Appeal (anke)
Also known as appeal of a judgment, appeal proceedings
An appeal is the review of a judgment by the next instance — and it has to be brought within four weeks, or the judgment stands.
- Deadline
- 4 weeks
- Reviews
- The judgment itself
- Legal basis
- Retsplejeloven § 372 (the Danish Administration of Justice Act)
In practice
A judgment is not necessarily the last word. The losing party can appeal, and the case is then heard afresh by the High Court. The deadline is four weeks from the date of judgment, and it is absolute — an appeal lodged late is the end of the matter, however right it might have been.
Below a certain monetary threshold there is no free right of appeal. Permission must first be obtained from the Appeals Permission Board, and it is granted only where the case is of general importance or there are other special grounds. The threshold is adjusted from time to time, so it should be looked up rather than remembered.
For a creditor holding a judgment, those four weeks are therefore a period in which the case looks settled but is not yet. Worth knowing before you spend the money.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- The deadline is counted from the wrong point. It runs from the judgment, not from the day you read it.
- Appealing to buy time. An appeal without real arguments costs another round of legal costs and only postpones the inevitable.