The recently in force restructuring regulations have several disadvantages in addition to many advantages. If they are not fixed quickly, the landmark reform could fail. Restructuring instead of bankruptcy, and bankruptcy only as a last resort - the new restructuring law is supposed to be a revolution in rescuing companies standing on the precipice. However, it is not without flaws that may limit its beneficial impact.
District courts can't cope
The biggest problem is that bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings remain in the district courts, while they should be handled by the county courts.
— These courts often employ young judges who are just starting their judicial practice, and bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings are among the most complex civil proceedings and require a lot of experience — says Anna Pukszto, attorney-at-law, partner at Dentons Law Firm and president of the Association of Legal Practitioners. Restructuring.
An additional problem is that the same courts also hear cases about consumer bankruptcy. Maciej Roch Pietrzak, licensed restructuring advisor and president of PMR Restrukturyzacje, points out that the amendment to the regulation on the transfer to certain regional and district courts of the ability to hear commercial cases from the area of jurisdiction of other regional and district courts, prepared by the previous government - eliminates almost 1/3 of bankruptcy departments in the country in a situation where the previous term of the Sejm did not agree to the transfer consumer bankruptcy to civil courts or to transfer corporate bankruptcy to district courts.
- As a result, all cases, irrespective of their size and severity, will be heard in the district bankruptcy courts, with a reduction in their number by almost a third, notes Maciej Roch Pietrzak.
