Today, the Professional Liability Chamber decided that both the order of the President of the District Court in Warsaw regarding the monthly break in official duties and the resolution to suspend the judge and reduce the remuneration were unjustified.
In the oral justifications, the following were indicated in particular:
- gross formal defects:
- ordering a month’s break in adjudication is a legal instrument of a completely exceptional nature. If it is used, the case should be immediately transferred to the disciplinary court, i.e. before the expiry of the break period.
- the extraordinary disciplinary officer Piotr Schab significantly exceeded the statutory deadline, which affected the defectiveness of the resolution ID. And that is why IOZ decided that it had to discontinue the proceedings.
- moreover, Judge Gąciarek was not notified of the dates of the hearings before the ID, which violated his rights of defence.
- substantive defectiveness of the order of the President of SO in Warsaw:
- The IOZ decided that Judge Gąciarek’s refusal to adjudicate with defectively appointed judges did not constitute a violation of the court’s authority, and Judge Gąciarek’s behavior was a sign of concern for the administration of justice, because before proceeding to adjudication, a judge is obliged to consider whether adjudicating in a given composition will not expose the parties to the trial to defective judgment.
A dissenting opinion was submitted to the judgment.