Civil law, as a branch of law regulating relations between private law subjects, is of major importance in the practical application of the law. The law firm offers comprehensive services in the field of, among others:
legal advice,
issuing written and oral opinions and analyses,
drafting, providing opinions and negotiating contracts,
collection of civil law debts,
conducting civil law cases before competent authorities.
The scope of our activity includes, in particular, cases concerning contract law, property law, law of succession, claims for damages and compensation, claims for payment, infringement of personal rights.
1. COMPENSATION AND REDRESS CASES
The scope of specialisation of our Law Firm includes comprehensive services in compensation cases. We assist in obtaining compensation from, among others, contractors, insurers, the State Treasury, municipalities, districts, provinces, and other entities. Depending on the needs of our clients, we provide legal advice and also draw up lawsuits for the payment of compensation for property damage and compensation for the harm suffered. Our services include representation of clients in court proceedings for compensation and damages, in conciliation hearings, mediation proceedings and at the stage of enforcement proceedings conducted by a bailiff on the basis of a court writ of execution.
POINT 2. CASES FOR PAYMENT OF DEBTS - DEBT RECOVERY
Depending on the circumstances of a particular case, the Law Firm deals with the representation of both individual clients and entrepreneurs in court proceedings in cases for the payment of debts. The scope of services rendered includes, inter alia, issuing a request to the debtor to pay the disputed amount due to the client within a specified deadline, under pain of referring the case to court. If the deadline for voluntary payment of the amount due expires without effect, the Law Firm prepares and files a claim for payment with the court. Depending on the manner in which the case is heard, after obtaining a final judgment or order for payment, we also represent clients at the stage of enforcement proceedings conducted by a bailiff.
3. MATTERS RELATING TO IMMOVABLE PROPERTY
Cases concerning protection of property ownership
The subject of the Law Firm's activity also includes cases related to vindication and negation protection of real property. We provide legal services in the area of determining the legal status of real estate, court proceedings concerning ownership and division of real estate, acquisitive prescription and processes for reconciliation of the content of the land and mortgage register with the actual legal status.
Real estate contracts
The law firm provides services with regard to securing the interests of clients in the conclusion of real estate contracts, e.g:
sale,
perpetual usufruct,
lease
lease,
agency agreements.
At the request of our clients, we offer assistance in drafting, reviewing and negotiating contracts related to the use of real estate.
PT. 4. DRAFTING AND PROVIDING OPINIONS ON CIVIL LAW CONTRACTS
At the request of our clients, we offer assistance in drafting and providing opinions on draft civil law agreements and business contracts. The law firm drafts all agreements regulated by the Civil Code as well as civil law unnamed contracts.
PCT. 5 CASES FOR THE PROTECTION OF INFRINGED POSSESSION
We provide services in cases related to the protection of infringed possession. We prepare pleadings in the case in question and initiate court proceedings for the restoration of the infringed possession and prohibition of further infringements in the future. The scope of services also includes representation, not only at the stage of court proceedings, but also at the stage of enforcement proceedings.
POINT 6. PROTECTION OF PERSONAL RIGHTS
The law firm provides comprehensive legal assistance in cases involving unlawful interference with the sphere of respect for personal rights. The services in question include - depending on the specifics of the case - professional assistance in taking the following legal remedies:
action for an injunction,
actions for determination,
actions to remedy the infringement,
monetary compensation or payment to a social purpose,
general damages.
Definition of personal rights
The concept of 'personal property' is so firmly anchored in the Polish legal order that it can be found in various normative acts. It should be noted that in none of them, the legislator decided to provide a legal definition, and the burden of specifying what the personal goods are and the effort to derive a general formula belonging to them was shifted to the representatives of science and judicature.
On this ground, the view has been developed that personal goods are: 'values of a non-pecuniary nature, associated with the personality of a human being, generally recognised in society'. On the basis of this position, it is acknowledged that in order to grant civil law protection on account of the infringement or threat to personal rights, it is necessary for a specific object to possess essential features allowing it to be qualified as personal rights. The most important prerequisites include: close connection of the protected good with the subject it serves, inalienability, non-transferability, non-inheritability, non-material nature, validity erga omnes and being subject to legal regulation.
Catalogue of personal goods
Pursuant to the wording of Article 23 of the Civil Code, 'personal goods of a human being, such as, in particular, health, freedom, honour, freedom of conscience, surname or alias, image, secrecy of correspondence, inviolability of the dwelling, scientific, artistic, inventive and rationalisation creativity, remain under the protection of civil law irrespective of the protection provided by other regulations'. The use of the phrase 'as in particular' by the legislator in the content of the norm of Article 23 of the Civil Code, clearly indicating the exemplary character of the statutory enumeration, which must lead to the conclusion that there is no closed catalogue of personal goods in the Polish legal order. It follows that with the changes occurring in social relations, new personal goods may appear and those previously subject to legal protection may disappear. This is dictated not only by the continuous evolution of national and supranational legislation - and consequently the activities of the judiciary - but also by the increasing appreciation of the human person.
