Decisions by courts of appeal

The statistics on courts of appeal describe the civil and criminal cases pending and concluded during the year. Most of the cases handled by courts of appeal are appeals against decisions of district courts. The party wanting to appeal against a decision of a district court must express dissatisfaction with the decision within seven days of the day when the decision of the district court was announced or given. The time allowed for lodging an appeal is 30 days from the day of the decision of the district court. In some cases, courts of appeal are also courts of first instance. In criminal cases, these include high treason and treason, and matters concerning officials in high positions. Courts of appeal also handle certain civil cases as courts of first instance. There are six courts of appeal, those of Helsinki, Eastern Finland, Vaasa, Turku, Kouvola and Rovaniemi.