That happend for foreign clients that they receive documents from polish court for example in Germany, Sweden or another country UE.
They do not know how to behave in this situation. This case is stated in regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (service of documents), and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1348/2000.
In article 14 of this regulation we read „Each Member State shall be free to effect service of judicial documents directly by postal services on persons residing in another Member State by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or equivalent.” It means that letter from polish court is legal if it was done by postal services by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or equivalent. Among documents from polish court could be: claim, judgement, calling for the hearing etc.
That is why you should not ignore that letter, ever if it is in polish.
The addressee can act in two ways in this case:
- he may refuse to accept the document to be served at the time of service,
- he may returning the document to the court within one week
if it is not written in, or accompanied by a translation into, either of the following languages:
- a language which the addressee understands or
- the official language of the Member State addressed or, if there are several official languages in that Member State, the official language or one of the official languages of the place where service is to be effected.
Before the addressee decide to refuse or return the document he or she should consider if there are circumstanced which can be based to assume that he or she understand polish language. For example he or she used documents during doing business in this language, If from these circumstances the court can assume that he or she knows polish languages – this return or refusal can be treat as illegal.
Additionaly not all documentation should be translated. If we have a claim and enclosed documents – these appendix may be not translated.
After receiving documents the addressee should start action to protect his or her rights before polish court.
Ewa Kosowska-Czapla
Attorney-at-law / Restructuring Advisor