On 13 May 2025, the Hungarian Government submitted a bill to the Parliament on the amendment of several laws governing the justice system. The proposal could bring significant changes to civil litigation.
For example, it introduces a new type of lawsuit and regulates online publicity and the holding of hearings online. KCG Partners Law Firm will discuss the potential changes in a series of articles. In this first part of the series, we examine the “simplified” lawsuit.
Simplified lawsuit is a new kind of litigation that will be introduced by the recent legislative changes. According to the explanatory memorandum to the proposal, courts in several EU Member States apply rules that aim to speed up proceedings significantly. In these so-called "fast-track" procedures, the requirement of full application of procedural guarantees is overridden by the need for rapid dispute resolution by agreement of the parties.
Under the proposal, the parties may decide to use the simplified lawsuit by stipulating this in the contract between them. Apart from a few restrictions, e.g. employment litigation, consumer disputes, simplified lawsuit can be used in relation to any matter. In a simplified lawsuit, parties have to represent themselves mandatorily by a lawyer, and all available evidences must be attached to the statement of claim. In a simplified lawsuit, there is no place for witness hearings. If a party wants expert evidence, it must be obtained before the lawsuit is filed. The expert (or the party) must then notify the opposing party in order to enable the other party to ask questions from the expert as well. Failure to do so will render the expert's opinion questionable, and it will not be used in the lawsuit.
The simplified procedure does not follow the split structure of civil proceedings. After the application has been lodged, the defendant files a statement of defence and, once received, the court gives the parties the opportunity to clarify the statements and resolve any contradictions, with no new facts being put forward by either party. It is then possible to reach an agreement or to choose to proceed according to the general rules. Within 30 days of the court's ruling about the latter, the court will give its judgment. The only grounds of appeal are a material breach of the rules of the procedure at first instance, or misapplication of the law on which the decision on the substance of the case was based.
In addition to making the procedure much faster, the proposal also provides for a fee reduction for the parties, so that more parties choose this procedure. It is questionable how companies will make use of the rules on simplified litigation. Witness evidence is a cardinal issue in a large part of the litigation procedures, and it is not clear how the lack of witness testimonies will affect the decisions. As the provision for simplified litigation has to be settled in advance by the parties in the contract between them, it is unlikely that this option will be used in large numbers. Nevertheless, it is possible that below a certain threshold, this type of litigation could become popular.
By Bálint Éberhardt, Attorney at Law, KCG Partners Law Firm
