-Why would you like to take this matter to court? –  I heard from my boss a few years ago. “It doesn’t make sense,” she added. The business expects specifics. Management boards, heads of legal departments, and financial specialists speak the “language of money.” After spending more than five years in the legal department of a large company, I understand them perfectly. My approach, assessment method, and language have changed.

With growing experience, I ask myself the same question more often. I less frequently feel the need to recommend filing a lawsuit (or allowing a lawsuit to be filed against the client) in a state court.

The costs and stability in court proceedings

The costs of conducting a dispute are a “book-size topic.” What is the limit? The sky is the limit. The filing fee (maximum 200,000 PLN) is only one of the elements of the costs of the dispute. Let’s add lawyers’ fees and interests to the value of the subject matter of the dispute (the longer the dispute, the higher the general costs). The costs of the dispute are also influenced by the following element: money that we will not earn thanks to the client with whom we go to court (if there is a perspective of further cooperation at all).

The stability of the judgment is a crucial reason for taking the case to court. Its repeal or change because of an opponent’s appeal may take the client from Olympus to Tartarus. Let us go back to re-estimating costs and considering the length of the dispute…

Changes to the Polish procedural law occur very often. This provides new grounds for the return of the statement of the claim (the dispute does not then go to court). Unnecessary procedural steps lead to lengthy cases. The business world is discouraged from going to the courts, as shown by the fact that in 2021 they received over 250,000 fewer commercial cases than in 2020.

Why is arbitration a better solution?

Honestly speaking, should there be no fundamental changes, I don’t see any chance to improve the system. As the volume of the Code of Civil Procedure increases, the duration of disputes increases as well. Ending the dispute before it goes to court is a much better solution. It’s always worth talking and the situation is rarely as bad as it might initially seem.

However, if there is an absolute need to obtain an authoritative decision – a judgment, I believe that, wherever possible, it is worth using arbitration. It is certainly not perfect, it is demanding, also in the context of the need to be acquainted with its specific rules (even though it is less formal than a dispute before a state court).

The client could use, for example, arbitration, but the knowledge about it and the number of arbitration cases in the country (approx. 1,000 per year) is a fraction of approximately 1,500,000 commercial cases in state courts in 2023. Meanwhile, arbitration is faster (approx. 1 year), confidential, professional (you can choose arbitrators – experts in each field), and less formalized (parties can choose the applicable law and procedural rules). It may also be cheaper. Arbitration is a court proceeding – even if it is only a court of arbitration, which operates outside the state court system, although under its supervision. However, the arbitration court allows us to maintain faith in the sole point of referring the case for resolution by a judgment. Even if such a judgment is issued by “private judges” (arbitrators), rather than state judges. It is impossible to honestly recommend a dispute in a state court to the client, being aware of the above difficulties. At the same time, sometimes a court dispute is indispensable.