On April 5, 2024, the Ministry of Development and Technology published a draft of the Deregulating Business and Administrative Law and Improving the Principles of Developing Business Law Act[1] on the website of the Government Legislation Center [2]. The draft includes numerous new ideas for changing broadly understood business law. Among them, there are also changes concerning mediation in civil and administrative cases.
Mediations in civil cases
According to the current plans of the Ministry, if:
- in business cases or
- other cases in which an entrepreneur is a party or
- in cases within the scope of labor law, excluding certain cases, the claim does not contain information about an attempt at mediation or another extrajudicial method of resolving the dispute either/or an explanation of the reasons for not doing so, the presiding judge either refers the parties to mediation or calls them to participate in an informational meeting.
In other words, if the entrepreneur fails to provide information about an attempt to resolve the dispute amicably, the presiding judge automatically refers the parties to mediation or an informational meeting.
The planned changes intend to „relieve” common courts, as well as popularize mediation as a method of resolving disputes. This is not the first attempt by the Polish government to introduce mandatory mediation; similar attempts were also made in 2023 when a draft of an analogous act was submitted to the Sejm (of the previous government), but so far, no further steps have been taken apart from the submission itself.
Mediation in administrative cases
In the case of mediation in administrative cases, the Ministry’s changes are mainly aimed at further popularization of this method of dispute resolution. It is planned to clarify the list of cases that can be settled through mediation by indicating that these cases include, among others, cases decided within the exercise of administrative discretion.
It is also proposed to clearly emphasize that notification of the possibility of conducting mediation may be made more than once and at any stage of the proceedings. Simultaneously, it was noted that such notification will not always have a positive effect. Therefore, it was stipulated that if the public administration body concludes that the case should be resolved as soon as possible or conducting mediation could only lead to prolonging the proceedings, such notification shall not be made.
Practical remarks
Although work on implementing this solution is at an early stage (the process of reviewing the project by institutions selected by the Ministry is coming to an end), it is worth familiarizing oneself with the subject of mediation well in advance. It can be assumed that such projects are only the beginning of further development of mediation in Poland. Reliable and effective mediation can significantly shorten the time of resolving a dispute, and most importantly—save the parties money unnecessarily spent on lengthy proceedings.
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