The changes are the result of:

• the Act of 15 January 2015 Amending the Code of Civil Procedure and Some Other Acts,

• the Act of 10 July 2015 Amending the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure and Some Other Acts (introducing the document form of acts in law).

These changes are intended to make service of documents in proceedings more efficient and are based mainly on establishing an information and communication technology system which serves the flow of correspondence between parties/participants and the court. An application with the name “Electronic Registry Office” will therefore be established. It will be based on the system operating to date, known as the “Electronic Admonishment Proceedings” system (with its aid, the E-Court, i.e. the District Court of Lublin-Zachód in Lublin, Division VI Civil, considers all electronic admonishing procedures in Poland, http://www.e-sad.gov.pl/). Anyone interested in using this application will have to open an account in it. All courts will have to enable parties to submit pleadings electronically with the aid of the “Electronic Registry Office” within three years of the entry into force of the new rules (Article 20 of the Amending Act of 10 July 2015), i.e. by 8 September 2019.

The changes can be divided into three essential parts, detailed below.

I. Changes to land and mortgage register proceedings.

1. As of 1 April 2016, new regulations will start to apply (Article 6264 CPC), by virtue of which a notary, court enforcement officer and tax office head acting as an administrative enforcement body will be able to file an application for an entry to be made in a land and mortgage register exclusively via the information and communication technology system.

2. Applications for an entry in a land and mortgage register coming from a party or its attorney will still be able to be submitted in traditional “paper” form.

3. As of 1 April 2016, upon the application of a participant in proceedings which is included in a notarial deed, the notice about an entry will be served via the information and communication technology system into the account given in that system.

II. Changes in service throughout civil proceedings

4. As of 8 September 2016, regulations will start to apply which provide for the possibility of making a choice (in a concrete matter) in submitting pleadings throughout civil proceedings via the information and communication technology system, as well as in “traditional” proceedings.

5. The choice of electronic service will be a right, not an obligation, and electronic service will depend on first making a choice (for a concrete matter) in submitting pleadings via the information and communication technology system.

6. The choice of the manner of submitting pleadings will be made by filing a statement via the information and communication technology system.

7. If an act of parliament states that submitting pleadings via the information and communication technology system is obligatory (as is the case with regard to electronic admonishment proceedings) or a party chooses to submit pleadings via that system, a pleading not submitted in such a way will not produce the effects which the act of parliament links to submitting a pleading to the court.

8. If an advocate, legal counsel, patent attorney, advisor of the State Treasury Solicitors’ Office, public authority or other state authority chooses to submit pleadings via the information and communication technology system, service will always be performed electronically and it will not be possible to give up such service, unless a statement on resigning from submission of pleadings via the information and communication technology system is filed. Resigning from submitting pleadings via the information and communication technology system will also cover resignation from electronic service.

9. In the case of other entities which chose to submit pleadings via the information and communication technology system, it will be permissible to resign from electronic service without previously resigning from submitting pleadings via the information and communication technology system.

10. A pleading submitted via the information and communication technology system will be signed with an electronic signature verified with the aid of a valid qualified certificate or electronic signature confirmed by the e-PUAP identifying profile. Particular regulations will be able to regulate this matter differently. For example, with regard to pleadings submitted in electronic admonishment proceedings, it will still be permissible to use an electronic signature sent in the information and communication technology system serving such proceedings.

11. Electronic service is performed at the moment stated in the confirmation of receipt of correspondence (this will in fact be the moment of “entering” the user’s account in the information system), as follows from the regulation of the Minister of Justice of 20 October 2015 concerning the procedure and manner of performing electronic service (it will start to apply as of 1 April 2016). Restrictions concerning service at night-time and on statutory work-free days will not apply to electronic service. In the event of a lack of confirmation of receipt, the electronic service will be deemed effective after the lapse of 14 days from the date of placing a pleading in the information and communication technology system.

12. If a pleading is submitted via the information and communication technology system or a decision or other court document is recorded in that system, and their copies will be subject to service in the traditional manner, then instead of a copy of the document or decision it will be possible to serve a document obtained from the information and communication technology system, i.e. a printout of the document from that system. This document will have features making it possible to verify the existence and content of the document in the information and communication technology system. A document having the above features will have the force of a document issued by the court.

13. Article 142 CPC has also been amended, by virtue of which service will be able to be confirmed not only in writing, via the traditional confirmation of receipt, but also in the form of computer data in the information and communication technology system of a postal operator, which will constitute electronic confirmation of receipt.

III. Changes in service between professional attorneys

14. Article 132 par. 1 CPC will be amended as of 8 September 2016 (service between professional attorneys). In connection with this, the attorney’s statement itself will be sufficient in the content of a document submitted to the court for the document to be posted to the other party by recorded delivery (i.e. it will no longer be necessary to put the confirmation of posting into an envelope). It will obviously still be possible to enclose postal confirmation of posting a dispatch.

On 1 April 2016 the following executive regulations to the CPC connected with establishing the information and communication technology system (Electronic Registry Office) will come into effect:

(a) regulation of the Minister of Justice of 20 October 2015 concerning the procedure and manner of performing electronic service (issued on the basis of Article 1311 par. 3 CPC).

(b) regulation of the Minister of Justice of 20 October 2015 concerning the manner of submitting pleadings via the information and communication technology system serving court proceedings (issued on the basis of Article 125 par. 31 CPC).