Social & scientific activities

NOTARIES OPEN DAYS

The Notaries Open Days, which have been organized by the Polish National Council of Notaries in cooperation with the regional chamber of notaries since 2010, enjoy great popularity: each year, several thousands of citizens participate in legal information sessions organized by notaries. 

As a matter of tradition, these awareness-raising events take place on third Saturday in November in some of the Polish cities, and they offer a perfect opportunity to obtain practical information in those areas of law which are significant from the citizens’ perspective. Each edition has its central theme, but notaries are there to answer any questions that fall within their competence.

The objective of the Notaries Open Days is to provide legal information to citizens. The notaries daily practice shows that their clients very often lack the basic knowledge of law. Hence, notaries consider it necessary to educate citizens in those areas of law which are within the notarial competence as well as to broadly inform them of contracts and other notarial actions which could be the appropriate means to fulfill their aims and wishes.
 

 

FREE LECTURE BY A NOTARY PUBLICAT A UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE

With the initiative „A free lecture by a notary delivered at the third age university”, organised since 2015, the notarial professional organisation addresses the need to educate the elderly in legal matters, at the same time pursuing further the idea of the Notaries Open Days.

Both initiatives are organized by the notarial professional organization, i.e. the Polish National Council of Notaries and councils of regional chambers of notaries, and their common objective is to raise citizens’ awareness in those areas of law that are within notaries’ competence. The experience shows that topics related to succession and secure procedures for transferring one’s own assets are what interests the persons concerned most. When delivering their lectures, notaries also inform their audiences about other legal transactions that can be performed before notaries as well as about possible legal consequences resulting from their individual decisions.

Lectures delivered as part of the initiative „A Free lectures by a notary delivered at the third age university” are not subject to any limitations in space or time. They are held throughout the academic year wherever a need for legal education arises.


 

FOUNDATION FOR SECURITY OF LEGAL CASES

The Foundation for Security of Legal Cases was set up in 1999 at the initiative of the Polish National Council of Notaries (until 2012 it conducted its activity as the Scientific Foundation-Centre of the Polish Notariat).

The Foundation’s statutory objectives are as follows:

  • fostering and carrying out research and development projects in the area of civil, commercial, financial, administrative and constitutional law as well as in the scope of professional regulations,
  • raising citizens’ awareness of law,
  • promoting and implementing solutions aimed at ensuring security of legal cases. 


The said objectives are implemented by carrying out non-profit activities, both free of charge and against remuneration, such as:

  • carrying out research and development projects, including the organization and financing thereof,
  • organizing and funding scientific conferences and seminars,
  • offering training courses that complement and enhance professional skills and qualifications,
  • preparing drafts of acts in law, legal opinions and publications.


In its activities, the Foundation focuses on research and development projects concerning selected areas of law the aim of which is to enhance the broadly understood security of legal cases in Poland.


So far the Foundation has, among others:

  • conducted scientific research concerning economic analysis of costs of performing selected notarial transactions as well as sociological research aimed at examining how notaries and Polish notariat are perceived in Poland,
  • prepared a draft of an act in law providing for a possibility of issuing order for payment by notaries under order for payment and writ of payment proceedings;
  • conducted comparative law research and an analysis supporting the idea of entrusting bodies of notarial professional organisation with a competence to attach apostille clauses to official documents;
  • prepared a draft amendment to the Polish Family and Guardianship Code as well as to the Polish Code of Civile Procedure providing for the introduction of a new legal institution of ‘preventive guardianship’; the aim of this amendment was to enhance the security of property and rights of the elderly as well as of the persons who are not in a position to bear responsibility for their actions or take conscious decisions due to psychological and physical or intellectual disability,
  • implemented a research project the aim of which was to examine the effectiveness of enforcement orders issued by notaries in the form of a notarial authentic instruments based on Section 777 (1) (4-6) and (2) of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure, including an analysis of grounds for refusing to issue a writ of enforcement by courts in respect of the said notarial enforcement orders, as well as analysis whether there is a need to introduce legislative changes to improve the effectiveness of the notarial enforcement orders.