Electronic commercial arbitration could significantly contribute to the reduction of commercial cases in national courts. It could also alleviate the burden on the justice system from cases that do not need to be introduced to it, while providing entrepreneurs with speed, convenience, and confidentiality in claiming their rights. Unfortunately, the barrier to the development of online commercial arbitration is the amendments to the enforcement clauses of the arbitral judgments made in 2015 (Article 1212 and following of the Civil Procedure Code). These proceedings were transferred to appellate courts at that time. An online arbitration procedure lasts a few weeks. Waiting for the enforcement clause in the appellate court takes several months. The Association of Notaries of the Republic of Poland in Warsaw has submitted a petition to the Ministry of Justice to change the regulations.
The past few years have witnessed the development of online arbitration. This form of dispute resolution between companies is offered by the Arbitration Court at the Confederation of Leviathan, the OAC, and the recently established ENOiK Arbitration Court. The largest online arbitration court in Poland, operating on the Ultima RATIO platform, handles over 500 cases annually and boasts a very short average duration of proceedings – just 22 days. It deals primarily with loan contracts, construction contracts, and leases. The monetary values of the cases range from PLN 2,000 to even PLN 500,000. The proceedings are conducted by independent, experienced commercial arbitrators. This arbitration operates under the Association of Notaries of the Republic of Poland in Warsaw.
“The entire process is conducted online. In this way, the parties present evidence such as photos or recordings and submit applications and positions. There are no printed documents, no need to appear in court. The entire procedure lasts about 3-4 weeks depending on the complexity of the conflict. Then the arbitrator makes a decision, of course, also online. To execute it, that is, to pass it on to the bailiff for execution, the creditor still has to approve it, that is, obtain an enforcement clause in the appellate court. And this unfortunately significantly extends the entire procedure. Therefore, the Association of Polish Notaries appeals for a return to the legal state before 2016 when enforcement clauses were issued by the usual debtor’s court (district and regional) and they did it in the same way as enforcement clauses are issued to judgments of state courts,” comments notary Paweł Orłowski, President of the Electronic Arbitration and Mediation Centre at the Association of Notaries of the Republic of Poland on the Ultima RATIO platform.
According to Ultima Ratio analyses, appellate courts issue enforcement clauses on average after 2-4 months. Therefore, the entire conflict resolution process between two companies is prolonged by this much time. Over the past nine years, ICT technologies have provided various methods for verifying the identities of the parties to court and arbitration proceedings and for certifying documents online. Thanks to platform solutions, video connections, voice-to-text transcription tools, and similar technologies, it has become possible to transfer the examination of commercial cases to the internet without compromising the quality of the decisions rendered. Therefore, the change seems to be easily implementable.
“We believe that changing the regulations will be an impetus for the development of out-of-court methods of resolving economic disputes over the Internet. There are only 11 appellate courts in our country. Directing an increasing number of procedural cases to them unnecessarily distracts them from cases that – as it seems – they should systematically deal with. The current system of approving arbitral judgments by the highest appellate courts, which are at the top of the hierarchy of common courts, also creates in society a false belief that such judgments are ‘high-risk’ and therefore untrustworthy,” comments attorney Robert Szczepanek, CPO of Causa Finita S.A., the originator and founder of the Ultima RATIO platform.
It’s interesting to note that virtual arbitration courts handle different cases also considering the size of the dispute. Judgments are typically issued in simple and non-controversial cases, where the value of the subject of the dispute rarely exceeds PLN 20,000. Furthermore, when issuing an enforcement clause for a judgment, appellate courts charge fees amounting to PLN 300 for each case, regardless of its size. The Association of Notaries of the Republic of Poland hopes that the Ministry of Justice will respond favorably to the requests outlined in the petition.
Source: https://managerplus.pl/przyszlosc-arbitrazu-online-stowarzyszenie-notariuszy-rzeczypospolitej-polskiej-i-prawnicy-apeluja-o-zmiane-prawa-57527
