Abstract

This article analyzes changes introduced under the Act of 29 August 2014 amending the Code of Civil Procedure and the Law on court costs in civil cases. These changes related mostly to the relatively new method of recording the course of public court sessions in civil proceedings, which has been in use for less than five years and essentially boils down to audio or audio-video recording. They constitute a legislative response to the shortcomings that emerged in the practice of the first years of the functioning of so-called electronic records, and primarily include modifications as to the hitherto contents of abbreviated records, as well as changes concerning the rules of transcription. However, it would be gross oversimplification to consider all changes introduced by the amendment as relating exclusively to electronic records. The amendment also addressed other issues that are related to electronic records indirectly at most. Those changes, which concern the rules for access to case files, the principles for providing statements of the grounds for court rulings and the rules for conducting appeal proceedings, have also been analyzed in this article.