Kochański Rapala & Partners Law Firm has won a case for the editors-in-chief of the daily “Fakt” tabloid newspaper and its website Fakt.pl against the General Inspectorate for Road Transport.
On 14 October 2014, the Court of Appeal in Warsaw dismissed an appeal in whole which was submitted by the General Inspectorate of Road Transport in a case brought against the editors-in-chief of the daily “Fakt” tabloid newspaper – G. Jankowski and R. Feluś, and the editors-in-chief of its accompanying website, fakt.pl – K. Sielicka and M. Wodziński, which recognized that the Judgment issued by the court of first instance corresponds with law.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in whole which was submitted by GIRT, and demanded that the original Judgment issued by the Regional Court be overturned and that an order was made for the publication of a rectification to the information published in Fakt and on the fakt.pl. website in articles entitled: “They tell us to impose fines”, “Imposing fines as piecework” and “A secret order: the more fines imposed, the higher the salaries.”
The articles, published in Fakt and on the fakt.pl website in December 2012, concerned an issue whereby road transport inspectors’ salary was dependent on the number of imposed fines, the number of penalties distributed and the number of confiscated vehicle registration cards. The correlation was discovered by journalists through having sight of a letter where employees complained that those in charge at GIRT forced the employees to impose as many fines as possible, which thereafter were converted into points and in consequence effected the level of inspectors’ salaries.
The judgment is final and valid.
Ringier Axel Springer Polska, a publishing house, was represented by the attorneys: Tobiasz Szychowski and Konrad Orlik, advocates at Kochański Rapala & Partners Law Firm.