Further simplification of court procedures in Poland during COVID-19 (and beyond)

Despite the current, relatively good epidemic situation, Poland has introduced further regulations aimed at adjusting civil court procedures to the pandemic situation.

Electronic service of court documents

Most importantly, the Polish legislator has allowed on a wider scale for electronic service of court documents in civil cases. Such method of service will be a main option, but only with respect to documents prepared by the court and delivered to professional representatives. Service will be made through a special portal that has been in operation for several years now, but so far only for information purposes.

In theory, electronic service of court documents should speed up the court proceedings. The process of delivering court documents has been considered as one of the major reasons for often prolonged proceedings before Polish courts. However, there are practical doubts. Firstly, it is not clear whether such a service will be effective with regard to professional representatives who do not have an access to the portal and whether the new regulations imply that they are obliged to obtain such access. Secondly, it seems that the portal users have a possibility to delay opening  of a document being served for 14 days from the day the document is uploaded to the portal. This will delay the date of service as a document will be considered served when an addressee got acquainted with its contents.

Reduced number of judges hearing appeals and complaints

Another important change is that appeals against first instance decisions will now be heard by a single judge, instead of a panel three as before. In addition to reducing the spread of the epidemic, this can also be expected to help the second instance courts keep up with incoming cases.

Electronic real estate auction in enforcement proceedings

One more novelty is the possibility for the creditors, seeking satisfaction of the adjudicated payments from a debtor’s real estate, to request a sale of any of the debtor’s real estate through an electronic auction. This solution is expected to speed up enforcement proceedings as well as to improve their transparency and effectiveness, as such form of sale is likely to attract a wider range of potential buyers.

The regulations entered into force on July 3rd. They will remain in effect during the official COVID-19 state of emergency and for one year after it is officially lifted, except for provisions regarding electronic auction, which will remain. It appears that electronic service will remain a permanent part of the court proceedings for good, possibly tough, in a slightly modified form.

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INFORMATION CLAUSE ON PERSONAL DATA PROCESSING

The controller for personal data is LEGALIO Pietrzak Markowicz Lewandowska Lubaś sp. j. with its office registered in  Warsaw (00-342) at Topiel 23, and entered into the entrepreneurs’ register of the National Court Register held by the District Court for the Capital City of Warsaw in Warsaw, in the 13th Economic Division of the National Court Register, under KRS number 0000874696, tax identification number (NIP) 5272944924, and statistical number (REGON) 387767552 (“LEGALIO”).
 
LEGALIO processes personal data such as first and last names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and position names.
 
LEGALIO processes personal data on the terms specified in the provisions on protection of personal data, in particular those in the Regulation (EU) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (“GDPR”), as well as in the Act of 10 May 2018 on protection of personal data. LEGALIO keeps personal data confidential and secures the data against unauthorised access by third parties pursuant to the above-mentioned regulations.
 

 

Scope and purposes of personal data processing
 
In the course of its activities, LEGALIO collects and processes personal data for the following purposes:  
  • those resulting from legitimate interests pursued by LEGALIO as the data controller, in particular for purposes related to the provision of services to clients, informing clients or prospective clients about changes in the law or the practice of its application, conducting other correspondence, and initiating and maintaining contact with clients, potential clients, counterparts, and other persons, as well as enabling the use of LEGALIO’s profiles on social media – based on art. 6 section 1 letter f of the GDPR;
  • negotiating, concluding, and performing agreements with clients or other persons, as well as taking steps at the request of the data subject prior to concluding an agreement – based on art. 6 section 1 letter b of the GDPR;
  • conducting recruitment processes and performing legal obligations related to employment – based on, respectively, art. 6 sec. 1 letter a, art. 6 sec. 1 letter c, and art. 6 sec. 1 letter f of GDPR;
  • fulfilling obligations imposed by the law – based on art. 6 section 1 letter c of GDPR.
 
Transfer of personal data to other entities
 
In connection with the activities performed by LEGALIO, personal data may be disclosed to external entities providing services necessary for those activities, in particular to providers of accounting, IT, marketing, and postal services, courier operators, etc. Personal data will not be transferred to a third country.
 
Period of personal data processing
 
The period of personal data processing depends on the purpose of processing. In the case of processing personal data based on LEGALIO’s legitimate interest, personal data will be processed for the period enabling the implementation of this legitimate interest.
 
If personal data is processed for the purpose of negotiating, concluding or performing an agreement, personal data will be processed for the period of negotiating and concluding the agreement and, where applicable, also performing the agreement for the time necessary to determine and/or pursue a claim or make a defence against claims, and thereafter, in cases and to the extent required by law.
 
Where processing of personal data is carried out for the performance of legal obligations, the period of data processing shall be determined by the nature of these obligations.
 
Personal data will be processed until an effective objection is raised in this regard, respectively until the consent for the processing of personal data is withdrawn, in cases where such consent constitutes the sole basis for personal data processing.
 
Personal data processed as part of the profession of attorney at law (in Polish: adwokat or radca prawny) will be stored for 10 years from the end of the year in which the proceedings in which the personal data was collected ended.
 
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Persons whose personal data is processed have the following rights:
 
  • the right to access personal data and information about its processing, in particular information about the purposes and legal basis of the processing, categories of personal data processed, scope of personal data processed and entities to which the personal data is disclosed;
  • the right to obtain a copy of the personal data being processed;
  • the right to rectification of personal data;
  • the right to erasure of personal data the processing of which is not necessary for the purposes for which the data was collected;
  • the right to restriction of the processing of personal data;
  • the right to portability of the personal data processed by automated means under an agreement or consent, which consists of the ability to request the furnishing of the personal data provided by a given person and providing it in a structured manner and commonly used format;
  • the right to object to the processing of personal data for marketing purposes;
  • the right to withdraw consent to the processing of personal data at any time when the processing of the personal data is based on such consent, which, however, does not affect the lawfulness of data processing prior to the withdrawal of the consent;
  • the right to lodge a complaint to the President of the Personal Data Protection Office regarding the processing of personal data.
 
Some or all of these rights may not be available to a person whose personal data is processed insofar as their exercise could lead to a breach of legal professional privilege.
 
No requirement to provide personal data
 
Providing personal data is voluntary. However, providing personal data may be indispensable to establish and maintain contact, conduct correspondence, conclude or perform a given agreement, or receive information on changes in law or the practice of its application.
 
No profiling of personal data
 
Personal data is not subject to profiling or other automated decision-making.
 
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