Online interrogation of a foreign witness by a Polish court in a commercial court case – practical bullet points on the example of a specific witness summons.

The changes in the functioning of the justice system caused by the COVID-19 have been ongoing since the first quarter of 2020. The first of them were introduced in the Polish legal system at the beginning of March 2020, and to date these regulations have already been amended several times. The changes mainly concern court proceedings, the way in which cases are dealt with, as well as the issue of questioning witnesses. The present article will focus on the latter issue, in order to explain in detail how a witness is summoned and examined by a Polish court.

In accordance with article 15 zzs¹ of the Polish Act of March 2, 2020 on special solutions related to the prevention, counteraction and combating of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them (hereinafter as the “Act”):

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The Wall Street Journal recently described quirks in the U.S. Tax Treaty with Malta that became a popular topic in the legal advice sector.[1] In the said article, WSJ describes an offshore tax shelter (a tax regulation in Malta) which promises rich Americans they can avoid lots of capital-gains taxes by setting up pensions in Malta. This issue is not only American struggle with tax abuse. For instance, Poland has also signed an international tax treaty with Malta (Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of Malta for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income signed in La Valetta on 7 January 1994)[2] and in 2020 the Treaty was amended due to the necessity of closing loopholes in the international (bilateral) tax system[3]. Moreover as a restoration of the Polish industry after COVID-19 pandemic, the Polish Government and the Ministry of Finance prepared the new Tax Act which shall prevent the change of the entity’s tax residence to the offshore tax shelter [4].

Before we move to the tax abuse based on the U.S. bilateral tax treaty with Malta it is advisable to start with Treaty’s provisions treatment.

U.S. – MALTA TAX TREATY

The Treaty was done in 8 August 2008 and came into force in late 2010. As Jeffrey L. Rubinger wrote The Treaty contains very favorable provisions that can result in significant tax benefits to U.S. members of a Maltese pension. In order for such U.S. members to take advantage of these benefits, the pension must qualify as a resident of Malta under the Treaty and also satisfy the limitation on benefits (LOB) article of the Treaty. [5] In his article Rubinger enumerates the Treaty’s provisions that could become a victim of the interpretation tax abuse.

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On 7 September 2021 KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI will take part in the Webinar Analysing the Role of Telemedicine in Post-Pandemic Care organised by Reuters Events in conjunction with the Digital Health division of the World Health Organisation which provides opportunities to accelerate progress in attaining health and well-being related Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), especially SDG 3, and achieving triple billion targets for 2023 as articulated in its Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13).

The webinar will focus on the growing importance of remote telemedicine, its aspects and opportunities. The speakers will include:

– Peter Thomas, CCIO and Director of Digital Medicine at Moorfields Eye Hospital

– Toralf Schnell, Chief Digital Officer and Head of the Digitization Unit at University Medicine Greifswald

– Dr. Evgeny Zheleznyakov, Technical Officer, WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care.

Telemedicine and digital health remains in the core specialisation of lifescience and healthcare expertise of KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI, having vast experience in handling projects at the intersection of new technologies and healthcare, including data protection, regulatory and transactional aspects.

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On 2 to 4 November 2021 KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG LEGAL will take part in the virtual SPG 2021 Forum organised by R3 (Association of Business Recovery Professionals) SPG Forum (link) is a conference for trustees, restructuring experts and their employees.

During this 3-day event, our lawyers will have the opportunity to discuss the practical issues, participate in workshops and network with peers.

Some of the topics discussed will be the current regulatory framework for insolvency practitioners, key legal changes affecting the insolvency and restructuring of people and companies, and the exclusion of directors, the FCA’s guidelines for managers appointed or intended to be appointed by regulated firms; panel sessions with representatives of the financial industry discussing their experiences with the pandemic, recovery and new market trends; workshops, during which it will be possible to look at issues related to the insolvency of a real estate enterprise; workshop sessions during which the investigation and prosecution of claims in insolvent real estate will be discussed in-depth; interactive workshops, entirely devoted to the possibilities of the hotel business dealing with the challenges of the pandemic.

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On 29 July 2021 KIEŁTYKA GŁADKOWSKI KG LEGAL took part in the webinar ‘Cell and gene data innovation and multi-stakeholder data transfer’ (Plan, capture and set the infrastructure for data sharing across the value chain, to optimize commercial strategy), organized by Reuters Events in participation and partnership with Salesforce. The scope of the webinar is within life science and digital health specialization that constitutes one of the core specializations of our law firm.

Some of the panelists included:

Augusto Penjasoff – Business Partner, Global Cell Therapy IT Head in BMS (Bristol Myers Squibb),

Curt Fitzgerald – Director- Service Delivery- C&GT in Novartis,

Gary Gabriel – Global Advisor for Healthcare and Life Sciences in Tableau,

Neary Detrick – Senior Director, Data Management & Analytics in Bluebird Bio,

and Beth Hayes as a moderator- healthcare and lifesciences business consulting – Pharma Lead, Industry Transformation (Salesforce).

The mission of Salesforce company (a partner and a participant of the webinar) is to empower companies to connect with the customers, providers of services and patients in the new and reimagined way. Salesforce serves leading organizations across the industry, including pioneers in CGT (cell and gene therapy).

Important question posed during the webinar concerned personalized medicine.

The response is that the latter is the future of the medicine (so-called a Medicine 2.0). A deliberation about personalized medicine is not a discussion about future in about 10 or 15 years. It drives a magnificent impact across the industry. There was also discussed the question of the difference between the traditional medicine and personalized medicine.

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