In general, the Hungarian courts provide legal assistance to the foreign court, which requested it, under an international treaty or directly applicable act of the European Union, or on the basis of reciprocity.

In absence of any of the above, the consent of the Minister of Justice, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and - if necessary - the Minister competent according to the subject of the matter is necessary.

If the state in question is part of a relevant treaty a simplified procedure shall apply:

• Hungary is a contracting state of the “Convention of 18 March 1970 on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters ("Hague Evidence Convention”. In civil or commercial matters a judicial authority of a contracting state may, in accordance with the provisions of the law of that State, request the competent authority of another contracting state, by means of a letter of request, to obtain evidence, or to perform some other judicial act.
• Also, since Hungary is a member of the European Union “Council Regulation (EC) No 1206/2001 on Cooperation Between the Courts of the Member States in the Taking of Evidence in Civil or Commercial Matters” is applicable if the court of a member state (with the exception of Denmark) is requesting the Hungarian court to take evidence in a civil or commercial procedure (“EU Regulation”)
• Hungary also concluded separate bilateral treaties with several EU member states which are still applicable parallel with the above EU Regulation: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, UK, Italy
• Hungary is also concluded bilateral treaties with the non-EU member states in connection with the possibility of legal aid (in commercial/civil cases): Albania, Algeria, UK, Egypt, Iraq, CCP, Cuba, Mongolia, Syria, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Russia, Moldova and Belarus

Hungary is a party to the Convention of 18 March 1970 on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters (the “Hague Evidence Convention”). The Hague Evidence Convention was announced in Hungary by Act CXVI. of 2004.

Act XXVIII. of 2017 on International Private Law also contains provisions for obtaining evidence in aid of foreign litigation. The request for such aid shall be refused if compliance with the request would be contrary to Hungarian public policy, e.g. if it violates the fundamental rights and social values of Hungary.

The Hague Evidence Convention: In Hungary, the Ministry of Justice is the central authority that accepts and transmits the requests to the competent authorities.

However, prior permission is not required for a diplomatic officer or consular agent of a contracting state who may, within the area where he exercises his functions, take the evidence without the compulsion of nationals of a state (without dual nationality) which he represents in aid of proceedings commenced in the courts of a state which he represents.

Under the EU Regulation, the requests shall be transmitted directly to the competent court which examines the request and proceeds if it complies with the rules laid down in the EU Regulation. In Hungary, the competent court is the district court having jurisdiction, in Budapest is the Central District Court of Buda. The central authority (Ministry of Justice) has only an assistance role in the proceedings.

Under some bilateral treaties and the EU Regulation, the foreign court can collect evidence in Hungary directly with the prior approval of the Ministry of Justice but only on a voluntary basis without the use of coercive measures.

The bilateral agreements usually designate the Ministry of Justice to transmit or approve the request and for general communication.

Unless there are special rules in an international treaty, the district court with jurisdiction shall fulfill the request for evidence. The jurisdiction is determined by the place of residence of the witness to be heard or the place of the object to be examined or where it would be the most appropriate.

The Hungarian court shall collect the evidence according to the rules of Act CXXX of 2016 on the Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”). The foreign court can request special proceedings or evidence but it has to be compliant with the Hungarian public policy. Evidence may, in particular, be a testament of a witness or an expert, expert opinion, or in the form of documents, video recordings, sound recordings, audiovisual recordings, and other material means of evidence.

Depositions are unknown in Hungarian civil procedure. Taking depositions (only for foreign purposes) is possible however by Hungarian public notaries according to Section 136(1) and Section 146/A of Act XLI of 1991 on notaries: The public notary is authorized to prepare a certification on a deposition or affidavit made before her/him for the purpose of proceedings abroad. Such certification qualifies as a public deed.

According to the Hungarian civil procedure rules, if the possibility arises that evidence may contain privileged information or other privileges may arise:

• In the case of witness or expert, the witness or expert has to assert its immunity to being exempt from testifying (for details see our response to "Has your jurisdiction adopted any “blocking statutes” that limit the extent to which residents in your jurisdiction may give evidence in a foreign court’s civil or criminal proceedings?").
• In case of disclosure of documents requested by the court disclosure of documents: the person bearing/filing the document shall declare that it contains any classified data, business secret, professional secret or other secret specified in an act, the use of which has not been permitted by the classifier or the person with authority to grant exemption from confidentiality (hereinafter “secret holder”). The court shall contact the classifier or secret holder to request authorization to inspect the classified data or secret unless the content of the document does not qualify to be a business secret according to an act, or the subject matter of the action is to decide whether the content of the document qualifies as data of public interest. If the secret holder fails to make a statement within eight days of receiving the request, permission shall be deemed granted; the secret holder shall be warned accordingly. In other respects, the provisions pertaining to the refusal to give witness testimony shall apply. If the secret holder declares within the time limit that he does not give permission to the parties to disclose the business secret, professional secret or other secret specified in an act, the corresponding part of the document shall not be used as evidence.

The Hague Evidence Convention states in Article 12 that execution may not be refused solely on the ground that under its internal law the state of execution claims exclusive jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action or that its internal law would not admit a right of action on it.

