Uneven standards for publishing judgements

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights believes that, as a general rule, judgements should be published on-line or issued in a hard copy, either free of charge or against a minimum processing fee.

Therefore, we are considering addressing the Minister of Justice on the issue of amending the regulation which provides for a high issuing fee.The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has recently submitted motions in two courts requesting to be issued with copies of judgements together with their reasons. One of the motions concerning the case against Mirosław Ch. , sentenced to 6 months in prison and a 2-year football banning order for unveiling a banner with the words ‘Death to the crooked noses’ and a crossed out caricature of a Jew wearing a yarmulke and a blue and white striped death camp prisoner’s uniform, was filed with the President of the District Court in Rzeszów. The other one, submitted to the President of the District Court in Lipno, referred to the case of a 19-year-old student of a technical secondary school who received a sentence of ten months of in prison, conditionally suspended for a 3-year trial period, for painting an anti-government slogan on the school’s wall in Dobrzyń nad Wisłą.

The responses of the courts to the HFHR’s motions revealed two completely different approaches to the issue of publishing and issuing judgements. The District Court in Rzeszów sent a certified copy of the judgement together with the reasons. The District Court in Lipno ordered the certified copies to be issued on collecting the fee of PLN 6 per page.