Will Separate Court Proceedings For Business-Related Cases Be Back?

On Friday, during „The bar on changes to civil and penal law court” conference, deputy minister of justice Łukasz Piebiak informed the ministry have a negative view on departure from separate procedure for business-related cases and is considering returning to the previous status. However, on different terms.

Certain types of agreements would always be submitted for resolution of a commercial court, in the remaining cases, e.g. micro-entrepreneurs would have the right to choose.

Another suggestion is lack of obligation to submit extensive statements of claim with hundreds of attachments right at the beginning.

From 3 May 2012, amendments to the civil law revoked separation of business-related cases and they are viewed in the same manner as regular civil cases.

Despite this, in court, there still remain commercial divisions and judges specialising in disputes between entrepreneurs regarding conducted business activity.

For the first time, separate proceedings were introduced in 1989 due to incompatibility of present-day law and the new business reality. Yet, the new regulations focused to a large degree on procedures, not the gist of the dispute. Thus, legal community comments that simply going back to the previous state is not a good solution, and the Ministry of Justice announces a preceding extensive discussion among attorneys and entrepreneurs. Not all suggestions of the ministry will be therefore included in the legislative process.