The Council of Ministers approved today (19 February 2019) prepared by the Ministry of Justice reform of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The proposed solutions are designed to improve, simplify and speed up proceedings before the courts. This is part of the "Justice and Security" reform programme announced In April 2018 by the Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro.
Nor will it be so easy to use trial trials to prolong cases. This sometimes even led to paralysis of proceedings – e.g. in the District Court of Chełma from 41 time limits for criminal proceedings 35 It didn't happen because he didn't appear. In the District Court in Łódź with 37 such cases have been postponed 31, and in the New Sącz District Court on 35 cases have been appealed 21.
A thorough amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure will eliminate absurd procedures, such as reading judgments in an empty room - in the District Court in Ciechanów, the judge declared the sentence 13 hours and 55 minutes, and there was no one in the courtroom - or the obligation to exchange at the hearing all the protocols and documents proving
Without speaking to an empty room
Judges will not announce judgments and resolutions at a sitting that nobody has attended. Today, it must be done, even if there is no one in the courtroom outside the judge. This curiosial duty draws the judges away from serious work. Now it's gone. If no one comes to the judgment or order, they may be deemed to be announced.
Clear justification on the form
Reasons for judgments will be made on a special form, in accordance with strict rules. This will make them understandable and transparent.
No more reading volumes of files
The judges will not have to exchange all the evidence protocols and documents at the hearings. Today they have a duty, which in the case of complicated cases, when judges are placed on the table one hundred Volumes of files, greatly prolongs proceedings for weeks or even months. The new provision assumes that, at the time of the closure of the court line, all records and documents constituting evidence shall be deemed to have been disclosed without reading.
Medical release won't block the trial.
Combinations with medical dismissals are a major problem that prolongs proceedings in courts. The court sets the date of the hearing, to which many witnesses or experts come, sometimes from remote towns and even from abroad. At the trial, the defense lawyer unexpectedly applies the defendant's medical release.
This stops the trial, forces witnesses to return. The court must appoint another time-consuming hearing, and the state budget is giving money to reimburse costs of travel, accommodation and lost earnings of witnesses or experts.
Today, it is a common method of judicial obstruction on which criminals and their unethical representatives benefit the trial. After the reform, this will be brought to an end. Regardless of the reason for the absence of the parties, witnesses may be heard and other evidence may be provided for the date of the hearing.
Strict compliance with time limits
The evidence application (e.g. document, witness appointment) submitted after the deadline will in principle be rejected. The only exception is that the evidence will determine the criminal's liability, which is the consequence of the primacy of the principle of material truth in the process.
Today, the late submission of the evidence application has no consequences. A change in this situation is necessary. A practice that turns into process obstruction must not be tolerated. The filing of evidence applications after the deadline is a common legal trick today to protract trials.
Resignation of unnecessary hearings
A serious burden for police and prosecutors in investigations and investigations today is the need to question all victims in cases involving hundreds and even one thousand people. For example, there are cases of online fraud, financial pyramids, loan sharks, or the introduction of a whole series of defective goods.
In such cases setny whether a thousand victims usually do not introduce any new facts into the proceedings, but merely duplicates the already established messages.
Resigning the obligation to interrogate all victims will certainly contribute to improving and speeding up the preparatory proceedings and to preventing unnecessary interrogation of the victims.
Reading confessions instead of interrogation
In order not to delay the trial, the court will be able to postpone a direct hearing of witnesses who are known not to bring anything significant to the case. For example, situations where a witness can at most confirm circumstances that are not questionable and have been confirmed. Then all you have to do is read the testimony of such a witness before the prosecutor.
Balance of courts two instances
Congestion often occurs in courts second instances which, under the current regulations, often have to run matters almost from the beginning. It is therefore necessary to rebuild the appeal procedure. The amendments provide for a restriction on the appointment of new witnesses or evidence in the form of documents at the stage of appeal.
This will be admissible only if the appellant could not file for evidence before the court first the instance (e.g. the witness was abroad) or the fact he wanted to prove could not be the subject of the original proceedings.
Steady work schedule
At the same time, the reform strengthens the role of appeal courts. They will be able to convict the defendant, whose fault is the court first the instance considered, but conditionally discontinued the proceedings. The appeal court will also be able to exacerbate the punishment itself by granting life imprisonment.
Currently, the highest punishment he can inflict is 25 years of imprisonment, and if he considers that a life sentence is justified, he may only refer the case to a retrial by the court first instances. Changes will strike a balance and ensure a fair distribution of work between courts first and second instances.
Letter from court to post office box
Everyone will be able to indicate a post box for effective service of procedural documents (e.g. court, prosecutor, police). This facilitates both the notified persons (e.g. parties to proceedings, victims, witnesses) and the institutions themselves. Currently, all service must be made to the hands of the recipient, given to the householder or left to be received at the post office.
Facilitation for disabled
Disabled and obstetrically ill people will no longer have trouble receiving procedural papers. The new rules will enable them to authorise any person selected to receive mail. This solution eliminates barriers to access to justice and improves proceedings.
Judgement, not investigation.
Courts will no longer be sent to cases that have not been explained in many respects at the stage of the investigation, led by auxiliary prosecutors. This is happening today, and the reason is not the delay of prosecutors, but the wrong procedure.
According to the current legislation, if the prosecution twice refuses to initiate an investigation, it will either drop it twice because they will not see the crime, the victim acquires the power of an auxiliary prosecutor and may proceed with the indictment.
Then the court must itself, without the involvement of investigators, explain whether the crime has actually been committed. The proposed amendment limits such situations. The point is that judges should deal in the principle of judgment on guilt and punishment rather than in the procedural role of investigators.
Therefore, since the repeated refusal to initiate or repeat discontinuance of proceedings the victim will be entitled to a complaint to the Supreme Prosecutor. It is only when he keeps the decision that the victim will be able to turn himself into a prosecutor and the case will go to court.
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The chronicity of processes is the cause of dramas of many Poles who cannot wait for justice before the court. The Ministry of Justice initiated fundamental changes in the judiciary, thanks to which Poles are to regain faith that they go to courts for justice and do not wait for it for years. These changes are to streamline and simplify judicial procedures and to increase access to courts, without having to bear huge expenses on lawyers.
From the top 2018 in courts across the country, the Random Assignment System is in operation for judges to whom the principle of invariability of the ruling is closely linked.
Once the court has drawn up, the composition of the court should not be changed until the case is concluded, which limits the length of proceedings and reduces the delays in the courts.
The same goal pursued by the government 19 December 2018 reform of the Code of Civil Procedure, which introduces, among others, the principle one Courts in less complicated civil cases.
The continuation of these actions is a comprehensive reform of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is the answer to real and burning problems. In 2017 In the courts there was about 8680 criminal cases over time three years. Therefore, the main objective of the new regulations is to improve the functioning of the courts so that they can act quickly, efficiently, and the judgments given by the judges raise the confidence of Poles.