SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Simon Arvmyren, Christopher Stridh and Mikaela Tysk, Delphi
There are three levels of general courts: district courts, courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. There are 48 district courts and six courts of appeal in Sweden. In principle, all courts have jurisdiction for all types of cases – criminal and commercial as well as family law, therefore, for example, there are no specialised commercial courts. However, environmental cases, patent cases, certain other intellectual property mat- ters, law of the sea, unfair marketing practices and competition law cases are handled by spe- cific district courts and specific courts of appeal. For all commercial cases, leave of appeal is necessary for a case to be tried by the court of appeal as well as the third and final instance, the Supreme Court. See 10.2 Rules Concern- ing Appeals of Judgments . Leave of appeal to the court of appeal level is granted fairly often, especially in more complex commercial cases, whereas leave of appeal to the Supreme Court is very rarely granted. 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings As a main rule, the entire proceedings before Swedish courts are available to the public. This includes that the public may obtain copies of all written submissions and evidence submitted and that all hearings are open to the public. However, the court may, upon its own assess- ment, and normally upon request by a party, determine that certain documents should not be publicly available or that a hearing (or part thereof) is held behind closed doors. For com- mercial cases, the most relevant grounds for such a decision is that the document or testi- mony contains sensitive commercial information which, if disclosed, could cause considerable harm to a party involved.
If commercially sensitive information is to be included in a written submission or during a hear- ing, it is advisable to include an explicit request for confidentiality, including the reasons therefor and to provide the court with a redacted copy of the relevant document(s). The same applies if one wishes that part of the proceedings shall be pursued behind closed doors. It is not possible for the parties to agree that certain documents shall be kept confidential or under seal, since the issue is governed by public interest. 1.4 Legal Representation in Court In Swedish court proceedings, a party may always represent itself. Hence, an authorised representative of a company or other legal entity may represent that entity, and natural persons may represent themselves. A party may also appoint counsel to represent them in court. The formal requirements for a person to be allowed to act as counsel are low; it is not necessary to have legal training and it is not necessary to be a member of the Swedish Bar Association or otherwise be licensed. The formal requirements are limited to that coun- sel must: • have a sufficient knowledge of Swedish; • be domiciled in Sweden, another member state within the EU, European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland; and • have full legal capacity (be at least 18, not be in bankruptcy nor have a guardian appointed). The court may allow counsel from other coun- tries as well. In practice, in all commercial cases of any sig- nificance, the parties will be represented by a
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