Indledning
The way in which the Danish justice system is constructed. When a person becomes involved in a conflict which should be solved via litigation, you need to know which court of law decides the case, and how a case develops.

Indholdsfortegnelse
Summary
List of Definitions and Important Terminology
The structure of the courts of law
- The Courts of General Jurisdiction
- Ordinary courts of law
- The supreme court
- The high court
- The district courts
- Special courts of law
- The Courts of Special Jurisdiction
- The special Court of Indictment and Revision
- Arbitration tribunal
- Arbitration advantages
- Arbitration disadvantages
Civil cases
Principles of case hearings
- Appeal
- The Danish Board of Appeal
- The period allowed for an appeal
Case procedure
- Further procedures
- Example
- The trial
Complaints board
- The Consumer Complaints Board
Mediation and Conciliation
Final notes

Optimer dit sprog - Læs vores guide og scor topkarakter

Uddrag
The high court
The high courts are held in two places:
The Western high court is situated in Viborg and covers Jutland.
The Western high courts has one president and 22 high court judges.
The Eastern high court is situated in Copenhagen and covers the islands.
The Eastern high court has one president and 45 high court judges.

Both high courts have several subdivisions which all function as independent units.

The district courts
The district courts are distributed evenly across the country which is divided into 24 judicial districts.

A district court consists of the following divisions:
• Civil court hears and decides non-criminal cases.
• Criminal court hears and decides minor criminal cases
• Probate court hears probate cases, e.g. (distribution of) estates, insolvent estate, compulsory composition, debt restructuring and division of community property in case of separation and divorce where the spouses cannot reach an agreement
• Sheriff’s court hears cases on recovery of debt by means of execution and forced sale (of real property) etc.
• Registration takes care of registration concerning real property (deeds, mortgages) etc.

Special courts of law
Special courts of law are only competent in the cases especially assigned to them.
• The Maritime and Commercial court in Copenhagen hears cases on sea transportation, trade, brands, marketing, etc.
• Maritime court hears cases where a special knowledge of maritime matters is necessary to decide the case
• Housing court rules in cases on leasehold property (rent) etc.

These courts develop special expertise within the special areas.
The Courts of Special Jurisdiction
Judgement made by these courts are final, meaning that they cannot be appealed.

The special Court of Indictment and Revision
Hears among other things cases on reopening of criminal cases and complaints about the conduct of judges

Arbitration tribunal
An arbitration tribunal can be considered “a private court” and may only be used if the parties have stipulated this.
This means that the ordinary court system cannot settle the conflict.

The case itself will often proceed in the same way as an ordinary case.

Arbitration advantages
The most important reason why the parties to a conflict choose arbitration is that the case is heard privately - thus outside the public eye - and that the case often can be dispensed of more quickly.

Arbitration disadvantages
When the arbitration tribunal has made its judgement, the decision cannot be appealed and it can thus be enforced pursuant to the rules on enforcement of judgement in the Danish Administration of Justice Act.

More people furthermore believe that there are fewer legal safeguards because of the lack of publicity. Free legal aid is not possible and the cost can be huge.