The judge presiding over the trial of Father Michał Olszewski and former female officials of the Ministry of Justice is an actress from a TVN television series. In “Sąd rodzinny” (“Family Court”), broadcast by TVN, Justyna Koska-Janusz played a lawyer. A few days before the start of the trial concerning the Justice Fund, she received a second delegation from the Minister of Justice.
On Wednesday, the District Court in Warsaw held the first hearing concerning the indictment against six individuals, including Father Michał Olszewski and former female officials of the Ministry of Justice. The presiding reporting judge, Justyna Koska-Janusz, who did not agree to most of the motions filed by the defense, excluded the public from the proceedings toward the end of the hearing.
“I am worried,” admitted one of the accused officials, Urszula Dubejko, commenting on what was happening in the courtroom, including the rejection of the defense’s motions.
The judge appeared… in a TVN series
Judge Justyna Koska-Janusz completed her law studies in 1994 and passed the judicial examination two years later. In 1996-1998, she served as a judicial assessor at the District Court in Gdańsk. Later, from 1998 to 2004, she was a judge at the District Court in Gdańsk. Then there was a break in adjudication, quite a long one. In 2004, Koska-Janusz left the bench and began working as a lawyer and later as an attorney at a law firm. She subsequently established her own law practice, which she ran from 2006 to 2009. By a decision of the President of the Republic of Poland dated 2 June 2009, she was appointed to the position of judge at the District Court for Warsaw-Śródmieście in Warsaw.
In addition to her legal record, the judge also has to her credit… acting. And in a TVN series!
“Sąd rodzinny” (“Family Court”) was a Polish pseudo-documentary television series broadcast on TVN from 2008 to 2011. Each episode examined cases involving divorce, alimony, evictions, applications to limit or deprive parental authority, or to regulate contact with a child.
And one of the actresses in this series was Judge Justyna Koska-Janusz herself. The beginning of her appearances on TVN coincided with the period when she was still running her own law practice; the end came when she was already a judge. The final episode featuring her was broadcast on 1 April 2010.
Delegation from Żurek just before the start of the trial of the priest and the officials
Currently, Judge Koska-Janusz is seconded to the District Court in Warsaw. The most recent decision in this matter was made by the Minister of Justice, Waldemar Żurek, on 13 January 2026 – eight days before the start of the trial of Father Michał Olszewski and the former female officials.
The current delegation is valid from 20 January 2026 (that is, from Tuesday) until 19 January 2027. The justification states, among other things, that the judge “has 22 years of service as a judge and, with respect to the duties currently entrusted to her as a judge of the District Court in Warsaw, one year of experience under a delegation from the Minister of Justice.”