HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: István Varga and Viktor Előd Cserép, PROVARIS Varga & Partners
to do so from the person entitled to dispose of the relevant privileged information. No such per- mission may be given with respect to information acquired by defence attorneys. 5.6 Rules Disallowing Disclosure of a Document Witnesses and third persons in possession of documents may refuse to disclose a document if they are entitled to refuse to give witness tes- timony. Witness testimony cannot be taken from persons who have acquired the relevant infor- mation as a defence attorney and, with respect to classified data, if the witness has not received permission to disclose such data. In several fur- ther scenarios, witnesses may refuse to give testimony: • those involving relatives, self-incrimination or incrimination of relatives with the testimony; • where professional secrets or business secrets could be revealed; • where the witness was a mediator or expert in mediation proceedings concerning the dispute; or • where the witness is a media content provider and the testimony would reveal the sources. Organisations from which the court seeks to obtain documents may refuse to provide the documents concerned only if they contain clas- sified data. In that case, the court seeks the per- mission of the secret-holder to use the docu- ments in question. If the organisation informs the court that the document provided contains classified data, business, professional or other secrets for the disclosure of which the secret holder has not given permission, the court seeks permission from the secret-holder to use said documents. If the secret-holder denies consent within eight days, the relevant part of the docu- ment may not be used. Otherwise, the secret-
holder shall be deemed to have given consent to the use of the documents. As coercive measures only may fines be imposed. These provisions do not apply if the subject matter of the proceed- ings is the denial of permission to use the docu- ments or the question of whether information is classified. 6. Injunctive Relief 6.1 Circumstances of Injunctive Relief Interim Measures in the Code of Civil Procedure During ongoing litigation proceedings interim measures may be ordered: • so that an existing situation will be upheld where it would be impossible to reinstate it later; • where the applicant would otherwise become unable to exercise a right; • in the case of any imminent detriment to the applicant, to avert such detriment; and • in other situations that require special consid- eration. The applicant may seek that the opposing party be ordered to perform such acts that the appli- cant can claim in the lawsuit. Interim measures may exceptionally also be ordered already before filing of the statement of claim if the applicant can substantiate that making such motion after having brought the lawsuit would jeopardise the aim of the interim measures. In order to maintain the operation of accordingly granted measures, the applicant has to file the ordinary full statement of claim within a deadline specified by the court with the upper statutory limit of 45 days. Applicants are favoured in certain subject matters such as IP
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