The accession of Poland into the European Union on 1st of May 2004 and the introduction of a free movement of people and capital connected with it had a massive impact on legal services in Poland. We as lawyers did everything to be prepared for those changes in advance. [Read more.]

Does the enforcement proceedings in Poland have to be complicated?

Anna Miśtal-Kluś14 October 2016Komentarze (0)

If you are a foreign entrepreneur and your contractor is a Polish firm you might face certain problems with debt collection in Poland. Especially if your contractor has estate in Poland, you may need to start enforcement proceedings by the Polish bailiff. If you have already received a judgment of the court of your country, now you want to receive your money from the debtor. Given that the judgment you possess was passed in one of the EU-countries the enforcement proceedings in Poland might be really easy, particulary if the court proceedings in your country was instituted on or after 10 January 2015. In such a situation most likely you will be able to act upon Regulation (EU) No. 1215/2012 of the European Parliamet and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters which provides that a judgment given in a Member State which is enforceable in that Member State shall be enforceable in the other Member States without any declaration of enforceability being required.

The above mentioned Regulation has introduced a great convenience in debt collection within the EU, as you do not have to ask the Polish court for granting an enforcement clause onto the foreign judgment. In practise it means that enforcement of the foreign judgment issued in the other Member State will be automatically enforced in Poland. Even to us, lawyers who got used to long and complicated court procedures, and to bailiffs as well, it is a novelty to have such a simple procedure at hand. When the debtor has got funds in a bank account, it is possible to have the enforcement procedure completed in such a cross-border case in less time than a month.

The solution presented above has indeed already been known from the Regulation (EC) No. 805/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 creating a European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims. However, application of the Regulation (EC) No. 805/2004 is severly limited, therefore, I am sure that application of the Regulation (EU) No. 1215/2012 shall be certainly much greater.

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