Finland - Central Authority & practical information
Central Authority:
Ministry of Justice
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Contact details: |
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| Address: | Ministry of Justice Unit for International Judicial Cooperation P.O. Box 25 FIN-00023 Government Finland |
| Telephone: | +358 (29) 516001 |
| Fax: | +358 (9) 1606 7524 |
| E-mail: | central.authority.om@gov.fi |
| General website: | https://oikeusministerio.fi/en/frontpage https://oikeusministerio.fi/en/service-of-documents |
| Contact person: | Ms Maija Leppä, Legal adviser |
| Languages spoken by staff: | Finnish, Swedish, English |
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Practical Information: |
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| Forwarding authorities (Art. 3(1)): |
The forwarding authorities are the district courts (käräjäoikeus), the Market Court (Markkinaoikeus), the courts of appeal (hovioikeus), the Supreme Court (Korkein oikeus) and the Ministry of Justice. |
| Methods of service (Art. 5(1)(2)): |
Formal Service (Art. 5(1)(a)) When the court takes responsibility for service in a legal dispute, service takes place primarily by post. The letter may arrive either with advice of receipt to the post office or direct to the home, in which case the certificate of receipt in the envelope must be returned to the court. If it is likely that service of a writ of summons by post will not be successful, or if responsibility for service is given to a party, service will be performed by a bailiff. The service of a trial document other than a writ of summons may also be carried out by sending the document as a normal letter to the post address or another address notified to the court by the interested party. This means that for example invitations, exhortations and notices may be served on a party to civil proceedings electronically, if the party in question has indicated such an address - an e-mail address or a fax number - to the court as the address for service. Services of documents other than trial documents are performed by a process server at the request of an authority or a private individual. In cross-border cases, the requests for service of documents by foreign authorities based on the Hague Convention are forwarded from the Central Authority to the Finnish district court in the area where the addressee has his/her/its’ place of residence. The service is performed by the District Court’s process server. The practical procedure is usually that a process server serves the documents on the addressee personally. Informal delivery (Art. 5(2)) For more information on methods of service, see: Service of notices – Finnish Courts: https://oikeus.fi/tuomioistuimet/fi/index/asiointijajulkisuus/asiakirjojentoimittaminentuomioistuimiin.html European Judicial Network in Civil and Commercial Matters – Service of documents – Finland: https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_service_of_documents-371-fi-en.do?init=true&member=1 |
| Translation requirements (Art. 5(3)): |
A translation is not required; however, if the addressee does not accept a document in a foreign language, service can only be effected if the document is translated into one of the official languages of Finland, i.e. Finnish or Swedish, or if the addressee must be deemed to understand the foreign language. Companies with international business relations must be deemed to understand English, German or French. |
| Costs relating to execution of the request for service (Art. 12): |
Service of documents effected by virtue of a request for legal assistance is free of charge. Finland applies the principle of non-payment of fees to all methods for service provided in Art. 5. Finland has declared that its authorities are not obliged to assist in serving documents transmitted under Art. 10(b) and (c). In practice, if the service is effected, he requesting person has to pay the national fee of 80 Euros (March 2019). |
| Time for execution of request: | The average time for the service of documents in Finland is about four weeks. |
| Judicial officers, officials or other competent persons (Art. 10(b)) |
Under Finnish legislation the only competent persons to effect service of a document are the process servers. They seldom receive requests from abroad under Art. 10(b). Finnish authorities are not obliged to assist in serving documents transmitted by using any of the methods referred to Art. 10(b) and (c) of the Convention. |
| Oppositions and declarations (Art. 21(2)): |
Click here to read all the declarations made by this State under the Service Convention. |
| Art. 8(2): | No opposition |
| Art. 10(a): | No opposition |
| Art. 10(b): | Additional information - see declarations |
| Art. 10(c): | Additional information - see declarations |
| Art. 15(2): | No declaration of applicability |
| Art. 16(3): | No declaration of applicability |
| Derogatory channels (bilateral or multilateral agreements or internal law permitting other transmission channels) (Arts. 11, 19, 24 and 25) Disclaimer: Information may not be complete or fully updated – please contact the relevant authorities to verify this information. |
A multilateral convention on judicial co-operation was concluded between: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden on 26 April 1974. Bilateral conventions on judicial co-operation: Austria (Vienna, 17 November 1986), Hungary (1981); Russian Federation (1980); United Kingdom (London, 11 August 1933 – Articles 2 to 5). Council Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 on the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (Strasbourg, 13 November 2007). (European Judicial Atlas - Service of Documents) |
| Useful links: |
Act on International Judicial Assistance and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Laki kansainvälisestä oikeusavusta sekä tuomioiden tunnustamisesta ja täytäntöönpanosta siviili- ja kauppaoikeuden alalla, 426/2015), available in Finnish and Swedish: https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2015/20150426. Finlex Data Bank (an online database of up-to-date legislative and other judicial information of Finland): |
| Competent authorities (Arts 6, 9) |
See here. |
| Other authorities (Art. 18) |
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