A new report by the Lawyers for Poland (PDP) association levels a sweeping information: parts of Poland’s judiciary – most notably a “handful” of Supreme Court judges – are no longer focused on adjudicating guilt or innocence, but on weaponizing procedural arguments to sabotage lawful verdicts and paralyze the state. In the authors’ framing, this is not a legal dispute; it is an institutional offensive that rewards offenders, punishes victims, and fuels public anger.
The report points to scale as evidence that something systemic is underway. In 2024 alone, it notes, the Supreme Court vacated judgments in 120 cases on the premise of an “improper constitution of the court” – often tied to the participation of judges appointed after 2018 – rather than on any substantive defect in the rulings themselves. PDP calls this practice overtly political and warns it predictably results in retrials, years of delay, and cases collapsing as statutes of limitations expire.
What makes the argument land is not theory, but the case studies. One example describes a Supreme Court decision that, in the report’s telling, knowingly opened the door to impunity: after the judgment was vacated and the case retried, the statute of limitations expired for 22 offenses; proceedings were formally discontinued for those acts; and at least one defendant – who never even filed a cassation appeal – escaped liability entirely. Other defendants saw sentences cut, including a reduction from seven years to five, and from three years to one year and eight months.
Another account centers on a 92-year-old Warsaw resident – an elderly retired music teacher – swindled out of her life savings through the “fake policeman” scam. After a final conviction and an order of full restitution (PLN 100,000), the report says that a judge refused the routine enforceability clause needed to start collection, arguing that the trial court’s composition was supposedly defective – effectively placing the victim’s recovery at risk even after she “won” in court.
PDP’s conclusion is deliberately blunt: if verdicts are overturned on ideology rather than law, the only true beneficiaries are criminals – those released, those delayed into freedom, and those who simply run out the clock. If you want the full list of cases and the report’s broader thesis about who profits from this chaos, read the complete report or download it using the file attached below.