Million-dollar holes in the courts' coffers. Poles do not pay fines and court costs en masse

There are 181.4 thousand entered into the National Debt Register (KRD). people who have not settled their arrears to the courts, and their debt exceeds PLN 1 billion and is still growing – according to the KRD report. The record debtor does not have to pay more than PLN 75 million.

As indicated in the report, consumer arrears due to court and criminal debts have increased by almost one third in almost five years and now amount to over PLN 1 billion. 181.4 thousand people have such arrears. debtors, and the average court debt is PLN 5,523. It was added that the Register may include, among others: for unpaid fines, damages to the State Treasury, unpaid court costs, as well as fines imposed as substitute penalties and pecuniary disciplinary penalties.

The report shows that the inhabitants of the Silesian Voivodeship have the highest total debt to the justice system – PLN 141.7 million. These are liabilities of PLN 22.7 thousand. people, and the average debt of one debtor is PLN 6,236. Residents of the Pomeranian Voivodeship have a total of PLN 117.2 million in arrears (9.7 thousand debtors and an average of PLN 12,114 per person), and people from Mazovia – PLN 102.3 million (21 thousand people, with an average of PLN 4,856). It was noted that the record debtor comes from the Pomeranian Voivodeship and has over PLN 75 million to repay.

The lowest arrears to courts are in Podlasie – they amount to PLN 15 million and concern 3.5 thousand people. consumers. In the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship the total debt is PLN 17.4 million (3.6 thousand people in total), and in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship the total debt is PLN 21 million (4.8 thousand people).

The highest arrears to the courts are owed to people aged 36-55 (PLN 616.9 million). In the group of young adults (26-35 years old), the debt reaches PLN 202.6 million, and people over 55 years of age have to pay PLN 141.4 million.

“Court debts are a special category of liabilities because they do not result from a purchase or loan decision, but from final court judgments. They show that the sanction or obligation imposed by the state has not been fulfilled at the stage at which the case should have been closed. When such a receivable is entered into the register, it ceases to be only a problem of the justice system, and also begins to affect the debtor's payment credibility and its functioning in business transactions,” noted Adam, the president of the National Debt Register of the Economic Information Bureau, quoted in the publication. Łącki.

He added that entries were made in the National Court Register by 361 out of 377 common courts operating in Poland.

The report also noted that almost 9 out of 10 of all court debtors are men – there are approximately 157.5 thousand of them. The remaining 24 thousand those in debt are women. According to the authors of the publication, one of the reasons is that men come into conflict with the law more often than women – according to data from the Institute of Justice, men constitute approximately 89%. all those convicted of crimes. (PAP)

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