Reimbursement of earnings or income lost by the party as a result of appearing before a court or a public administration authority

The Article 86.3 of the Act on court costs in civil cases (which also applies in administrative cases and cases tried before administrative courts) establishes the upper limit of compensation for earnings or income lost by a person who appeared before a civil court, administrative court or public administration authority. A similar solution is provided for in Article 618b § 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in relation to the maximum amount of compensation for lost earnings that may be awarded to a witness in criminal proceedings. Unless specific provisions do not provide otherwise, this amount is currently (2024) PLN 82.31, which is much lower than the average daily wage of a person receiving the minimum wage and, as such, in most cases, does not compensate for the actual loss suffered by the party, witness or expert who appeared before the court or public administration authority. The applicable provisions specifying the maximum amount of compensation for lost earnings or income are considered inconsistent with the Constitution. For now, however, the Constitutional Tribunal has not recognized them as such, so these provisions are in force. Nevertheless, some judges do not apply them, assuming that they have the right to omit provisions that, in their opinion, are inconsistent with the Constitution. By doing so, they expose themselves to disciplinary liability. Is a regulation establishing an upper limit on the reimbursed income or earnings justified and necessary? Should judges ignore the provisions that set such a limit at too low a level? The author of the paper tries to answer these questions.