The time of legal proceedings in Poland varies and depends on the type and subject matter of the dispute. As a rule, you should set yourself up for at least several months (and sometimes years) of court battles in Poland.
If you are the claimant – you shall be prepared to pay a court fee while submitting a law suit to the Polish court. The court fee usually amounts to 5% of the value of the dispute (i.e. if you are suing for 10,000 EUR you have to pay 500 EUR of the court fee). Court fee is an obligatory payment to the court’s bank account and is not related and does not cover any attorney remuneration.
Potential further costs are related to subsequent letters (e.g. response to the lawsuit or exchange of other correspondence), court trials, sworn translations of documents, etc. Another issue is attorney’s remuneration that you settle with your lawyer.
If you have already made attempts to resolve the matter out of court (written requests for payment, emails, letters, videocalls), but your Polish business partner is not willing to cooperate – then the court route remains. Usually you can sue your Polish business partner before a Polish court of law if he resides or has its registered office in Poland.
In civil and commercial proceedings having a lawyer before a Polish court is not obligatory. Nevertheless, we highly recommend to have one, especially if you are a foreigner being sued or willing to sue before a court of law in Poland. Proceedings before Polish courts of law are always held in Polish and are conducted according to Polish civil procedure. As a consequence – Polish lawyer will provide you with full legal support and protect your rights during court proceedings.
It is very probable that you will not have to. In cases that involve foreign business entities Polish courts quite frequently decide to examine the foreign party via Teams or Zoom or let them make written testimony. However, the court is always authorized to decide that for particular reasons your personal presence in the court in order to testify is necessary.
If the subject of the dispute was payment – then a court judgment opens up the possibility of enforcing the debt against your Polish business partner. If the Polish business partner does not want to voluntarily pay the amount, then we refer the case to a Polish bailiff. At this stage we support our foreign clients during the entire enforcement proceedings.
