When can a higher court accept or reject a case?

Question

Can a high court reject a case when the same high court took a similar case in the past. I'm a Swedish student abroad.

Answer 1

Hi

I’m not sure about the legal English terms, but I will do my best to answer your question.

You can find the laws concerning this question in Rättegångsbalken, https://lagen.nu/1942:740.

49 chapter 14 § in Rättegångsbalken states that Hovrätten (the second court, “the court of appeal”) are supposed to take on a case that Tingsrätten (the first court, “the district court”) has pronounced a judgment in if:
1. There are any reasons to doubt the rightness of Tingsrättens judgment, or
2. If it wouldn’t be possible to assess the accuracy of the previous judgment without a new one, or
3. If a new judgment is important for the judgment of similar questions in the future, or
4. There are other "special reasons" for Hovrätten to accept the appeal.

54 chapter 10 § Rättegångsbalken states that Högsta Domstolen (the third and last court, ”the Supreme Court”) only takes on a case if there are “special reasons” to do it or if the cases are expected to provide guidance for the future judgments (the case should have so called precedent value). Högsta Domstolen can accept the appeals of similar cases if they are appealed and are to be assessed at the same time. But in your question it doesn’t seem to be like that.

The answer to your question is therefore that a higher court can reject a case even though the same court took a similar case in the past. What matters are the things I wrote before. If there are no special reasons for Högsta Domstolen to accept the appeal the court most likely won’t accept the case if it is similar to an earlier one. The reason for that is that they have already provided the guidance that is expected of them. But there can be certain circumstances in the new case that makes it different from the first one so that Högsta Domstolen accepts the case anyway.

Best regards