Tezy dotyczące reformy dostępu do nieodpłatnej pomocy prawnej, zwolnienia z kosztów sądowych i zapewnienia pełnomocnika z urzędu

The issues of access to free legal aid, exemption from court fees and ex officio legal aid have been so far the subject of several sociological and legal studies and analyses, as well as the subject of several systemic projects financed either by the European Union or by grant-giving organisations but all these activities dealt only with apart of these problems and no attempt has been made so far to propose acomprehensive reform of access to law in Poland. After many years of research and analysis of these issues, it seems necessary to draw conclu- sions and attempt to comprehensively regulate all issues related to access to justice or, more broadly, access to law. The article discusses the diagnosis of the legal and formal situation related to access to law in Poland. All the assessed issues indicate that some of the statutory solutions do not match each other, the regulations do not comply with the criteria (or even lack thereof), and the free legal aid does not reach all those in need. In a state governed by the rule of law, it becomes urgent and necessary to sort out fundamental issues such as citizens’ access to the law. Hence, the proposed solutions aim to unify the rules of access to the law while simplifying this access and making better use of the system resources.