Written witness testimony

Abstract

According to Art. 9 sec. 2 of Regulation (EC) No.861/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 establishing a European Small Claims Procedure, the court or tribunal may allow written evidence from witnesses, experts or parties to be taken. The Regulation applies to cross-border cases (Regulation of 11 July 2007), i.e., cases in which at least one of the parties is domiciled or habitually resident in a Member State other than the Member State of the court or tribunal examining the case (Article 3). On the other hand, the Act amending the Act - Code of Civil Procedure and some other acts of 5 December 2008 added Art. 505 25. Pursuant to § 1 of this provision: The witness shall testify in writing if the court so decides. In this case, the witness shall make an oath by signing the text of the oath. The witness is obliged to submit the text of the testimony to the court within the time limit set by the court. The provisions of art. 165 § 2, art. 274 § 1 and art. 276 shall apply accordingly. As indicated in the justification for the draft of this legal act: Due to the fact that Polish law does not know the written form of testifying by
witnesses and hearing the parties (the exception applies to mute and deaf people, cf. Art. 271 § 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure; this provision applies accordingly to hear the parties pursuant to the third sentence of Article 304), it was necessary to introduce appropriate regulations in this respect applicable to the European Small Claims Procedure.