POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Dorothy Hansberry-Bieguńska, Sabina Famirska, Grzegorz Materna and Dorota Podsiedzik-Malec, Hansberry Tomkiel
• the activities of the defendant’s plant or branch located Poland; or • in the case of property right claims, if a defendant has property or property rights in Poland of signifi - cant value in relation to the value of the claim. Polish jurisdiction applies to all parties jointly and sev - erally liable provided that at least one party is subject to Polish jurisdiction. Within the EU, jurisdiction in civil cases is regulated by Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (“Brus - sels I bis”). The Polish legal system does not have a procedure for disclosing documents akin to that of the common law system. There is no obligation under Polish law for parties to exchange or to provide one another with documents or information prior to the commencement of litigation. The Damage Act, however, contains provisions that enable the parties to obtain evidence. According to Article 17 of the Damage Act, for the purpose of damage proceedings, a claimant may ask the court to order the defendant, a third party or a competition authority (which, as defined in Article 2.5 of the Dam - age Act, means the EC, the OCCP, or a competition authority of another EU member state) to disclose rel - evant evidence in their possession. The same request for disclosure of evidence may be made by a defend - ant, provided that the evidence thus obtained will be used only for the purpose of the pending proceeding. A court is entitled to reject a motion for the disclosure of evidence if the motion does not meet the require - ment of proportionality. In line with the Compensation Directive, the Damage Act provides for particular limitations on the disclo - sure of evidence included in the files of a competition authority. Such evidence may be obtained only if it 6. Disclosure/Discovery 6.1 Disclosure/Discovery Procedure
is impossible or excessively difficult to obtain it from other sources. The Damage Act prohibits the disclosure of leniency statements and settlement submissions, whereas information prepared by a natural or legal person spe - cifically for the proceedings of a competition authority, information that a competition authority has drawn up and sent to the parties during its proceedings, and withdrawn settlement submissions may be disclosed only after the completion of proceedings before a competition authority. The above-mentioned docu - ments obtained by a party to the court proceeding contrary to the above-mentioned rules cannot con - stitute evidence for the purpose of civil proceedings. Additionally, Article 29 of the Damage Act clearly sets out that evidence – other than the foregoing – that an individual or legal person obtained exclusively by access from a case file of a competition authority may only be admissible at the request of that person or its legal successor. 6.2 Legal Professional Privilege The legal professional privilege is a fundamental legal right that protects confidential communications between lawyers and their client from being disclosed without the client’s permission. Pursuant to Polish regulations, a legal adviser and an advocate are obliged to keep secret everything they learn during the course of providing legal assistance. Pursuant to the Polish Code of Civil Procedure, a legal adviser/advocate has the right to refuse to answer a question if their legal professional privilege would be violated and a court cannot exempt them from this obligation. 6.3 Leniency and Settlement Agreements Information and materials from companies co-operat - ing with competition authorities are valuable sources of information for plaintiffs pursuing claims for dam - ages. However, in accordance with general standards, access to this kind of evidence is limited. The Damage Act provides the rules for and limits of admissibility of evidence obtained from a competition authority’s proceedings. With regard to evidence in a competition authority’s files, a civil court may order
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