Fees to justify the judgment? You will have to pay 100 PLN for the application itself

fees to justify the judgment? For the application itself, you will have to pay 100 PLN / © 123RF / PICSEL

You will have to pay PLN 100 for the application to prepare a justification. When the party appeals, the amount will be taken into account for the second instance appeal proceedings. This is to discourage parties from requiring justification in a situation where they do not have the intention of using a means of appeal. Especially that the courts are overloaded and the writing of justifications takes time and requires a lot of work.

– This is a scandal. It is rightly said that people do not understand why the court made such a judgment. Now, to understand this and exercise their right, they will have to pay 100 PLN – criticism Monika Strus-Wołos. – This is the initial fee, in addition calculated at a fairly high level, to cover the work of the court – adds the lawyer.

Extra Service

They look completely different from those who need to write justifications. – A party has the right to know the position of the court with full justification in the context of the claim fee. In rendering a verdict or an order, the court provides basic verbal reasons for the decision. And that's all. If someone wants to use an extra "service", which involves preparing a formal written justification with a full legal argument, factual arrangements, etc., then I think that should pay an extra amount. Of course, count for the payment of a possible remedy – says Judge Wiesław Grajdura of the Tarnów District Court.

The payment of the request for justification existed from the 1930s until 2006, as reported by the Department of Justice at the end of this period. he called for the preparation of justification. Since the removal of the tax, this percentage has steadily decreased. Currently in more than 70 percent. case where the judge wrote the justification, the appeal was not filed. – And sometimes the preparation of the justification takes even a week. If nothing happens then it turns out that the time the judge could have spent on other matters was wasted – thinks Grajdura.

Reasoning has the power to persuade

This is not the case for Łukasz Jędruszuk of the law firm Ars Legis. – Very often, the party after hearing the verbal motives of the sentence wants to appeal, but after reading the written justification changes in view, because he sees that it would be useless. This means fewer cases are brought before the courts of appeal – says a legal advisor.

– The reason is not only to review but mostly to convince the party of the accuracy of the decision rendered and its compliance with the applicable legal standards. Failure to appeal after hearing the justification means that he has fulfilled his basic function, that is, that he has convinced the participants in the proceedings that the court in the case in question proceeded correctly. teacher. Maciej Gutowski in the opinion of the Supreme Bar Council

The proxies indicate that the zloty tax may be an obstacle to the implementation of the constitutional right to court. In turn, the judges argue that when requests for justification of a written decision are made, the law is often abused. – I do not want it to sound like a badge against lawyers or counselors who are overworked. However, if the proxy is absent at the announcement of the verdict, he is confronted with such an alternative: he can request the delivery of the CD for 15 PLN and listen to the basic reasons or submit a request for justification in writing . The choice seems obvious, especially as he becomes familiar with the written form, which is extensive, with full argumentation, case law, and so on. it is easier – emphasizes Judge Grajdura

Lack of respect

Another thing is that no one asks judges to write legitimate justifications by copying whole passages of case law. Instead of healing the consequences, we can try to suppress the cause and limit the volume not only of the justifications, but also of the pleadings.

– It is not a question of whether they are short or long. Even writing a terse justification takes time. And the biggest problem is those written at the request of parties or plenipotentiaries only to get information about what is happening – says Judge Grzegorz Chmiel of the Warsaw District Court.

– This is obvious, for example, the court postpones the hearing and therefore the request for justification is received. Its author did not even know if the sentence had even been adopted. For a copy of the verdict, you must pay PLN 6 per page, and if you submit a justification request, you get a set of documents for free. Only at the expense of several hours of the judge's work. Therefore, there should be fees for each activity. If anything is free, he does not respect it, unfortunately – concludes Judge Chmiel.

Piotr Szymaniak

July 24, 2018