New law, old realities: mediation in construction disputes.

On 1 March, another amendment to the Polish Code of Civil Procedure enters into force. The legislature is introducing the changes in stages – some of them will apply only from 1 June 2026, and the most significant ones only in a year’s time

The change attracting the most attention is the obligation to refer parties to mediation in cases arising from construction works contracts, supply contracts, and other agreements closely connected with the construction process (e.g. design contracts). This means that, in every such case, the court will refer the parties to mediation at the very beginning of the proceedings.

In practice, however, this is not a revolution. Even before 1 March 2026, commercial courts referred around 90% of such cases to mediation. The amendment rather legitimises an existing practice than changes it. The trend towards using mediation in construction disputes has been growing for several years – both due to the high effectiveness of mediations before the Arbitration Court at the General Counsel to the Republic of Poland (Prokuratoria Generalna RP) in public projects, and due to the increasing professionalisation of mediators in private disputes. Compared to the early days of statutory mediation in 2005, today’s standard of mediators’ work is an entirely different reality.

What is new, however, is the possibility of ordering a party to bear the costs of the proceedings – even if it wins the case – where it “without justified reason refused to submit to mediation”. The notion of a “justified reason” is, however, broad enough that in practice it leaves ample room for argument. One can expect new, creative justifications for refusing mediation to appear in pleadings. It is also worth remembering that a similar instrument already existed – under Article 103 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the court could order a party to bear costs for “unscrupulous or manifestly improper conduct”, and a refusal to mediate could fall within that category.

In summary: the mediation-related changes that entered into force on 1 March 2026 will, in construction cases, be practically unnoticeable.

Much greater significance for parties and their counsel will be the changes concerning the mandatory filing of pleadings via the information portal (or the future ICT system) and service of court documents by the same route. As early as 1 June 2026, courts are to serve via the portal not only their own documents but also documents filed by other participants – together with attachments, if they are in electronic form. From 1 March 2027, the electronisation of the exchange of pleadings between professional representatives is also to cover appellate measures.

More can be said about the practical functioning of these changes after several months of their application – after June this year and after March next year.

I already wrote about this in a post from nearly half a year ago: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jordan-zafirow-10b9121_hoogells-prawo-postafvpowaniecywilne-activity-7373348272884592642-SF69?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAABQGxsBpCxrJ8C0zs44B6ILo47nmof_xkA