07. February 11
Decisions of the courts of the first instance in civil matters are reviewed in the second or appeal instance by the civil chamber of a circuit court. There are two circuit courts in Estonia: Tallinn Circuit Court and Tartu Circuit Court.
An appeal against the judgement of a county or city court is made through the court which made the judgement. The parties (the plaintiff and the defendant) and other participants in the proceedings have the right of appeal. A written notice of filing an appeal shall be submitted to the court which adjudicated the matter within ten days after the judgement is made public. Submission of a notice is not required if an appeal is filed during the term for submission of a notice.
The term for filing an appeal for a participant in proceedings who notifies the court of filing an appeal within ten days will be 20 days after the judgement is made public. If a person who submits a notice fails to file a reasoned appeal during the term, it is deemed that the person has not contested the court judgement.
If the conclusion of a default judgement is made public in the official publication Ametlikud Teadaanded, the term for notification of an appeal and the term for filing an appeal shall be calculated as of the day the conclusion is published in the official publication Ametlikud Teadaanded.
An appeal must be filed in writing and set out:
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the name of the circuit court;
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the name, address, status in the proceedings and telecommunications numbers of the appellant;
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the names, addresses and status in the proceedings of other participants in the proceedings, and their telecommunications numbers if the numbers are known;
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the judgement against which the appeal is filed, and the number of the civil matter;
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whether the appeal is filed against the whole judgement or a part thereof, and against which part of the judgement the appeal is filed;
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the clearly expressed claim of the appellant;
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where the error in the opinion section of the judgement and in the application of law lies;
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the evidence upon which the appellant intends to rely, and the facts which the appellant wants to prove with each piece of evidence;
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the list of documents annexed to the appeal.
An appeal must be signed by the appellant or the representative of the appellant. If an appeal is filed by a representative, an authorisation document or other document certifying the authorisation must be annexed to the appeal if such document has not been submitted earlier.
A written appeal with the annexes thereto must be filed with a court along with one copy of the appeal and the annexes for each participant in the proceedings as well as copies of the documents. Documentary evidence which was not submitted to the court of first instance must be annexed to an appeal. An appeal must set out the reasons for failure to submit the evidence to the court of first instance If an appellant wants the court to hear a statement of a witness, expert or party under oath, or to conduct an inspection or on-the-spot visit of inspection of physical evidence, this must be indicated in the appeal with the reason. In such case, the name and address of the witness or expert, and his or her telecommunications numbers, if the numbers are known, must be indicated in the appeal. An appeal can also be filed by e-mail with a digital signature.
For an appeal filed against a judgement, a state fee will be paid in the same amount as would have to be paid for filing the action or petition with a court of first instance. In proprietary disputes, a state fee will be paid based on the value contested in the appeal.
A court of first instance will notify the opposing party of filing a written appeal not later than on the following day.
