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As a rule, an action shall be brought before the Court within 14 days of the receipt of a final disciplinary decision. An action brought after this date will not be accepted for consideration and has no legal effect.

If the failure to comply with that time limit is caused by reasons beyond the party’s control, it is possible to file an application for restitution of the time limit within 7 days from the date on which the impediment ceased. Together with the application for restitution of the time limit, it is necessary to bring the action.

Yes, but only to a limited extent, as the disciplinary cases concerning doping in sport belong to a special category of disciplinary cases and do not fall under the regulations of the Act on sports (Article 45e). Therefore, the Court has no competence granted by public law to examine so-called doping cases.

However, the competence of the Court to examine some types of disciplinary cases concerning doping in sport is regulated in Anti-Doping Rules of Polish Anti-doping Agency (POLADA), strictly speaking in Article 13.2.2 et seq. thereof.

Disciplinary cases concerning doping in sport are examined by the Court, in principle, in a procedure analogical to that of “ordinary” disciplinary cases.

Pursuant to Article 13.2.2 of the Anti-Doping Rules of the POLADA, the Court examines appeals concerning athletes competing at a national level (and other persons) against judgements passed by the second instance of the POLADA Disciplinary Committee

In light of the aforementioned regulation, an appeal to the Court is admissible only when a final disciplinary decision was made by the Polish Anti-Doping Agency.

For the sake of clarity, it must be stated that persons accused of disciplinary misconduct in so-called doping cases are not held responsible by their corresponding sporting associations, but by the Polish Anti-Doping Agency, which is a public legal entity, independent from said sporting associations.

Within POLADA, disciplinary proceedings follow a two-instance procedure. At first the case is heard by the first instance of the POLADA Disciplinary Committee; should its judgement be appealed against, the case is then examined by the second instance of the POLADA Disciplinary Committee.

An appeal to the Court is not admissible if the aforementioned means of appeal were not exhausted.

(For appeals concerning athletes competing at the international level or international sport events, see item 13 below).

Pursuant to Article 13.6.2 of the POLADA Anti-Doping Rules, the deadline for filing an appeal to the Court in disciplinary cases concerning doping in sport is 21 days from the date on which the appealing party was served the judgement.
 
Please note that the indicated 21-day period is applicable only in disciplinary cases concerning doping in sport.
 
Other deadlines are applicable to a party eligible to file an appeal who was not a party of the proceedings concluded with the judgement which is being appealed against. In this cases, the following deadlines apply:
 

1. within 15 days from the date the party was notified about the judgement, they are entitled to receive, from the body which passed the judgement, a copy of the case file on which the judgement was based;
    
2. If a demand to receive a copy of the file is submitted within 15 days, the demanding party is entitled to file an appeal before a national appellate body within 21 days from the date on which they received the case file.

 
The filing deadline for an appeal or intervention filed by WADA shall be the later of:
 

1. Twenty-one days after the last day on which any other party in the case could have appealed, or
    
2. Twenty-one days after WADA?s receipt of the complete file relating to the decision.

The fee in disciplinary cases is determined for each case individually by the Secretary of the Court. Determination of the fee occurs after lodging the appeal and its formal verification.

The amount of the fee in disciplinary matters cannot be higher than twice the average monthly wage in the national economy in the previous year, announced by the President of the Central Statistical Office.

As a rule, in cases heard before the Court, the parties and other participants in the proceedings are not entitled to exemption from costs of proceedings. The fee in the disciplinary matters must, therefore, be determined in each case, and the possible inclusion of the financial situation of the parties occurs through modification of its amount within the powers granted to the Secretary of the Court.

To an application for a partial exemption from the obligation to pay the fee, a party shall attach documents stating the amount of evidence, the overall financial and living situation of the party (e.g. a copy of the tax return for the previous year, a certificate of disability, a certificate on the status of an unemployed person, etc.).

The exemption from the obligation to pay an entry is possible only if it is established by the party that due to its family situation, property and the amount of income, the payment of the fee at a given amount would be too burdensome.

A cassation appeal to the Supreme Court against a disciplinary decision of the Court of Arbitration shall be competent in the case of gross violations of the law or the obvious illegitimacy of the judgement.

A cassation complaint should be filed through the Court of Arbitration within 30 days from service of the judgement together with the justification to the applicant. The cassation appeal is then passed along with the case file to the Supreme Court within 14 days of its receipt.

The Court is a permanent arbitration court, acting on the principles defined in the Code of Civil Procedure. Therefore, the Court is empowered to rule on matters in which the parties have subjected the dispute to its decision (arbitration cases).

Submission of a dispute to the judgement of the Court shall take the form of a written agreement (an arbitration agreement), in which the subject of a dispute or legal relationship from which the dispute arose or may arise is specified. The jurisdiction of the Court, however, will be updated only in the event of a clear indication of it as a proper authority for settlement of the dispute.

If the parties have not agreed otherwise, they are bound by the Statute of the Court in force at the date of execution of the arbitration agreement.

In arbitration cases it is necessary to pay a fee, which, in cases related to property, is dependent on the amount in dispute.

The relative fee in cases related to property amounts 4% of the value of the subject matter of a dispute and it cannot be higher than PLN 50,000.

In cases of non-property rights, or in cases of property rights for which the amount in dispute cannot be determined at the time of its opening, the Secretary of the Court determines a temporary fee, which cannot be less than PLN 1,000 and higher than PLN 25,000. The final fee is determined in the decision closing the case by the Adjudication Panel.

In the cases pending before the Court, the parties and other participants in the proceedings are not entitled to exemption from the costs of proceedings.