DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Thomas Norvold, Søren Locher, Anne Mie Lund and Pawel Weigel, Fabritius Tengnagel & Heine
• present evidence that was not indicated dur- ing the preparation stage. Even if the opposing party has given consent, the court may oppose the expansion of claims, the introduction of new arguments or the pres- entation of new evidence if complying with the request is likely to necessitate a postponement of the main hearing. Even if the opposing party has not given con- sent, the court may grant permission for the expansion of claims, the introduction of new arguments or the presentation of new evidence in the following circumstances: • there are special reasons that make it excus- able that the request was not made earlier; • the opposing party has sufficient opportunity to safeguard their interests without delaying the main hearing; or • refusal of permission would result in a dispro- portionate loss for the party. 7.5 Expert Testimony In Danish civil court cases, expert testimo- nies are normally provided by court-appointed experts who are not related to the parties nor have any conflicts of interest. Such expert tes- timonies are given significant evidential weight by the court. The appointment of a court-appointed expert witness is done by request to the court from the parties. The request should include information about the subject matter of the inspection and expert assessment and the purpose of the pro- ceeding. The court-appointed expert witness will answer the questions asked by the parties, both in writing, after an inspection and assessment of the relevant object.
The court may reject questions that are beyond the expert’s professional competence or the court’s decision on conducting an inspection and expert assessment, or that are considered irrelevant to the case. The court may also reject questions that, in an improper manner, attempt to guide the expert in a specific direction or assume that the expert should make determi- nations on issues that are within the scope of the court’s assessment (eg, the assessment of evidence and legal assessments). In civil cases, upon joint request therefrom, the court may allow the parties to the case to sub- mit statements as a supplement to or instead of expert testimonies by the court-appointed experts, which the parties individually obtain from experts, regarding specific technical, eco- nomic or similar matters. Statements on specific technical, economic or similar matters that a party has obtained from experts before initiating the case may be pre- sented as evidence, unless the content of the statement, the circumstances of its creation or other factors provide a basis for denying a party to present such evidence. If a party has presented such a statement, the opposing party may, under the same conditions, present a cor- responding statement, even if this statement could only be obtained after the case was initi- ated. Only the parties to the case can introduce expert testimonies during a lawsuit. 7.6 Extent to Which Hearings Are Open to the Public See 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings .
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