On September 20, 2019, a very interesting-sounding institution was introduced into the Polish legal system, reminiscent of spectacular scenes from American legal films.
Well, Art. 458(9) of the Code of Civil Procedure now provides that "(§1) The parties may agree to exclude specific evidence in the proceedings from a specific legal relationship arising on the basis of the contract (evidence contract)." And further (in §6) the legislator increases the tension even more: "The court will not admit ex officio evidence excluded by the evidence agreement." It may sound exciting! 😉 First, imagine an American lawyer who suddenly stands up in a large courtroom and shouts: "Your Honour! object! I request that this evidence be omitted, because it is covered by the evidence agreement.”
Fantastic picture. The thing is, however, that this agreement in Poland has probably never been seen by anyone, i.e. neither the attorneys nor the courts. After all, what sense would it make, considering the poor quality of hastily created law, its lack of stability and, above all, the ever-increasing formalism of Polish civil procedure, to conclude an agreement with an opponent on the basis of: "Look, let's agree that some of the documents relating to the case that is the basis of our dispute, we will not plead in court as evidence, okay?"
If such evidence does not seem necessary to the parties, there is no point in agreeing on it. If the evidence seems to be potentially needed by at least one of the parties, then there is even less point in making such an arrangement. And if it is not known whether specific evidence will be needed by either party, then there is no point in "burning bridges" and concluding an evidence agreement.
To sum up, the legislator has introduced an institution which has every chance of remaining dead.
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