Ensuring access to court physicians is important to guarantee a viable opportunity to justify the non-appearance of participants in proceedings due to illness and not to expose the citizen to the negative procedural consequences of the actual inability to obtain a court physician's certificate.
Citizens' requests to the RPO show that some court districts have no court doctors at all, while others have few doctors, too few in view of needs. The applicants also point out the problem with the actual availability of court doctors and the failure to inform the courts' websites about their temporary unavailability.
Sometimes only one forensic doctor with a narrow specialty is available in a given district, which raises citizens' concerns about the ability to reliably assess their health.
Citizens also raise concerns about the excessive formality of the rules for excusing absences from court. They point to the lack of availability of court doctors with different specialties. When issuing certificates confirming the ability or inability to appear, they duplicate the diagnoses of other doctors from the medical records submitted, because they do not feel competent to make their own findings.
Information provided to the RPO shows that the shortage of court doctors also affects participants in disciplinary proceedings.
The matter was recently brought to the attention of the Supreme Bar Council, which, in a May 6, 2024 speech to the MS, requested that, in consultation with the presidents of the district courts, measures be taken to ensure the availability of court doctors in each judicial district. It is also a matter of ensuring an adequate number of doctors, allowing them to carry out their tasks so that those who need to excuse their failure to appear due to illness can obtain them in any case before a procedural action. In the event that this request cannot be met, the NRA has asked for consideration of a legislative initiative to repeal the provisions of the Judicial Doctors Act.
Marcin Wiącek is asking min. Adam Bodnar for a position and information on the actions the ministry intends to take in response to the NRA's speech.
Source: RPO
