Arbitrators have to demonstrate competence

In the general / national courts, judges are assigned to cases on a random basis. In arbitration, meanwhile, each party contributes to the process of empanelling the arbitrators. Importantly enough, these are recruited from among specialists in the field which the given dispute refers to. Accordingly, any specialist recognised in the market may be an arbitrator. Also, arbitrators provide their services on commercial terms, with the result that they must demonstrate competence and bear responsibility accordingly.

The volume of litigation before the general courts ins increasing year in, year out; at the same time, effectiveness of the general courts leaves something to be desired. One constant gripe is that of duration, and the relevant statistics paint a bleak picture; only last year, the Polish State Treasury paid a total of PLN 5.8 million as compensation for excessive duration of court proceedings. This comes as no surprise if one considers that the judge of a district court handles, on average, one thousand cases a year. To provide a point of contrast, in the same year the biggest arbitration tribunal in Poland, that affiliated with the National Chamber of Commerce, had 200 new cases come before it, of which 131 have already been concluded.

Accordingly, alternative dispute resolution methods – such as arbitration – are becoming increasingly popular. Arbitration can be very advantageous for business enterprises (…)

Fiuu text (in Polish) is available on the website raportcsr.pl.