HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: Tamás Éless, Zsolt Farkas, Sarolta Szabó and Lili Bischof, Oppenheim Law Firm
jurisdiction. As a general rule, persons domiciled in a member state shall be sued before the courts of that member state. Special jurisdictional grounds are also set out in the Brussels Ia Regulation. The applicability of national rules is also limited by the international conventions to which Hungary is a party, since if such convention exists, it is applicable instead of national legislation. Such conventions include the 1996 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and bilateral legal aid treaties. In cases not covered by EU regulations or interna- tional treaties, Act XXVIII of 2017 on Private Interna- tional Law provides additional rules for determining jurisdiction. Hungarian law – similarly to the Brussels Ia Regulation – accepts choice of court agreements. If a Hungarian court has jurisdiction, the next step is to determine – under Hungarian law – which court has the subject matter and territorial competence to The court proceeding shall be initiated by the plaintiff by a statement of claim which has extensive formal and content requirements. The application must consist of three parts: an intro- ductory section, a substantive section, and a conclud- ing section. The introductory section must contain information about the parties and the court. The substantive part of a statement of claim shall indicate the claim, legal provisions, facts and legal reasoning. The closing section of the statement of claim must include information regarding the jurisdiction, the legal capacity of the parties, the value of the claim, and the applicable fees. adjudicate the dispute. 3.4 Initial Complaint The first instance procedure is divided into two dis- tinct stages: the preparatory stage and the evidentiary stage. The claim may be amended at the preparatory stage if the amended claim arises from the same or a
legally and factually related legal relationship as the previous claim. In the evidentiary stage, parties are generally not allowed to change their previous statements or adduce further evidence. At this point, the statement of claim may only be amended in certain special cases (in case of new facts or substantial guidelines set by If the statement of claim complies with the formal and content requirements and the procedural prerequisites are met, the proceeding court serves the statement of claim on the defendant and requests the defendant to submit its statement of defence within the statutory time limit. Thus, informing the adversary about the initiated lawsuit falls to the court itself via postal services in domestic cases. Furthermore, if the defendant is dom- iciled in a foreign country, the Hungarian courts per- form services according to either the Hague Service Convention or the relevant EU regulation on services. 3.6 Failure to Respond Under the CCP, the court will automatically issue a court injunction (a summary judgment) if the defend- ant fails to present its statement of defence before the deadline. If the defendant only disputes the claim in general terms, which contains neither formal defence nor substantive defence, a court injunction may be adopted. the proceeding court). 3.5 Rules of Service In the court injunction, all remedies shall be ordered by the court as requested by the plaintiff. Neverthe- less, any of the parties may file, within 15 days from delivery, an opposition against the court injunction and, provided this is duly accompanied by a proper statement of defence, the court injunction loses its effect and the case continues. 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions Under the rules of the CCP, representative actions can be brought whenever a statute makes it possible due to reasons of public interest. For example, a repre- sentative action may be brought to declare unfair gen- eral terms and conditions that form part of a contract
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