The lawsuit

1. Enquiry and legal assessment

If you want to obtain judgement for a claim or you cannot obtain an agreement with your opponent, the only solution on the conflict could be a trial. However, a trial can be a costly and slowly affair. Therefore you should always make an enquiry to a attorney, who can make a legal assessment of your case and a recommendation of the best way to proceed.

We are happy to help you make a legal assessment of your case and conduct a trial. When you make an enquiry, we will inform you about legal expenses insurance cover, free legal aid as well as other general information. We will request you to send relevant correspondence and appendices pertaining to the case. On the basis of the received material we will make a legal assessment of your case, where we will analyze the strengths and weakness of the case.

When we have made a legal assessment, we will contact you for an orientation and a discussion of the case. We will among other things inform you about our legal assessment of the case, the opportunity for legal expenses insurance cover or free legal aid, the legal costs related to the case and what the next step can be.

2. Institute legal proceedings

If the next step in the case is to institute legal proceedings for the purpose of obtaining judgement for your claim, will we on your behalf apply your insurance company about legal expenses insurance cover during the trial. We will prepare a writ of summons with appendices and if necessary a form for expert’s report. Afterwards we will the trial be filed on the courts’ digital case portal, and the opposing party will be informed about the institute of the legal proceedings.

When we represent you, we will manage all correspondence, including writing with the court, the opposing party, the opposing attorney, any expert, possibly the Arbitration Board, any witnesses, the legal expenses insurance and possibly the Civil Services. We will keep you informed during the trial.

3. Preperation for the trial

After the opposing party has received the writ of summons, the opposing party must acknowledge the receipt, after which the court sets a deadline for the opposing party to file a statement of defence. In the statement of defence, the opposing party has the opportunity to respond to the writ of summons and explain his views and present his own appendices. The opposing party is typically given a deadline of 2-4 weeks to hand in the statement of defence.

Once the statement of defence has been filed, the court often schedules a preparatory hearing by telephone. We participate on your behalf in the telephonic hearing, and you shall not participate.

The following points are often discussed at the telephone conference.

• 1. The parties’ position on the factual and legal circumstances of the case.
• 2. Settlement possibilities.
• 3. Court-based mediation and possible panel proceedings.
• 4. Discussion of the further developments of the case.
• 5. Expert report.
• 6. The time of the main hearing.

We will inform you of what was discussed and decided at the telephonic hearing.

4. Expert assessment

If an expert report is to be carried out, we prepare questions to be answered by experts and requests e.g. the Arbitration Board, technological institute or Danish real estate association to propose a suitable expert. We write with the expert and participate in the expert inspection on your behalf. In the case of an expert report, an impartial expert will make an assessment of the actual conditions and then prepare an expert report.

5. Further developments of the trial

When the expert report exists, we make a new legal assessment of the case on the basis of the expert report. We inform you of the expert report, our legal assessment and about the further developments of the case. In addition, we prepare additional pleadings, if it is necessary, summary of claims and allegations, a timetable for the main hearing and trial bundle which contains all pleadings, expert reports and relevant appendices.

Before the main hearing, we hold a personal or telephonic meeting where we review the case and provide information on how the main hearing will take place.

6. The main hearing

The main hearing is the last meeting in the court. For the main hearing, the parties, the lawyers, the expert as well as the witnesses and the judges meet in court. The mail hearing usually last an entire court day but in some cases it can be completed in ½ court day. In larger court cases can it be necessary to set aside 1 ½ -3 court days.

We conduct the main hearing in court on your behalf. The main hearing begins with us presenting the case, the parties either give their evidence of the plaintiff or the evidence of the defendant and the witnesses giving their testimony. The expert can be asked questions about the expert report, and the parties’ lawyers each hold a procedure in which they state why their particular client should win the case. Afterwards the case is usually taken up for judgment.

7. After the main hearing

When the main hearing is over, we await the verdict. It can take up to 4 weeks from the main hearing before a verdict is reached in the trial. We inform you when the verdict is received.

Costs of the case

A trial can be a costly affair, however, the legal expenses insurance covers the legal costs associated with a trial, if a lawyer has been hired to provide legal advice and assistance in connection with the trial, and legal expenses insurance cover has been promised. Not everyone is familiar with the fact that the legal expenses insurance is typically attached to either the home insurance or the contents insurance. Many people have a legal expenses insurance which they do not use because they are not aware of the possibility of obtaining legal expenses insurance cover.

The legal expenses insurance covers the legal costs associated with the completion of the legal case, including your legal costs, costs for the opposing party who have been sentenced by the court, and costs for the expert assessment. However, there is an excess of 10 % of the legal costs, which means that the legal expenses insurance covers 90 % of the legal costs.

Free process is a system established to give people with limited financial capacity the opportunity to conduct a trial. If you meet the financial conditions for obtaining legal process, we will apply on your behalf for free process. Upon obtaining a free trial, the public sector pays the costs associated with the case, including court fees, own legal fees, costs for the expert assessment as well as court costs awarded to the opposing party, if the case is lost.

Do you have questions or do you need legal advice?

Call and have a no-obligation talk with Anders Stig Vestergaard on the phone +45 23243039 or +45 86136841