Litigation in Sweden

There are not many special courts in Sweden. Many judges have to handle both commercial cases, but also crime and family law.

Comments on Recent Cases: April 2024

Since litigation is expensive, many people rely on their insurance carriers to assume the costs of a lawsuit. But insurance often contains exceptions to coverage, there are often lawsuits to determine whether the insurer is obligated to defend.

Amicus Briefs

Amicus briefs are still formal documents, not just a comment in a website’s comments section. This means that, even though a brief may nominally come from a person or organization, it is really written by a lawyer and in the style of a legal argument. The brief must explain who the “amicus” (the “friend of the court” who is offering the brief) is, why they have an interest in the case, and then set forth the amicus’s argument.

Gathering Information

I sometimes work with private investigators who call and meet with people to learn more about the subjects of an investigation. And sometimes I do this work myself, picking up the phone or writing emails, contacting people who may have helpful information.

Closing Arguments

A trial may drag on for awhile, and so the closing statement gives a lawyer the chance to get the fact finder to recall important evidence from the beginning of the trial. And to assign some weight to the evidence: a witness who spoke for three days may not be more important than the one who spoke for an hour, and so the closing statement lets the lawyer spend more time on the important details and convey to others the relative importance of evidence.

Litigation in Cyprus

The 2022 reforms to the justice system includes the establishment of a Commercial Court which was approved in Parliament in May 2022. The Commercial Court will be comprised of judges with experience in commercial matters. It will examine cases involving “commercial disputes” relating to claims over €2.000.000, but in addition, irrespective of the amount in dispute, the Commercial Court will have jurisdiction to also hear all matters relating to competition law, intellectual property, and arbitration.

Comments on Recent Cases: March 2024

Once a lawsuit is over, a plaintiff may face obstacles in trying their same lawsuit again. Courts respect the principle of res judicata, which means that once a case is decided, the decision is binding in future lawsuits. But still, some litigants test the limits of what that means.

Products Liability Litigation

In some situations, the law will impose “strict liability” on a defendant. This means that, if a plaintiff is injured, it does not matter whose fault it is. This is meant to give manufacturers an incentive to make their products so safe that the risk of any injury, even one they could claim is not their fault, is low.

TV and AI: Mixing Two Topics and Four Letters

A few years ago, I wrote posts about technology and the law and about how litigation is depicted on television. As kind of a mash-up of these posts, I asked Google Bard to write a blog post about litigation on television. And, to my surprise, the post was actually pretty insightful. So I’m sharing that post and my commentary on it and on legal insights written by AI.

Litigation in Argentina

As far as the national jurisdiction is concerned, and focusing on civil and commercial disputes, it tends to be approximately five years for a first instance judgment, and then some more months for the appeals. This is an approximation, since it depends on the complexity of the matter and the judicial office in charge.

Comments on Recent Cases: February 2024

Communications between clients and lawyers are generally protected from use by opponents in litigation. But the privilege may also protect communications among non-lawyers in response to a question posed by counsel, even if those communications are disclosed in litigation. This is because a privilege that protects trial preparation materials may protect those communications.

Surprises

Surprises also arise before trial. Sometimes in discovery, lawyers will discover emails that contradict their understanding of the case. And sometimes, parties will make surprising offers to settle (or not to settle) or decisions about what arguments to pursue. Lastly, I am often surprised by lawyers acting weird, which they frequently do.