start

The e-court that went online in Poland on 4 January 2010 is flooded with cases. By the end of the month nearly 60,000 claims had been filed.

Based on all those filings in January, the e-court—aka the 16^th Civil Division of the Lublin District Court—issued 15,000 orders for payment. Considering the number of filings, interest in using an online process for summary proceedings may be much greater than initially estimated by the Minister of Justice (400,000 of the simplest types of cases per year were expected). Given the immediate case load, the minister decided to beef up the staffing of the court (10 more assistant judges and 13 more clerks). Other clerks working at the same court will pitch in until the new staff come on board.

The e-court, offering an electronic forum for summary proceedings seeking payment, has jurisdiction covering the entire country. In order to be filed with the e-court, a claim must be based on simple facts not requiring an evidentiary hearing. The cases are covered by a separate section of the Civil Procedure Code (Chapter 8, “Electronic Proceedings”).

The e-court will not issue an order for payment if the claim is clearly groundless, the factual allegations are doubtful, consideration is still to be provided by the plaintiff, the defendant cannot be located, or an order for payment cannot be served on the defendant within Poland.

A claim is filed by logging onto the e-court website, making an electronic payment of the filing fee (1.25% of the amount of the claim) and filling in an online form including justification for the claim. Bills and other documents are not attached to the form but only described.

When the petition has been properly submitted, the court will review it, and if it is in order the court will then serve an order for payment on the defendant, requiring the defendant to pay the claim in full plus costs, or file an objection with the court, within two weeks. The defendant may file an objection electronically or by snail mail.

An objection to an order for payment does not require a justification or submission of evidence, but the defendant is required to assert any defences before joining issue on the merits. If an objection is properly filed, the order for payment loses force and the case is passed on to a regular court.