HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: István Varga and Viktor Előd Cserép, PROVARIS Varga & Partners
The Kúria (the Supreme Court) The Kúria has competence to hear requests for the revision of final and binding (typically sec- ond instance) judgments in case of errors of law or derogations from an earlier decision of the Kúria . A special “uniformity council” of the Kúria renders uniformity decisions binding upon all courts and hears uniformity complaints against decisions of the Kúria that derogate from ear- lier precedents (see 10.1 Levels of Appeal or Review to a Litigation ). 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings Court filings are not public. Only the parties, their representatives, experts and the attorney gen- eral have the right to inspect the case file and make copies of documents. Court hearings are generally public, but courts may hold hearings behind closed doors in whole or in part, both sua sponte and upon the reasoned motion of a party, if this is justified for the sake of protecting classified data, business or other secrets, good morals, minors or personality rights. Decisions of courts are published in an anonymised form. 1.4 Legal Representation in Court Legal Representation in General Legal representation is generally obligatory in court proceedings, except in proceedings that fall within the competence of the local courts. The obligation to proceed with a legal repre- sentative extends to the Kúria’s revision instance proceedings for the moving party, even in cases starting at local court level. The legal repre- sentative must be a member of the Hungarian bar, typically an attorney-at-law or a law firm. Companies may also be represented in court by their in-house legal advisors registered with the bar. In certain cases, an attorney general or pat- ent attorney may also proceed, and appointed judges can also appear as legal representatives in representation of courts as parties to a litiga-
tion (eg, damages claims against a court with legal personality). Legal Representation by Foreign Lawyers Lawyers admitted to act as attorneys-at-law in the EEA may act as legal representatives before court only if they have been registered with the Hungarian bar as a “European Community law- yer” and concluded a co-operation agreement with a Hungarian attorney-at-law or law firm to this end, which must be filed with the court or other authority before which they intend to pro- ceed. Lawyers from other jurisdictions can be registered as “foreign legal advisors” and may advise clients on their home legal system and international law only without permission to appear in court as representative. Third-party funding is not specifically regulat- ed in Hungary, hence there are no restrictions either. The general rules of contract law in the Hungarian Civil Code shall apply to contractual arrangements. The Act on Credit Institutions and Financial Enterprises also has relevance, for it provides that financial services and complemen- tary financial services listed in the Act can be provided only with the permission of the Hun- garian National Bank. Third-party funding does not fall within any of the services currently listed in the Act. However, depending on the concrete arrangement, providers need to check whether (part of) their services may fall within a category requiring permission (for example the provision of loans, guarantees, or deposit services, or act- ing as a financial intermediary). 2. Litigation Funding 2.1 Third-Party Litigation Funding No Specific Regulation on Third-Party Funding
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