Change in franc disputes. Throw the baby out with the bath water or is it the right direction?

From 15 April. Francowiczes who are not subordinate to the District Court in Warsaw cannot file claims with the XXVIII Civil Department, the so-called. department of the Franks. These are the consequences of amending the Civil Procedure Code (CPC), i.e. article 18.

“The Saeima adopted an amendment to the Civil Procedure Code, prepared by the Ministry of Justice, which establishes the exclusive jurisdiction of the court at the place of residence of the plaintiff in cases in Swiss francs for a period of 5 years. The new regulation will speed up the proceedings on this case, which many citizens expect. This will significantly contribute to unloading, first of all, the District Court in Warsaw, as well as other large regional courts to which consumers send their claims, ”the Ministry of Justice explains.

Branch “franc” in Warsaw: 6000 applications in 3 months

According to Legal Counsel Adrian Goska of the SubiGo Law Firm, the change in the jurisdiction of the Swiss franc courts will significantly limit the impact on the busiest civil division of the SC in Warsaw, XXVIII. The expert notes that in the first quarter of this year. about 6,000 people were deposited there. lawsuits, which is less than a year earlier. It is possible that in general for the year this decrease will be as much as 70%. y/y

- At present, there are about 44.5 thousand cases in the XXVIII civil department. Do it. However, it is difficult to determine exactly how many of them concern people living outside of Warsaw. According to estimates made in August 2022, about 70% of cases involved persons living outside the jurisdiction of our court, according to Szilwija Urbanska, press officer for civil cases at the District Court in Warsaw.

A spokesman for the court claims that this could help Frankovich.

According to lawyer Jakub Bartosiak from the MBM Law Office, it will be necessary to wait for the acceleration of the consideration of cases in the Court of Appeal in Warsaw. Those that have already arrived there usually have deadlines. The amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure will not change them. Borrowers who will only file claims will be able to count on an improvement. But this will only become real in a few months, when some of the current cases will be recognized.

As Sylvia Urbanska points out, the amendment will certainly have a positive impact on the efficiency of the Department, since the papers of judges will stop growing at such a rapid pace. In addition, the secretariat of the Department will also be relieved of a number of steps involved in registering or compiling such a large number of new cases. This will make it possible to act more effectively in those cases that were received earlier.

– The new decision benefits not only the District Court in Warsaw, which is heavily loaded with CHF cases, but above all the CHF holders themselves. When their cases end up not in one court, but in many in the country, they will be considered faster and closer to their place of residence, the Ministry of Justice emphasizes.

Employment should be increased in the branch of the franc

In turn, Adrian Goska says that the only way to further increase the speed of consideration of cases is to strengthen the staff of the so-called department of the Franks. It is of the utmost importance that the new influence be fully applied to the unencumbered judges. An expert from the law firm SubiGo proposes further changes to the procedure to make dealing with francs easier. Among them, he mentions, for example, the introduction of the principle of affidavits by the parties. It also proposes that decisions and appeals be heard in closed sessions. Only in exceptional, justified cases should judges physically decide at a hearing.

- The Ministry attaches great importance to the acceleration of the so-called frank cases. Petitions of the chairmen of the competent courts for additional delegation of judges to consider these cases are immediately considered. For the purposes of the civil departments handling cases in Swiss francs, the Minister of Justice created and appointed additional judges, assistants and clerks to the individual courts from January 1, 2023, adds the Ministry of Justice.

Same city, different jurisprudence

According to many market experts, after the introduction of amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure, borrowers may experience significant difficulties in obtaining collateral for claims. According to Yakub Bartosyak, the differences in sentences are completely incomprehensible. The judges of the Regional Court in Warsaw, with a few exceptions, provide security, but the judges of the Regional Court in Warsaw-Prague in Warsaw no longer. And yet they are based on the same rules and evaluate the same loan agreements. As the lawyer of MBM Legal emphasized, in some cases, after consulting with a lawyer and learning about the risk, the client can also stop paying installments on his own, without waiting for a court decision.

“Also, there were strange situations in Section XXVIII where security depended on a double-blind trial. The judge in the first instance could give security, and after the appeal, the judge of the same department changed the decision. The opposite happened as well. In smaller courts, this issue will be even more contentious. I expect that the effective collateral will be issued significantly less than in the SO in Warsaw, - adds Adrian Goska.