HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: István Varga and Viktor Előd Cserép, PROVARIS Varga & Partners
8. Settlement 8.1 Court Approval
Judgment may also be deferred. In that case, the judgment is delivered orally at a predeter- mined date. The judgment is served on the par- ties attending the announcement right away, whereas its service on any defaulting parties is ordered within three days. Most other decisions may be delivered orally. There are a few exceptions – eg, for decisions on closing the preparatory phase, decisions made at the hearing or concerning parties who had not properly received summons for the hearing. Such decisions setting new hearing dates and decisions that may be appealed by parties that did not attend the hearing – such decisions shall also be served on the parties. 7.8 General Timeframes for Proceedings The court seized shall examine whether the statement of claim may be admitted within 30 days. If admitted, the statement of claim is served on the defendant, who has 45 days to file a statement of defence. This deadline may be extended by another 45 days. If an additional round of submissions follows in the preparatory phase, the court usually provides 15 days for both the reply and rejoinder. This is usually followed by the preparatory hear- ing. Whether the preparatory phase can be closed thereafter and how long the substantive phase will be depends heavily on the circum- stances of the case. Trials in complex lawsuits may take years, whereas more simple cases may be decided within months. Judgments may be appealed within 15 days of service. Appel- late proceedings are typically shorter, with only one hearing or – in the absence of a motion for such – even without a hearing. If followed by the extraordinary relief of revision at the Kúria , the recourse phase may take up to one to two years.
Parties intending to settle a lawsuit must first enter into a substantive law agreement, which may be submitted to the court or made orally at a hearing (in which case it is recorded in the protocol). If the terms of such settlement agree- ment do not violate the law, the court approves of the substantive agreement of the parties by order. This court order has the effect of a final and binding judgment closing the proceedings. 8.2 Settlement of Lawsuits and Confidentiality There are no specific rules in place with respect to the confidentiality of settlements in court. In accordance with the general rules, court hear- ings are public, but closed hearing may be ordered in justified cases. Court decisions are published in an anonymised form. 8.3 Enforcement of Settlement Agreements Settlement agreements approved by a court are enforced as final and binding judgments. 8.4 Setting Aside Settlement Agreements Orders approving of settlement agreements may be appealed as any court judgment. If a party intends to subsequently challenge the agreement of the parties (eg, when it turns out later that the settlement agreement is invalid because the party was in error when concluding it), the substantive law agreement may itself also be challenged by way of a separate action aimed at a declaration of the invalidity of the substan- tive law settlement agreement. The procedural means for challenging the court order approving the settlement agreement is an action for retrial against the order itself.
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