Court of Human Rights calls Polish court delays abuse of human rights

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Poland must pay damages to victims of excessively lengthy proceedings in its legal system. The ruling followed an earlier precedent set in Kudla vs. Poland, in which the Court ruled that an eight-year civil case violated the European human rights convention. Both the Citizens' Rights Ombudsman and the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation, the strongest critics of the inefficiency of the Polish courts, have welcomed the rulings of the Court. The Justice Ministry declined to comment on the ruling, but Krzystof Drzewicki, who represented Poland during the trial, asserts that reform of the judicial system will be costly and lengthy. Polish courts have at least 1.8 million lawsuits pending. The average waiting time before a lawsuit is filed and proceedings begin is about 6.9 months, though in Warsaw the figure is 22.5 months. (Gazeta Wyborzca, Oct. 28-29, p. 3).