At the end of 2023, the word of office of jurors elected for 2020-2023 expires. We are facing a word of office from 2024 to 2027. The problem is that present it is known that about 35 percent of them are missing. What does that mean? Presumably a supplementary election. If they don't help, it turns out that the chosen ones will have a lot more cases to fill, and that could consequence in delaying the processes. Why are you so short? Firstly, little interest among citizens, secondly, problems in municipal councils with choice.
It's not a joke.
What is the scale of the problem? We checked.
The Gdańsk territory Court lacks 50% of jurors today. There was a request for 150 jurors at SO Warszawa-Prague, 46 so far. – The territory Court in Warsaw needs 308 jurors, only 109 have been chosen – says justice Sylwia Urbańska, SO spokesperson in Warsaw. In a somewhat better situation is Wojciech Łukowski, the president of SO in Wrocław. He needed 136 jurors – 121 were chosen. However, the situation in the regional courts under his authority is much worse. – In the SR for Wrocław-Fabryczna they are needed 12 – 6 were selected, in the SR for Wrocław-Śródmieście from 120 – 66, and in the SR in Oleśnica alternatively of 10 we have selected 4 – informs the president of Łukowski.
What do the jury themselves say?
Martyna Skibniewska, president of the Association of Law Enforcement Councils, confirms that deficiencies happen throughout Poland. “There are 2 things that are crucial in this area,” he says. He states: first, there is inactive a chance for supplementary elections; second, the amount of PLN 140 that the juror earns should be counted until retirement.
"The courts request to be protected in terms of a adequate number of jurors," says the President. And it proposes wherever the right number of jurors failed to emerge, supplementary elections.
A large role, not a cost
What's the problem? The jury itself has no doubt.
– The view that the institution of a juror – a social justice – is inactive not needed in the Polish judiciary remains. The society is not approached by the proper, constitutional and crucial function of the civilian society origin in the courts, and is constantly reminded of jurors as an unnecessary and costly investment in the Polish courts – it follows from the position of the Association of Judicial Councils. The consequence was to reduce the number of jurors from around 54 000 in 1990 to about 14 000 social judges in 2021. The largest number of social judges was reduced between 2007 and 2015 – around 40,000 people. For example, our neighbors in their judiciary affect about 60 1000 jurors, 3 times more than the statistical resident than Poland.
Maybe it's about money.
The Association of Judicial Councils believes that it is not actual that the advanced cost of keeping jurors in the Polish judiciary causes their reductions. The bill is simple 14,000 x ~130 PLN x 12 = 21 840 000 plus jury meetings. The actual yearly expenditure from the state budget can oscillate between PLN 20 to 25 million. On the another hand, the budget of the Ministry of Justice is around PLN 12 billion, accounting for around 0.2% of the expenditure on compensation. – The expenditure is so tiny that the Ministry of Justice does not supply data in its study on the amount of budget spent by the Ministry.
The incomprehensible conduct of the legislative authorities is the compensation of the ultimate Court jurors, which amounts to about PLN 300 for 1 gathering and payment for participation in the training.
The ultimate Court jurors are 75 percent random. It should be considered whether it would not be more beneficial to recruit jurors to the SN from jurors of the common courts who served as jurors at least 2 terms.
As of 15.4.2023, jurors may again sit in civilian courts in the first and second instance (at the time of the pandemic, their participation in justice was limited).