In the light of this position, there should be no doubt as to the status of a personal good for, inter alia, such values as bodily integrity, sexual integrity, the right to privacy, the undisturbed enjoyment of one's home, and the right to a grave.
Conditions of protection in the case of personal property
Under the Polish legal order, personal goods take the form of subjective absolute rights, i.e. rights imposing a general obligation to behave in a specific manner. Transferring the above onto the ground of personal goods, Article 24 of the Civil Code imposes an effective erga omnes obligation to respect the rights of the entitled person, including a sanctioned prohibition of unlawful interference in the sphere of the protected person's rights, which enables the broadest possible protection to be extended to the beneficiaries of personal goods, thus enabling them to exercise their rights to the fullest extent possible.
In other words, Polish law grants 'total' protection, protecting against every infringer, which cannot be equated with protection against every infringement. For the latter must meet the feature of unlawfulness, i.e. the behaviour of the person infringing into the sphere of personal rights has to be in contradiction with the legal order, which includes the binding legal regulations and the principles of social co-existence. It should be pointed out that the unlawfulness of the infringement of personal rights under the legal order is presumed, i.e. the burden of proof that the interference is not unlawful rests on the person committing the infringement.
SECTION 7. COPYRIGHT
The scope of application of the Copyright Act is very broad, for according to the statutory definition of a work: 'the object of copyright is any manifestation of creative activity of an individual character, in any form, irrespective of its purpose and manner of expression'.
The law firm provides legal services in the field of economic copyright, moral copyright and related rights.
Economic copyrights vest in the author, providing him with the exclusive right to use and dispose of the work in all fields of exploitation and to remuneration for the use of the work. Economic copyrights are tradable, transferable and inheritable.
Personal copyrights protect the author's relationship with a work, which is unlimited in time and not subject to waiver or sale, and include the right to the authorship of the work, to mark the work with one's own name or a pseudonym or to make it available anonymously, to the inviolability of the content and form of the work and its reliable use, to decide on the first disclosure of the work to the public and to supervise the use of the work.
Related rights include the artistic performance of a work or a work of folk art, the right to use a phonogram or videogram, the rights to broadcasts, first editions and scientific editions.
Within the scope of providing legal assistance in the field of copyright law, the Law Firm in particular:
assists in drafting, negotiating, analysing contracts concerning economic copyright and related rights,
provides legal advice on the protection of author's moral rights
drafts and provides opinions on civil law contracts in the area of copyright,
we represent Clients in disputes concerning infringement of copyright and related rights, in cases for compensation and damages for unlawful infringement of copyright, for payment of remuneration and issuance of benefits for non-contractual use of somebody else's work, and we represent Clients in claims for cessation of actions that may infringe copyright and completion of actions required to remove the effects of copyright infringement.
POINT 8. CASES OF SO-CALLED USURIOUS LOANS
Our Law Firm has extensive experience in handling cases related to the phenomenon of so-called 'usurious loans'. The indicated cases most frequently concern persons in a difficult financial situation, in need of a quick cash payout without the need to first verify their credit history - which would most often not allow for taking out a monetary commitment in a bank - or bypassing long formalised procedures related to obtaining a loan. The consequences of such commitments are extremely detrimental to the borrower - from disproportionately high interest rates to the loss of the property used as security for repayment - as dishonest lenders take advantage of the forced position or ignorance of their counterparties by deliberately misinforming them as to the content of their representations and the actual legal consequences thereof.
In order to assert one's rights, it is possible to initiate criminal proceedings - under Article 304 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. - as well as civil proceedings. The Polish Civil Code provides that if one of the parties - by exploiting the other party's forced position, infirmity or inexperience - accepts or reserves for itself or for a third party a benefit whose value at the time of the conclusion of the contract exceeds to a gross degree the value of its own benefit, it is possible to demand a reduction of the benefit or an increase of the benefit due. There is also a claim for rescission of the contract where the aforementioned would be excessively difficult.
Another remedy available to the aggrieved party is the possibility of rescinding the legal effects of the declaration of intent.
Depending on the factual circumstances, it is possible to invoke:
deceit on the part of the lender,
a mistake concerning the terms of the contract to be concluded (which, if it had been known in advance, would not have led to a statement of this content, i.e. to a contract with usurious effect),
the circumstances under which the contract was concluded, affecting the degree of awareness or freedom of decision and expression (e.g. acting under severe stress caused by a difficult financial situation).
Due to the complexity of this type of case, it is advisable to make an appointment at our office. The services in question are provided by Us pro bono, and the consultation is free of charge.