From July 1, 2025 Poles are waiting for a crucial change in the costs of exercising their rights in court. The flat-rate fee for a private indictment will increase more than 3 times – from the erstwhile 300 zł au PLN 1000. According to the portal newsnadzis.pl, Ministry of Justice justify this decision by the request to remedy the costs of proceedings and the desire to limit the abuse of this legal way to individual settlements. Although supported by any lawyers, the change raises concerns for social organisations about the possible regulation of access to justice for victims.
Over 25 years of no change. Why is the fee rising right now?
Current rate PLN 300 in force in the Polish legal strategy since 1998. For more than a 4th of a century, it has not been valued, while the costs of functioning the state, including justice, have steadily increased. Ministry of Justice in its authoritative position, it sets out 2 key arguments for specified a crucial increase.
First, the Ministry points to the request to adapt fees to actual costs of judicial proceedings. Over the last 26 years, all components of these costs have increased significantly: from the salaries of judges and administrative staff, to the maintenance costs of judicial buildings, to the prices of energy and office supplies. According to the Ministry, the fee to date no longer reflected economical reality and was a de facto hidden subsidy of the State to specified cases.
The second equally crucial reason is intent discouragement of abuse of private indictments. The hotel argues that the low fee favoured instrumental usage of courts to conduct individual wars and settle settlements. These are situations where the indictments were filed not for the intent of actually pursuing justice, but simply for the intent of harassing the another party, forcing it to bear the costs of the defence and engaging its time. Increase to PLN 1000 is intended to constitute a financial barrier that will encourage possible prosecutors to consider further the merits of their claims.
Who is affected by change, and in what ways? We explain
A private indictment is simply a peculiar legal instrument that allows a individual who has been harmed himself, without the engagement of a prosecutor, to bring and support an accusation in criminal cases prosecuted from a private accusation. Thus, the change concerns citizens who feel victims of acts of little species-weight but acutely affecting their individual property. According to the Criminal Code, the most common cases in which a private indictment is filed include:
- defamation (Article 212 k.k.): It is simply a public message from another person, a group of persons, an institution or a legal individual for specified conduct or properties as may degrade it in the public opinion or exposure it to a failure of assurance needed for the position, profession or activity in question.
- An insult (Article 216 k.k.): It is an insult to another individual in her presence, or even in her absence, but in public or in order to make an insult to that person. It can take a verbal, written, or even a gesture.
- Infringement of physical immunity (Article 217 k.k.): It includes actions specified as punch, slap, push or spit. It is about physical interference in the bodily sphere of another person, who, however, does not origin injury to health.
- Minor injury (Article 157 §2k): It concerns causing a violation of the body organ or wellness disorder lasting no more than 7 days.
That's what it's about. 1 July the injured individual will gotta pay a fee of PLN 1000.
Expert voices: Reasoned correction or barrier to justice?
The decision of the Ministry of Justice sparked discussion in the legal environment and among NGOs. On the 1 hand, lawyers stress that the increase in the fee is justified from an economical point of view. They indicate galloping inflation, which from 1998 has accumulated at respective 100 percent, and an overall increase in the cost of surviving and operating. In their opinion, keeping the fee unrealistically low was an anomaly.
On the another hand, social organisations rise serious concernsthat the fresh rate may become a real barrier to access to courts for those who have been genuinely harmed but do not have crucial financial resources. A 1000 zlotys is simply a barrier amount for many people, especially in the context of cases of insult or violation of immunity, where victims are frequently victims of lower material status.
However, it is worth noting that the legal strategy provides for a "safety valve". Despite the increase, low-income people can inactive apply for exemption from court fees. In order to benefit from this possibility, an appropriate application must be made to the court, together with a message of household status, property, income and livelihood. After examination of the papers submitted, the court may full or partially exempt the applicant from the work to pay the fee.
Context of wider changes: Dispute over simplification of the divorce procedure
The increase in the charge for the private indictment falls within the broader context of discussions on the functioning of the judiciary and household law in Poland. Recently, there was besides another task that was stuck in the interministerial arrangements stage. How she informed Virtual Poland, a draft government was blocked to let jurisdiction of divorce in civilian law offices.
These changes were to apply only to couples in which both parties agreed to divorce and the matrimony did not have a common insignificant child. The aim was to relieve the courts and simplify the procedure for the parties themselves. However, according to the media reports, the task met with opposition from politicians-led ministries PSLof which Ministry of Defence headed by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish. The main argument against liberalisation of regulations was that the simplification of the procedure would lead to an increase in the number of divorces, which in turn would negatively affect the demographic situation of Poland. This situation shows that changes in the area of law, even those of a purely procedural nature, frequently become the arena for clashing different visions of the state and society.
Continued here:
A dramatic increase in court. The fee for the application will increase to PLN 1000.
