District Court to first declare that the judgment is enforceable. This applies to Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, for exam- ple, to which the Lugano Convention applies.
The general court system consists of District Courts, Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court (see 1.2 Court System ). Judgments from District Courts can be appealed to the Courts of Appeal, and judgments from the Courts of Appeal can be appealed to the Supreme Court. In certain exceptional circumstanc- es, it is possible to lodge an appeal against a Dis- trict Court decision directly with the Supreme Court instead of the Court of Appeal. 10.2 Rules Concerning Appeals of Judgments In all civil cases, a party wishing to appeal a District Court judgment to the Court of Appeal must first be granted a leave for continued consideration. The Court of Appeal must grant the leave if: • there is reason as to doubt the correctness of the outcome of the decision; • it is not possible to assess the correctness of the outcome of the decision without granting leave; • in view of the application of the law in other similar matters, it is important to grant leave in the given case; or • if there are other weighty reasons for granting the leave. The above criteria are interpreted in a manner favour- able to the applicant. In practice, the threshold for granting the leave is fairly low. However, if the appeal is sought solely for the re-evaluation of evidence, the threshold is somewhat higher. To appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal, leave to appeal must be requested from the Supreme Court. The threshold for granting leave is significant- ly higher in the Supreme Court than in the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court grants leave in less than 10% of cases. The Supreme Court only grants leave to appeal if: • it is important to have the matter decided by the Supreme Court for the sake of consistent applica-
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