The legal status of an advocate’s articled clerk in the Polish Civil Court Proceedings – remarks on comparative background

Abstract

The article presents a view concerning the status of the advocate’s articled clerk in the Polish civil court proceedings. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the purpose of the present study was not to answer the question, whether this subject is a representative or substitute within the proceedings, but rather to present a slightly different opinion on the role of articled clerk in civil procedure, taking the special function of the advocate pupillage into account. This study seems to be interesting, for example as it somehow “touches” the sensitive point of interconnection between civil procedural law and internal regulations of the Bar. Although the analysis is aimed at defining the status of an articled clerk in the Polish civil court proceedings, the inclusion of references to regulations regarding the position of legal adviser’s articled clerk serves us to broaden the scope of evaluation and make the study more attractive. Furthermore, simple proof of validity of the presented thesis, according to which the advocate’s articled clerk acts as an alter ego of the advocate, would not be that interesting, without referring to the German, Italian and Ukrainian legal systems. The comparison of these four legal orders, i.e. the Polish, German, Italian and Ukrainian ones, led us to an interesting conclusion. Namely, an articled clerk has the opportunity to perform legal representation in a wider scope than the German trainee, Italian apprentice or Ukrainian assistant advocate. Consequently, his or her role as a trial deputy is special. It is the scope of the rights of the Polish articled clerk that grants him or her the basis act as an alter ego of the advocate.