FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Pekka Tuunainen, Pekka Tuunainen Attorneys Ltd
jurisdiction must be opposed when responding to court for the first time. If financial proceedings have already commenced in some other jurisdiction before being filed in Finland, it is possible to apply to stay proceedings in Finland. Depending on the matter, this can lead to the ultimate end of proceedings, or to a temporary hold. If a finan ‑ cial proceeding has been filed in any other country before it was filed successfully in Finland, the Finnish court must stop proceedings if the foreign judgment would be recognised in Finland. In international cases, it is not uncommon to have separate ongoing processes in different jurisdictions if one party can prove that Finnish financial matters will not be handled without Finnish proceedings. 2.2 Service and Process in Financial Proceedings If the spouses cannot agree on financial matters and the distribution of assets, the district court will appoint a distributor upon application. Such application may be filed by either spouse. No reasons need to be sup ‑ plied for the request to nominate a distributor. If only one of the spouses makes the application, the district court ex officio serves the application on the other spouse and reserves for the other spouse the possibility to issue a written statement on applica ‑ tion. This service must happen before financial pro ‑ ceedings can start in Finland. As there are no grounds needed, the only thing that can be disputed in practice is the appointment of the distributor. Although the law does not require it, distributors’ duties are performed by attorneys or other legal pro ‑ fessionals (law professors, former judges, etc). The distributor must be absolutely impartial with regard to all parties. In Finland, it is not possible to have all financial mat ‑ ters handled in a court of first instance; only limited and specific marital property financial matters can be taken to court, which happens very rarely. A distribu ‑ tor is the first instance and, after one is nominated, all services are private acts between parties and the
distributor. It is up to the distributor to take care of all tasks, and they can request court assistance. A distributor’s decision on financial matters can be appealed to a district court, and can then be taken to an appeals court and even to the Supreme Court if leave to appeal is granted. In this way, spouses’ finan ‑ cial matters will be handled in court. A small portion of cases end up in court through appeal. The appointment of a distributor is usually decided within weeks if the spouses agree on a person. If not, it can take up to one year to appoint a distributor, and it is possible to appeal this. After a distributor is appointed, there is no specific timeline; it all depends on the case and the time required to handle the case. In international cases with significant assets, proceed ‑ ings can take several years. 2.3 Division of Assets The main rule under the Marital Act is that all assets are divided equally between the spouses, after the deduction of debts. By law, this division includes all global assets, all assets owned and all profits gained, even before the marriage, up to the date when divorce was filed for by one of the spouses. Also, assets inher ‑ ited or received as gifts are part of the division if the testator or donor has not ruled this out in a will or deed of gift, which is now common practice. In the first stage, all assets and debts are valued, and the division of property is made in euros. As a main rule, both parties keep their own assets and debts. The party that has more assets is liable to pay adjust ‑ ment to the other party; they can pay this in cash or with marital property they own. If this is not decid ‑ ed by the party that is liable to pay, payment will be determined by the distributor or, if appealed, by the court. In these cases, most disputes arise from the valuation of assets. If the parties have jointly owned property, ownership can be dissolved after separa ‑ tion. If no other solution is found, the distributor will ultimately sell such property and the parties will be paid the sales price. As equal division of property is a rule, it can lead to an unreasonable result or to the other spouse receiving unjust financial benefit. In such a matter, the Marriage
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