Taking on the Bailiff Monopoly in Poland
The 2005 Doing Business report rated Poland as one of the slowest judicial systems in the world. It took 1,000 days for a contract to be enforced through the courts, causing Poland to be ranked 140th of 145 countries in regard to the speed of court...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/11/9890673/taking-bailiff-monopoly-poland http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10633 |
| Summary: | The 2005 Doing Business report rated
Poland as one of the slowest judicial systems in the world.
It took 1,000 days for a contract to be enforced through the
courts, causing Poland to be ranked 140th of 145 countries
in regard to the speed of courts. This poor ranking prompted
the National Bank of Poland and the World Bank to draft a
report, 'Poland: legal barriers to contract
enforcement,' which contained recommendations designed
to speed up court proceedings. One of the key
recommendations of the report was to open the bailiff
profession to more competition, so as to improve the service
bailiffs delivered. Specifically, the report called for an
expanded number of bailiffs, for creditors to have greater
choice among those bailiffs, and for the deregulation of
bailiff fees. After a change of government in 2005, a new
team including the author headed the justice ministry. The
author was receptive to new ideas, and the justice ministry
endorsed the report, which provided the impetus for
undertaking these reforms. The author suggested three
changes: (a) the justice minister should be able to appoint
more bailiffs without going through a complicated procedure;
(b) bailiffs should be able to compete with each other
regardless of their location; and (c) price flexibility
should be introduced to bailiff fees. |
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