Will Tusk defend the Bolesławiec court?

Following reports that the Bolesławiec court is to become a branch of the court in Zgorzelec, members of Bolesławiec’s Civic Platform joined the protest. They are applying political pressure.

– I suggested to Karol Stasik, chairman of the county structures, that we protest as Civic Platform. That is what happened. If there is concern that arguments and common sense may not be enough, political action must be taken. Sad, but true – says Dariusz Kwaśniewski, head of the Civic Platform’s city structures.

– We asked Donald Tusk directly to analyse our proposal and support our efforts to retain the District Court in Bolesławiec – confirms Karol Stasik, head of Civic Platform in the county.

Will these political actions produce results? You can share your opinion in the comments and the online poll.

Justification of Bolesławiec’s Civic Platform

Bolesławiec County—with approximately 90,000 residents—is the second-largest urban centre in the area served by the Jelenia Góra Regional Court (after the city of Jelenia Góra) and the third-largest county by population (after the combined Jelenia Góra urban and rural counties and Zgorzelec County); moreover, Bolesławiec County occupies by far the largest area in the Jelenia Góra subregion.

The abolition of the District Court in Bolesławiec and the establishment in its place of an out-of-town branch of the District Court in Zgorzelec is incomprehensible, particularly the abolition of the Land and Mortgage and Labour Divisions, which are the divisions most frequently used by residents of Bolesławiec County. Subzones of three Special Economic Zones operate within Bolesławiec County: Wałbrzych—in the city of Bolesławiec, Legnica—in Gromadka Municipality, and Kamienna Góra in Wykroty—in Nowogrodziec Municipality. The number of business entities, and consequently employers, is by far the highest in this part of the voivodeship. This generates a large number of employment-related cases and, extremely importantly, cases involving real-estate transactions. It must therefore be emphasised that depriving Bolesławiec of its labour court and, above all, its land and mortgage division harms the interests of employers and employees, and thus all residents of the city and Bolesławiec County.

Another fact is worth emphasising. The draft regulation of the Minister of Justice provides for retaining the District Court in the neighbouring Lubań County, which has approximately 57,000 residents. The jurisdiction of the District Court in Lubań is to cover Lubań County and Lwówek County, which has approximately 49,000 residents, meaning that the District Court in Lubań will serve around 110,000 residents in total. Approximately 95,000 people live in Zgorzelec County, meaning that the District Court in Zgorzelec—after incorporating the former District Court in Bolesławiec into its structure—will serve approximately 185,000 residents (95,000 in Zgorzelec County and approximately 90,000 in Bolesławiec County). Considering, among other things, the population and size of the towns indicated, the preference given to Lubań is puzzling.

It is significant that the District Court in Bolesławiec is the third-largest unit in the Jelenia Góra district, both in terms of the number of judges and caseload.

The distances between the seats of the parent courts and the out-of-town branches are also significant (Bolesławiec–Zgorzelec: 44 km; Lubań–Lwówek Śląski: 30 km, while the distance between Bolesławiec and Lwówek Śląski is 18 km, and between Lubań and Zgorzelec, 22 km). Greater distances—obviously—mean greater inconvenience and higher costs for residents.

We emphatically stress that, in light of the facts cited above and the caseload, the following plan is incomprehensible and misguided:

1. merging the Zgorzelec court (the second-highest caseload in the district) with the Bolesławiec court (the third-highest caseload in the district), which would result in the largest district court in the district
2. merging the Lubań court (the second-lowest caseload in the district) with the Lwówek court (the fourth-highest caseload in the district, with the caseload in both courts being nearly identical), meaning that the combined caseload of the two courts would be only approximately 25% higher than the current caseload of the Bolesławiec District Court alone.

After analysing the facts presented, we maintain that the rational and fully economically justified solution would therefore be:

1. retaining the District Court in Zgorzelec, with a branch of the court in Lubań assigned to it (the distance between the two courts is 22 km)
2. retaining the District Court in Bolesławiec, with a branch of the court in Lwówek Śląski assigned to it by the District Court (the distance between the two towns is only 18 km).

In conclusion, it should be noted that, after adopting the option presented above, three district courts of comparable staffing levels, caseloads, convenient connections between the towns within their areas of jurisdiction, and populations would be created in the Jelenia Góra district (in Jelenia Góra, Zgorzelec and Bolesławiec) (see also the appendices to the letter illustrating these data).

We believe that the solution we have presented is logical and, most importantly, economically justified.

Chairman of the Board of the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland in Bolesławiec County
Karol Stasik

(information: PO/KG)