POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Rafał Waszkiewicz and Bartosz Pyzder, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
4.5 Applications for Security for Defendant’s Costs
jurisdictions. However, Polish law provides two types of procedures similar to the discovery, as set out below. • The party may request that the court orders the opposite party, a third party, or some administrative bodies to provide documents that are in their possession. If the party fails to provide documents despite an order to do so, the court should assess the signifi- cance of such obstruction, eg, the court may find the facts given by the requesting party proven. If the third party fails to provide docu- ments, the court may impose a fine. All par- ties have access to the documents provided in this procedure. • In the proceedings regarding damages caused by a breach of competition law, there is a discovery procedure more similar to that known in common law. The party who requests that the court ordered an opposite party or a third party to provide evidence must assure that they will not disclose the evidence and will not use it for any other goal than the proceedings in which the evidence is disclosed. The court may impose a fine on all parties that refuse to discover the evidence (even on the opposite party). The opposite party cannot refuse to discover the evidence if the only reason to do so is the danger of losing the case. The court’s decision on dis- covery is subject to complaint to the court of the second instance. These discovery proce- dures theoretically concern not only docu- ments but also other types of evidence. In the provisions pertaining to proceedings regarding intellectual property, discovery pro- ceedings are mentioned in a manner identical to that mentioned in the second bullet point.
The defendant cannot generally seek an order that the claimant pay a sum of money as a secu- rity for the defendant’s costs. However, where the claimant is based outside of the EU, the defendant may request the claimant’s deposit to secure the costs of the litigation. Such request may be filed in the statement of defence before the discussion on the merits of the case. 4.6 Costs of Interim Applications/ Motions The court fees for interim applications are dif- ferent and depend on the type and subject of a motion. The court deals with the costs of interim applications in the judgment closing the main proceedings. As a rule, an unsuccessful party in the main proceedings is encumbered also with the costs of interim applications together with the attorney’s fees. However, if the claim- ant does not initiate main proceedings, the court may decide on the costs of interim applications in the interim proceedings. 4.7 Application/Motion Timeframe In principle, the court is not bound by any time limits to hear an interim application. However, an instructional deadline of seven days applies to an interim injunction. Failing to comply with the deadline does not result in negative conse- quences for the court. There are limited possi- bilities to expedite the court’s consideration of the application for an interim injunction or any other motions.
5. Discovery 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases
There are no pre-trial discovery procedures in Poland in the formation known in some other
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