Electronic services of the district court

Individuals, companies and communities may submit their summons concerning undisputed debts and other summoned disputes to the district court using the electronic service of the judicial administration or the information system connection (Santra). The e-service is suitable for use not only by private individuals but also by companies and communities, especially smaller collection offices.

In a summoned dispute, electronic services are obligatory for others than individuals acting in their own matters.

The service is available when the claim concerns one or more debtors who have not paid their debt but do not dispute the existence of the debt. Typical examples of such undisputed debts and other monetary disputes include consumer credits, rental receivables, telephone and electricity bills and evictions.

The court fee for an application for a summons submitted electronically to the district court is lower than the fee for a summons submitted on paper or as an attachment to an e-mail.

The e-services of the district court can be found on the judicial administration’s website for e-services (in Finnish).

Exceptions to the mandatory use of electronic services

Where electronic services are compulsory, applications for summons submitted by other means shall be dismissed as inadmissible in normal cases. In exceptional circumstances, an application for a summons may be submitted in paper form or as an attachment to an e-mail if it cannot be drawn up in e-services systems. The decision on whether electronic services are mandatory in a given case is always made by the court.

If the application for a summons has been submitted as an attachment to the e-mail, the applicant cannot retrieve the decision from the Judgment Register electronically, as this is only possible in cases brought electronically.

Exceptional situations for users of e-services:

1. An application for a summons for a foreign currency claim or a credit interest claim linked to a two-month EURIBOR interest rate.
2. A summons application that does not include a claim for claim costs or a claim for legal costs (for example, an evic-tion is required only).
3. A summons application with several applicants.

Drawing up of an electronic summons application

An application for a summons filed in the e-services service will be initiated once it has arrived at the district court. Progress can be monitored in the service. The information about the judgment is sent to the e-mail and the judgment is available electronically. In the form of a certified copy in paper form, the judgment shall be handed down to the creditor who has initiated the service of the summons only if he or she so requests separately.

Attached documents

If the application for a summons is accompanied by an attached document required by law or district court (e.g. a running bond), the applicant cannot, as a rule, be subject to an obligation to use electronic services. In these rare situations, however, electronic services are desirable and the attachments may be submitted separately by the appli-cant to the district court as an attachment to the e-mail or by post. The automatic attachment of a power of attorney or an extract from the trade register is not, in principle, a reason to deviate from the mandatory use of electronic services. The attachment of the terms of the small loan agreement is only necessary when the district court so re-quires.

Joint action

A joint action refers to a summons application with several applicants or defendants. The same application may in-clude, for example, several defendants and different claims for which not all defendants are responsible, or several defendants with different obligations.

In principle, a joint action does not constitute an exception to the mandatory nature to use electronic services. The requirements can be drafted as follows: defendant A meets claims 1-5, defendant B claims 6-10 and joint and several jointly liable meet claims 11-15. In the reasons for claims field you may specify that claims 1 to 5 apply to defendant A, claims 6 to 10 defendant B and for claims 11 to 15 A and B but also C are jointly and severally liable.

Maximum number of characters in text fields

The number of characters in the text of the application for a summons may increase, for example, in the case of a composite action. Even large-scale applications with numerous claims will be fully transferred to the District Court's information system. However, the maximum number of characters in the field's text content cannot be exceeded. The maximum number of characters is 32.700 in Santra and 20.000 in e-services.

Marking of municipal information

It is necessary to fill in both the court code and the municipal information of the defendant in an electronic applica-tion for a summons. The application for a summons shall be transmitted to the right district court in the information system on the basis of municipal information. The applicant is obliged to check the defendant's up-to-date contact details. If this is not successful, municipal information may be entered on the basis of, for example, the most recent domicile recorded in the Population Register Centre's Population Information System. If the municipal code of the defendant is missing, the application shall be brought before a district court issued by the applicant for the court code in the application for a summons.

Data system connection (Santra system)

The information system connection is suitable for companies and communities that submit applications for challenges, such as large collection offices, the state or municipalities.