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As Poland's law system is based on continental civil law, the situation in that country is much different than in common-law countries.
First of all, any person who possesses a master's degree in law is called "lawyer" (prawnik). However, being a lawyer does not necessarily mean that one have the privileges usually attributed to "attorney" in United States. Due to such dualism, in Poland there exists two classes of lawyers.
Five jurist's occupations require prospective candidates to apply for internship, pass an examination for admission to internship, finish an internship of three years, and finally pass an appropriate admission exam. Those occupations are:
Once admitted to the bar association of one occupation, a jurist can move to another occupation with little hassle.
The major obstacle in becoming of one of those jurists is to pass admission to the internship exam. Such exams are performed by appropriate regional bar associations (in cases of prosecutors and judges by appellate district attorney and appellate district court respectively). These exams are the toughest exams in one's career, and after them prospective jurists don't need to be afraid of failing the admission exam.
While admission to internship in the prosecutor and judge professions is commonly regarded as fair, admission to the notary, barrister and counselor's professions is regarded as unfair. Regional bar associations have no vested interest in admitting new members, and often allow an extraordinarily low number of new interns (often one or two) for each year. It is said that those professions are inherited, since only son or daughter of an barrister can become one. Even the president of the Barrister's National Bar said in a television interview that he preferred the son of a barrister as a candidate to internship to others. Additional exams for those occupations are often ridiculously wide and can include questions about movies directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Given that situation, the Constitutional Tribunal in February 2004 struck down a law giving those bar associations rights to perform exams as unconstitutional. This, however, may mean that no admissions to those occupations may take place in 2004 since the Sejm didn't create a new law governing admissions.
Only members of those five occupations can write certoriaris to the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Tribunal in cases in which they themselves are sides. All others must use the services of barristers or counselors.
Similar privileges have habiliated Ph.D.s in Law. They can join any bar association without exams, and can write certoriaris to Supreme Court and Constitutional Tribunal.
Due to the reasons described above, many lawyers do not practice law in the strict sense. They may work in public administration (which has its own highly legalized proceedings), the police (which prosecute small crimes), tax services and similar governmental agencies.
Because under Polish law an agent can act for any person therefore some lawyers do what in the UK is being done by solicitors. Thus, specialized persons write legal agreements, perform negotiations, or execute debts.
Additionally, since a company can be represented in civil court by its own employees, some small and medium companies do not employ barristers or counselors, but instead rely on in-house lawyers not admitted to bar.
In a recent case where a local bar association tried to prosecute a woman (who held an M.A. in law), for giving legal advice without proper qualifications, the Constitutional Tribunal struck down this crime saying that having an M.A. in law does indeed grant an individual the proper qualifications.
Because of the actions of so-called ambulance chasers, the reputation of the legal profession has been diminished in recent times, particularly in the United States. Lawyers are blamed for an increase in litigation that has led to what some have termed a compensation culture in which people increasingly blame everyone but themselves for their mis-adventures. Some have argued that increased litigation against medical practictioners has led to higher insurance premiums and a reluctancy to take risks, but there is little empirical data to support this proposition. Some states have attempted to forestall the perceived problem by instituing legislatively-mandated caps on non-economic damages in medical-malpractice claims, the intent of which was to reduce physicians' insurance premiums; however, data in states which have imposed such caps suggests that they have little to no effect on insurance rates.
Although the problems associated with the compensation culture are primarily associated with the United States, perhaps due to juroes there being willing to award substantial damages in tort actions, other common law jurisdictions are seeing an increase in litigation, particularly the United Kingdom where ‘no-win, no-fee’ offers are becoming increasingly common.
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