Sąd rejonowy
The regional court is a type of a ordinary court in the judiciary system of Poland, that deals with a wide range of cases related to the scope of civil, criminal, family and guardianship, labour and social security and economic law. Since March 1, 2006, there have been 315 regional courts in Poland.
Court's jurisdiction
It is the court of first instance for all contravention charges, the majority of misdemeanor indictments and low-value lawsuits, with its verdicts normally subject to appeal to a sąd okręgowy covering the area in which the sąd rejonowy court is located.However, the most complex, prominent or high-value cases are heard instead by a sąd okręgowy as the first instance court whose verdict may then be appealed to a sąd apelacyjny ; these include:
- lawsuits claiming more than 75,000 PLN of worth, except for those concerning alimony, infringement on rights of possession, separation of property during divorces, challenging a land and mortgage register entry, as well as those filed using a simplified procedure of the electronic writ of payment ;
- lawsuits concerning personal rights, except for parenthood and adoption cases;
- intellectual property laws lawsuits ;
- maritime code lawsuits;
- press law lawsuits concerning all media outlets; applications and complaints related to press outlets other than those covered by the broadcasting act, including their registration;
- personal data protection law lawsuits ;
- complaints challenging the split of a cooperative;
- complaints challenging the existence, legality or legal effect of resolutions of legal persons and other entities with legal capacity;
- applications claiming damages for the effects of a legally valid and binding court verdict;
- applications and complaints concerning incapacitation of a person;
- applications and complaints concerning imposition or termination of legal separation in a marriage;
- charges of submitting a false declaration with regard to lustration;
- indictments for serious crimes, including all crimes that carry a punishment of at least 3 years of imprisonment or more ; and selected other crimes as specified in Article 25 of the Code of criminal procedure, e.g. those related to civil aviation accidents and serious incidents;
- lawsuits referred from a sąd rejonowy for trial in a circuit court, and indictments referred by the appeal court on a request of a ''sąd rejonowy''
Formation, abolition and distribution
Such courts are established and abolished through a regulation of the Minister of Justice in consultation with the National Council of the Judiciary. Usually, a single sąd rejonowy is established to have jurisdiction over a court district composed of one or more communes and usually a size of a county; nevertheless, the borders of these districts do not match in most cases the ones of the counties. Moreover, under justified circumstances, more than one sąd rejonowy may be established to have jurisdiction over parts of a single commune.Structure
Each court is composed of divisions as follows:- civil division,
- criminal division,
- family and minors division,
- land and mortgage register division,
- labour and social insurance division
- commercial division