The Hungarian state made a reservation in connection with this article that Hungarian authorities shall not fulfill requests in connection with the pre-trial discovery of documents procedure except if the documents are clearly indicated and directly related to the purpose of the procedure.

The EU Regulation lists the reasons for refusal of the request for evidence in Article 14. This list does not contain the option to refuse a request based on allowance in the foreign jurisdiction in which the action is pending. The reason for refusal can be witness privilege; request being out of the scope of the regulation (which is civil, commercial matters, evidence intended for use in judicial proceedings, commenced or contemplated); execution of the request under the law of the member state of the requested court does not fall within the functions of the judiciary; or procedural reasons (missing deadlines or deposit)

Execution may not be refused by the requested court solely on the ground that under the law of its member state a court of that member state has exclusive jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action or that the law of that member state would not admit the right of action on it.

Depositions are unknown in Hungarian civil procedure. (Depositions taken by a notary public (see our response to "What types of information can be sought? Requests for Documents? Written questions? Depositions?") shall not be made remotely).

General witness hearings (not depositions) can be conducted remotely via videoconference by the foreign court under some bilateral agreements or regulations e.g., according to Article 10 of EU Regulation. The experts and holders of the evidence may also be heard in this way

There are no adopted blocking statutes that limit the extent to which residents in Hungary give evidence (for voluntary deposition option see our response to "What types of information can be sought? Requests for Documents? Written questions? Depositions?").

With regard to witness hearing, there are general privileges to refuse to give evidence: according to Article 11 of the Hague Evidence Convention and Article 14 of EU Regulation, the person concerned may refuse to give evidence in so far as he has a privilege or duty to refuse to give the evidence under the law of the state of execution (requested court) or origin (requesting court).

(If the foreign court is taking evidence directly in Hungary, the witness shall participate only on a voluntary basis and shall be informed that may not be disadvantaged due to its refusal.)

There are no adopted blocking statutes that limit the extent to which residents in Hungary give evidence (for voluntary deposition option see our response to "What types of information can be sought? Requests for Documents? Written questions? Depositions?").

With regard to witness hearing, there are general privileges to refuse to give evidence: according to Article 11 of the Hague Evidence Convention and Article 14 of EU Regulation, the person concerned may refuse to give evidence in so far as he has a privilege or duty to refuse to give the evidence under the law of the state of execution (requested court) or origin (requesting court).

(If the foreign court is taking evidence directly in Hungary, the witness shall participate only on a voluntary basis and shall be informed that may not be disadvantaged due to its refusal.)

The general witness privileges are the followings:

In civil proceedings:

• incapacity to give witness statement:
  • the defense counsel, concerning subjects such that he obtained in that capacity
  • any person who was not exempted from the obligation of confidentiality, in respect of any subject that is treated as classified information until granting exemption by the secret-holder
• Giving testimony may be refused:
  • by the family members;
  • by any person whose testimony would implicate himself or his family member in the commission of a crime;
  • by persons bound to confidentiality stemming from their profession except if the concerned party granted an exemption;
  • by persons bound to keep business secrets in respect of the subjects; and
  • by media content providers and the persons they employ under a contract of employment or some other form of an employment relationship if their testimony would expose the identity of any person from whom they receive information relating to the media content they provide, to the extent covered by that subject.

In criminal proceedings:

• incapacity to give witness statement:
  • the defense counsel, concerning subjects such that he obtained in that capacity;
  • from whom a correct confession is obviously not expected because of her physical or mental condition;
  • any person who was not exempted from the obligation of confidentiality, in respect of any subject that is treated as classified information until granting exemption by the secret-holder; and
  • any persons bound to confidentiality stemming from their clerical profession.
• Giving testimony may be refused:
  • by the family members;
  • by any person whose testimony would implicate himself or his family member in the commission of a crime;
  • by persons bound to confidentiality stemming from their profession except if the concerned party granted an exemption; and
  • with restrictions by media content providers and the persons they employ under a contract of employment or some other form of an employment relationship on the part of their testimony which would expose the identity of any person from whom they receive information relating to the media content they provide.

Anyone residing in Hungary can voluntarily give evidence in a foreign proceeding (send documents, make depositions taken by a notary public (see our response to "What types of information can be sought? Requests for Documents? Written questions? Depositions?"), etc.).

If the foreign court applied for and received permission, they can take evidence directly from the Hungarian resident. Prior to this hearing, the competent Hungarian district court shall inform the witness that: his involvement is voluntary and that he shall not suffer any adverse legal consequence in Hungary if he refuses; he is entitled to use his native language; his legal representative may be present; he may be entitled to refuse to testament based his witness privileges.

In general, the arbitration does not fall within the scope of the above-mentioned legal aid and taking evidence of international agreements or EU regulations (for this see our response to "Does your jurisdiction permit gathering evidence in aid of foreign litigation?").

In Hungary, the Hungarian arbitration court can request the general court’s assistance to request evidence from abroad, therefore the Hungarian arbitration proceedings can enjoy the benefits of legal aid conventions. Likewise, it is not an obstacle to the legal aid proceeding if the foreign request arrives from a court that assists similarly to an arbitration court in its proceeding.

According to the Hungarian Standard Code of Arbitration, the proceeding or part of the proceeding can take place abroad.