Courts

Courts may be divided into general courts, administrative courts and special courts.

General courts include district courts (KO), court courts (HO) and the Supreme Court (KKO). They deal with civil, crimi-nal and application matters.

The district court's judicial district usually consists of several municipalities. A district court judgment may be ap-pealed to the court of appeal, except in cases where the appeal is expressly prohibited. A further processing permit is usually required.

The court of appeal mainly deals with appeals against judgments of district courts. In most cases, proceedings before the court of appeal require a further hearing permit granted by the court of appeal. A judgment of the court of ap-peal may be appealed to the Supreme Court if the Supreme Court grants an appeal permit.

The Supreme Court exercises the highest jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters. Its main task is to issue precedents on matters for which the law does not provide a clear answer. The Supreme Court may be appealed against decisions of the Court of Appeal, decisions given by the district courts as a land court, and certain decisions of the Market Court and the Insurance Court. A prerequisite is that the Supreme Court grants a right of appeal.

The administrative courts are the Regional Administrative Courts (HAO), the Åland Administrative Court and the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO).

Administrative courts deal, among other things, with appeals against authorities’ decisions and administrative disputes. A decision of the Administrative Court may normally be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court if the Supreme Administrative Court grants a permission to appeal. In addition, decisions made by some authorities may be appealed directly to the Supreme Administrative Court.

The Supreme Administrative Court shall examine and decide, as the supreme court of appeal, appeals and applications for leave to appeal against decisions of regional administrative courts and the Market Court. Most of the cases to be decided by the Supreme Administrative Court come from administrative courts. A leave to appeal issued by the Supreme Administrative Court is required.

Special courts include the Market Court, the Labour Court and the Insurance Court. They deal with matters falling within their own field of expertise. Depending on the decision of the Market Court, an appeal may be lodged with the Supreme Administrative Court or the Supreme Court. Decisions of the Labour Court cannot be appealed against. As a rule, decisions on the right to insurance cannot be appealed, with the exception of some accident insurance matters.