“Minister Waldemar Żurek arrives, and the case of Sławomir Nowak comes to an end. It is highly improbable for both the defense and the prosecutor to demand the same thing – that simply doesn’t happen. A few weeks later, the issue of abandoning the Random Case Assignment System emerges. There’s no coincidence here,” says Judge Łukasz Zawadzki.
The regulation issued by Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek continues to spark widespread discussion. The greatest controversy surrounds the expansion of the powers of division heads, who will now be able to manually shape judicial panels.
This – combined with the dismissal of dozens of court presidents and vice-presidents across Poland by Minister Żurek – leads to a dangerous conclusion that the justice system may be returning to manual control, replacing the SLPS that has functioned for years.
Judge Łukasz Zawadzki from the District Court in Opole, a member of the association Lawyers for Poland and spokesperson for the National Association of Judges “Judges of the Republic of Poland”, spoke to us about the controversy surrounding the changes.
“My colleagues, men and women who have been in the profession for decades, regardless of political sympathies, agree that the Random Case Assignment System is a groundbreaking, epochal change when it comes to the rules of assigning cases to judges in the Polish justice system. The era of division heads exercising one-man rule, arbitrarily assigning cases to judges, came to an end. The SLPS is not merely a case allocation tool but also a system for fair distribution. It determines the rank of cases in relation to the judge, allowing for equitable workloads,” we hear.
He emphasizes that “any interference in this system amounts to political manipulation in shaping judicial panels.”
“From judicial ghettos to the regulation of Minister Adam Bodnar, which excluded judges appointed after 2018 from handling certain categories of cases, to repeated draws for individual cases – and now, when two-thirds of each judicial panel will be appointed by the division head, who is a nominee of the court president, who in turn is a nominee of… the Minister of Justice,” explains the judge.
Asked whether, on this basis, the parties will be able to challenge rulings, he nods in agreement: “Any party dissatisfied with a ruling will raise this violation before the Polish justice system and before the Court of Justice of the European Union. The regulation is inconsistent with the law and with the CJEU’s case law. Poland will lose and pay massive compensation.”
“Minister Żurek is willing to achieve an immediate political goal. I believe it’s no coincidence that Minister Żurek arrived and the case of Sławomir Nowak came to an end. It is highly improbable that both the defense and the prosecutor would demand the same outcome – that simply doesn’t happen. A few weeks later, we’re talking about abandoning the SLPS. There’s no coincidence here,” Judge Zawadzki tells us.
When asked about bypassing the presidential office and introducing changes through regulation, he replies: “A year ago, there was a draft law on the agenda, sent to the Venice Commission. That law aimed to verify judges by dividing them into three groups. Had Karol Nawrocki not won the election, the bill would have been processed and signed by the president. Rafał Trzaskowski had declared his support for it. In that sense, judges have been saved – around 3,500 judges appointed after 2018 can still adjudicate.“
“Nevertheless, the Prime Minister appointed Waldemar Żurek as Minister of Justice, who obviously won’t dismiss us outright but will seek to eliminate us in other ways. And that brings us to this regulation,” he adds.
“In Poland, the existing law is good. We have sources of law, the Constitution, a hierarchy of legal norms. If that order were respected, everything would be fine. Yet a minister comes along and openly questions this legal order, saying he won’t hesitate to violate it. We have no choice but to resist,” he concludes.