What is new
Tarifo launches the Denmark Legal Guide — a reference covering eight sections of Danish business-dispute law and procedure. The guide walks through limitation periods under forældelsesloven (a three-year default, the shortest Tarifo covers, with a ten-year long-stop), enforceable titles and security under retsplejeloven and tinglysningsloven, the amicable phase and the statutory fee caps in renteloven, court proceedings and the two-stage fee structure under retsafgiftsloven, the court hierarchy, procedural deadlines, insolvency and debt relief under konkursloven, and arbitration under voldgiftsloven and the 1958 New York Convention.
The court fee is not a percentage — and it is routinely mis-stated
Denmark abolished the ad-valorem court fee on 1 October 2021. What replaced it is two separate charges: a flat filing fee of 750 kr. at or below 100.000 kr. and 1.500 kr. above it, and a banded hearing fee running from 3.000 kr. to a hard ceiling of 160.000 kr. — payable only in cases above 100.000 kr., and only when the court fixes the hearing date.
Three consequences follow, and getting any of them wrong misstates the cost of Danish litigation by an order of magnitude. The value-based fee is contingent, not upfront: it lapses entirely if the court learns more than two weeks before the hearing that the case is over, so a claimant who files a 5 mio. kr. claim and settles at mediation pays 1.500 kr. rather than 111.500 kr. There is a fee cliff at 100.000 kr., where one extra krone can take the bill from 750 kr. to 4.500 kr. And because the fee is capped in absolute terms, Denmark is a cheap forum for large commercial claims. Any source describing the Danish court fee as a share of the claim is describing a repealed statute.
No notary needed — and no lawyer tariff at all
The highest-value preventive step in Denmark is not a notarial deed but a private document that says the right sentence. Under retsplejeloven § 478, an out-of-court written settlement over matured debt, or a debt instrument, is directly enforceable without any judgment — provided it expressly states that it may serve as a basis for enforcement. The signature may be digital, and the title runs against anyone who signed as guarantor. Getting the debt acknowledged in writing separately upgrades a three-year claim to ten years, at no cost.
On fees, Denmark is a categorical outlier: it has no lawyer tariff — neither a binding minimum nor a reference scale. retsplejeloven § 316, stk. 2 bars costs awards made on a full-indemnity basis or by reference to the bill, so the courts work from vejledende takster issued by the landsret presidents. Those are guidance to the judge for the costs award, not a price list between lawyer and client. What a winner recovers and what they pay their own lawyer are two different numbers, and the gap is borne by the winner. The guide is a reference summary — not legal advice.
Explore the full guide
Start with the Denmark Legal Guide, or check court-fee schedules in the Denmark calculator.