SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Simon Arvmyren, Christopher Stridh and Mikaela Tysk, Delphi
be appropriate (forum non conveniens) for such claims, or that international regulations take precedence. Swedish courts will also accept jurisdiction of a case if the jurisdiction of the Swedish court has been agreed by the parties; there is no require- ment for a written form. For disputes involving international matters, the recast Brussels I Regulation (EU Regulation No 1215/2012 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters) is of relevance for disputes involving parties from the European Union as is the Lugano Conven- tion in relation to matters involving parties from Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. 3.4 Initial Complaint A lawsuit is initiated by the plaintiff by submit- ting an application for summons. The application shall be submitted to the court which has juris- diction (see 3.3 Jurisdictional Requirements for a Defendant ) and there is no need to send a copy to the defendant. The application must be signed in original (cer- tain digital signatures are acceptable), must be in written form and include certain basic informa- tion about the parties as well as an original of the power of attorney. The application must contain: • the specific relief sought; • an account of the operative facts and circum- stances upon which the claim is based; • a preliminary statement of evidence including copies of documentary evidence relied upon as well as a list of witnesses; • evidence of the court fee having been paid – the court fee varies but is capped at SEK2,800 (approximately EUR280); and
• evidence that the court has jurisdiction to hear the claim. If the application does not comply with the above-mentioned requirements or is otherwise incomplete, the court may order the plaintiff to correct the deficiencies. A failure to comply with such an order may result in the application being dismissed. Once an application for summons is complete it will be issued on the defendant by the court. It is possible for the plaintiff to amend its relief sought as well as to invoke new facts and cir- cumstances. In brief, a claim may be amended and new requests for relief may be introduced as long as the new claim is based on, in essence, the same set of circumstances as the initial claim. Once the final hearing has commenced, the possibility to amend a claim is very limited. 3.5 Rules of Service The applicable rules of service follow from the Swedish Service of Process Act. It is the respon- sibility of the court to serve the defendant with the application for summons as well as to ensure that the parties and witnesses are served with other documents (ie, summons to appear) when necessary. Normally the court will first seek to serve the defendant by ordinary post and ask for the defendant to sign and return a certificate of receipt. If service through post is not success- ful, the court may seek to serve the defendant through other means, for instance a process server. The plaintiff may also petition the court to be granted the opportunity to serve the applica- tion on the defendant, which the court normally grants if it has not been possible to serve the defendant after a few attempts.
1333 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook