Abstract

The article discusses the amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure and the Act on Court Bailiffs as regards the service of process provided for in the act passed on 9 March 2023. The legislator, deeming it appropriate to introduce a specific behaviour as regards the service of a copy of a lawsuit or another document arousing the need to undertake the defence of a party’s rights, added a court ruling to this set. At the same time, the amendments are intended to streamline these actions, allowing the court to assume that the process returned by the postal operator as unclaimed despite having twice notified a party of such an obligation under the circumstances listed in Art. 139¹ § 1¹ of the Code of Civil Procedure has been served. The act introduces authorization for the bailiff to servce the process at the known current address of the party’s residence. An important change is also the assumption that the process returned by the postal operator having performed the action provided for in Art. 139 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure has been served when it turns out that the defendant lives at the address of delivery. The changes made entail the need to interpret them so that, in conjunction with the regulations still in force, it is possible to deduct from them – through interpretation – the scope of normative behaviour of those involved in delivery. In contrast, the lawmaker still has not decided to use electronic communications for the service of the first letter in the case. The entry into force of Article 131² of the Code of Civil Procedure relating to the service of process using the possibilities created by the Act on Electronic Deliveries has been postponed. The permissibility of such service by the court to a party’s address for electronic delivery will not be possible until 2029. Meanwhile, it would be reasonable to consider using this address for notifying the party of the delivery. These issues have become the subject of the study along with drawing relevant conclusions as a result of the research done.