FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Marja Norrena, Maija Ahtiainen and Valmari Keskimäki, Lieke Attorneys Ltd
tion of the law in similar cases, or for the uniformity of legal practice; • there is a special reason for it, such as a procedur- al or other error that has been made in the case, on the basis of which the decision should be reversed or annulled; or • there are other weighty reasons for granting leave. The primary basis for granting leave is the first one, while the latter two are applied more exceptionally. 10.3 Procedure for Taking an Appeal Appealing a District Court Decision The first step in appealing a District Court judgment to the Court of Appeal is to file a declaration of intent to appeal. This must be submitted to the District Court that rendered the judgment no later than seven days after the judgment was rendered. Next, the actual appeal document must be filed with the same District Court within 30 days of the judgment being rendered. The District Court will then forward the appeal docu- ment to the relevant Court of Appeal. The content of the appeal document is set out in the Code of Judicial Procedure and must include, for example, information on which parts of the judgment are requested to be reviewed and the grounds thereof. Appealing a Court of Appeal Decision The time limit for requesting leave to appeal a Court of Appeal judgment and for filing the appeal with the Supreme Court is 60 days from the date the Court of Appeal’s decision was rendered. The documents must be submitted to the Court of Appeal, which will then forward them to the Supreme Court. The request for leave must indicate the basis of the request (see 10.2 Rules Concerning Appeals of Judgments on the acceptable grounds). The appeal document must indicate, inter alia: • in what respects a review of the Court of Appeal’s decision is requested; • what changes are requested in the decision; and • the grounds for the requested changes. 10.4 Issues Considered by the Appeal Court at an Appeal The Court of Appeal may only consider issues that have been raised in the appeal and the possible
response to it. The appellant may not refer to circum- stances or evidence other than those presented in the lower instance, unless they can establish that they were unable to refer to the circumstance or evidence in the lower instance, or that they had a justifiable reason for not doing so. 10.5 Court-Imposed Conditions on Granting an Appeal The court cannot impose conditions for granting leave for continued consideration or leave to appeal. How- ever, both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court may grant leave only for certain parts of the lower court’s judgment. 10.6 Powers of the Appellate Court After an Appeal Hearing Following an appeal hearing, the appellate court has broad discretion to uphold, overturn or modify the lower court’s judgment, either in full or in part. In some cases, the appellate court may also remand the case to the lower court for reconsideration. This may be necessary, for example, if a case has been dismissed on procedural grounds in the lower court. However, the appellate court is always bound by the claims pre- sented in the case. The lower court’s judgment cannot be amended to the detriment of the appellant unless the opposing party has also appealed against it. 11. Costs 11.1 Responsibility for Paying the Costs of Litigation As a general rule, the losing party is required to reim- burse the prevailing party for their costs of litigation. In cases involving multiple claims, where some are decided in favour of the claimant and some in favour of the defendant, the parties may be required to bear their own costs of litigation. This may also apply if the issue that caused the outcome of the case was unknown to the losing party before the trial. Furthermore, if the prevailing party is only partially successful in their claim, or if the legal issue in dis- pute has been so unclear that the losing party had a justified reason to have the matter decided in legal
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