Swedish courts launch new e-service

The Swedish National Courts Administration (Domstolsverket) has released an e-service, making it possible to file lawsuits and submit attachments to lawsuits online.

This is great news for all of us who love digitalisation and dream of a paperless world. To use the e-service, each party logs in with a Swedish eID (BankID, Freja eID+, etc) or a foreign eID via Sweden Connect.

In accordance with the new rules, several court-related measures and documents may be completed and submitted digitally, such as: applications for a summons in civil disputes and other applications, provided they are signed using an advanced electronic signature, and documents for the initiation of court matters.

Under the new rules, parties cannot be forced to provide physical copies of documents for transfer to other parties unless deemed necessary by the courts. When specified that a document must be in writing, such requirements must be technology neutral, and an electronic document suffices, unless otherwise specified by the court.

Hence, documents signed with Scrive are admissible and can be submitted digitally as part of court proceedings.

One exception should be noted, however. At the moment, it is only possible to sign powers of attorney directly in the Swedish National Courts Administration’s e-service. Hence, powers of attorney signed with Scrive or any other e-sign provider cannot be submitted to the e-service. Scrive is looking at legal as well as technical solutions to resolve this issue.