At the meeting in the Chamber of Labor, Social Security and Public Affairs of 9 January 2018, the Supreme Court considered the issue of whether the divorce case was an urgent matter. If the answer to this question were in the affirmative, it would mean that the courts should deal with divorce first. In the case of divorce of the applicant S.K. for over 13 months from the judgment of the court of first instance and for more than 11 months after the appeal was lodged, no actions were taken aimed at its substantive examination. However, the Supreme Court stated that the length complaint is not admissible, as divorce cases are not urgent.
The Supreme Court cited the provisions of the Act of 17 June 2004 on a complaint about a violation of a party’s right to hear a case in preparatory proceedings conducted or supervised by the prosecutor and court proceedings without unjustified delay. Pursuant to these provisions, a party may file a complaint stating that there has been a violation of the right to hear the case in the proceedings without undue delay, if the proceedings aimed at issuing a decision concluding the proceedings in the case:
- lasts longer than necessary to clarify material factual and legal circumstances;
- it takes longer than necessary to settle an enforcement or other case regarding the enforcement of a court decision (length of proceedings).
In accordance with the content of art. 2 clause 2 of the aforementioned Act, in order to determine whether the case has been excessively lengthy of proceedings, one should in particular assess the timeliness and correctness of actions taken by the court or by the prosecutor conducting or supervising the preparatory proceedings. In making this assessment, account shall be taken of the total time taken to date from its initiation to the time the complaint is examined, as well as the nature of the case, its complexity and relevance to the party who filed the complaint.
The Supreme Court noted that the provision of the Act does not specify a specific waiting time for hearing the case. However, it is assumed that proceedings in which a trial has not been set for more than 12 months in a given instance can be considered protracted. The court emphasized that this does not yet mean that this deadline constitutes a rigid time limit for assessing the compliance of proceedings with the conventional, constitutional and procedural directives of judging a case within a reasonable time.
The Regulation of the Minister of Justice of December 23, 2015. Regulations governing the operation of common courts show that cases should be heard in the order in which they are received, unless specific provisions specify the time limit for their consideration or there is another justified reason for changing this order resulting from the organization of the court’s work. Out of order should urgent cases be referred to the dates of hearings or meetings. In addition, in particularly justified cases, the chairman of the department may order that the case be considered out of order.
In § 2 point 5 of the cited regulations, examples of urgent matters are listed. The list shows that divorce cases do not fall under the category of urgent cases and should, as a rule, be assigned in the order in which they are received.
The Supreme Court pointed out that the Polish model for resolving divorce cases is not directed at the maximum speedy completion of these cases, but rather at the conciliatory actions of the Court and the desire to maintain the stability of the marriage.