DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Thomas Norvold, Søren Locher, Anne Mie Lund and Pawel Weigel, Fabritius Tengnagel & Heine
required to submit a written response, unless they only seek to have the judgment confirmed. The deadline for filing an appeal is four weeks from the date of the judgment, but in exceptional cases the appellate court may allow an appeal to be filed up to one year after the judgment. 10.4 Issues Considered by the Appeal Court at an Appeal The appeal court will make its own assessment of the appealed part of the claim. The appeal case ends with a final oral hearing, which is gen- erally conducted in the same way as the final hearing in the first instance; see 7.1 Trial Pro- ceedings for further details. Witnesses who gave their testimony in court during the first instance do not need to be heard again regarding the same matters on which they testified in the first instance. It is possible to conduct appeal proceedings without an oral hearing if: • the parties agree on this; • the subject of the hearing is solely whether the appeal can proceed; or • it is otherwise deemed appropriate due to the specific nature of the case. If the opposing party objects, claims and allega- tions that have not been raised in the previous instance can only be considered with the court’s permission. The court may grant permission if it is deemed excusable that the claims and argu- ments were not previously presented or if there is reason to believe that the denial of permission would result in a disproportionate loss for the party. In the case of an appeal to the high court, permission may also be granted if the oppos- ing party has sufficient opportunity to safeguard their interests.
Claims and allegations that have not been asserted in the previous instance and that would necessitate the court to consider matters that were not heard before the previous instance may be refused by the court during the appeal, even if the opposing party does not object. 10.5 Court-Imposed Conditions on Granting an Appeal The court cannot impose any condition on the granting of an appeal. 10.6 Powers of the Appellate Court After an Appeal Hearing Based on an assessment of the appeal, the court will uphold, modify, annul or remand the decision from the court of first instance. The appeal court is bound by the claims made by the parties, and does not have the power to make a judgment outside the scope of the parties’ claims. 11. Costs 11.1 Responsibility for Paying the Costs of Litigation During court proceedings, the parties are respon- sible for their own costs related to the lawsuit, including costs related to procedural steps such as obtaining answers to questions asked of a court-appointed expert witness. When the court renders a judgment, it will ex officio consider the costs of the case. Costs for lawyers are normally not fully refunded (the actu- al incurred costs); instead, the court uses fixed amounts based on guidelines, which mainly focus on the value of the disputed matter (val- ue of the case). Other expenses, such as court fees, expert witness fees and translation costs, are usually fully refunded, assuming they were incurred by the party that wins the case.
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