The problem was brought to the attention of Warsaw lawyer Robert Pogorzelski. In a petition addressed to the Sejm, he pointed out the need for clarification of Art. 21 Section 3 of the Law on the Bar Association (i.e. Legal Gazette of 2022, item 1184). This provision states that a lawyer provides legal assistance ex officio in the district court in which he has designated his professional seat.
According to lawyer Pogorzelski, despite this wording of the provision, it is an unwritten practice that in cities with more than one district court, local lawyers receive cases ex officio from all these courts. “Although the content of the provision states that a lawyer may have his registered office in the district of only one district court, in practice it is a fiction that his registered office may be located in the district of several district courts at the same time, which is physically impossible and contrary to the ratio legis of the said provision,” – wrote lawyer Pogorzelski. As he calculated, there are as many as seven district courts in Warsaw, and the problem may also occur in Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Lublin, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin and Wrocław.
The matter will be considered by the Sejm Committee on Petitions. Recently, the Parliamentary Office for Expertise and Regulatory Impact Assessment submitted its legal opinion. The experts confirmed the existence of the practice described by the petitioner, citing literature – a commentary on the 2016 Law on the Bar Association, edited by Piotr Kruszyński. According to them, the way cases are assigned ex officio in bar associations is different from that which would result from the linguistic interpretation of the provision cited in the petition. They remind us that the supervision of the activity of the Bar Association, within the scope and in the forms provided for by law, is exercised by the Minister of Justice, who also determines, by regulation, the scope of jurisdiction of the district courts. “The Committee on Petitions should consider adopting a desideratum in which it will ask the Minister of Justice to present a position on the interpretation of Art. 21 section 3 of the Law on the Bar Association”, we read in the summary of the opinion.©℗
