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Due to the intensifying economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, our team of lawyers decided to make a contribution to supporting companies from Stettin.

In the first week of December ‘20, our law firm shall offer two three-hour blocks of free legal consultations.

Legal consultations  are intended for entities from industries particularly affected by the recent restrictions, such as the fitness industry, the restaurant, education, entertainment, transport, production, trade or exhibition.

Please send your applications to info@walawski.com, including “COVID-19 CONSULTATIONS” in the subject line.

The message should include a telephone number, specify the industry and at least initially indicate the legal issue.

At the beginning of the coming week, we will contact you to schedule a telephone consultation. We also do not rule out organizing meetings with lawyers in our office in Stettin.

On the basis of the signals received, we conclude that many entrepreneurs struggle with the problems of contracts, the provisions of which are inadequate in the light of the current situation.

This applies to rental, leasing and long-term contracts for the provision of services.

Moreover, in many cases, the pre-pandemic remuneration is insufficient to operate profitably while maintaining the necessary sanitary requirements. Retaining staff is a great challenge for many companies, despite reduced revenues. In such situation, it is not easy to reconcile the interests of the crew with the deteriorating financial indicators.

Another noticeable problem is difficulties in maintaining financial liquidity. Increasing restrictions cause problems with generating revenues and paying current charges.

The answer to this problem may be the conclusion of appropriate agreements with contractors, which will spread over time the repayment of outstanding liabilities. It may concern both financial contracts (credits, loans, leases), but also contracts with other entities operating on the local Stettin market.

Civil and commercial law offers many possibilities to solve the problems mentioned above. We believe that in some cases effective legal assistance can increase the chances of entrepreneurs to survive this difficult time.

Within our capabilities and resources, we will try to meet the demand, but please be understanding if we fail to help everyone who counts on our support.

The Polish Parliament has recently introduced a number of solutions to lighten the economic effects of the SARS-CoV-2 corona-virus epidemic. As part of the proposed solutions, the Legislator in so-called “Anti-crisis Shield” provided downtime benefit for persons performing contracts of mandate.

Persons who have concluded a contract of mandate which performance has been limited as a result of a pandemic, are entitled to apply for such benefit.

An application for a downtime benefit must be made through the employer. An important limitation is the date of conclusion the contract. The downtime benefit can only be applied to contracts concluded before April 1, 2020.

Worker should submit a declaration of not being insured for social insurance on another basis.

As a general rule, downtime benefit is granted in the amount of 80% of the minimum remuneration for work in 2020. It may be paid no more than three times and not more often than once a month.

It should be remembered that applications for payment of the downtime benefit may be submitted to the Social Insurance Institution within 3 months from the month in which the epidemic will be lifted.

#stayathome #COVID19 #anticrisisshield

Service contracts are commonly concluded in everyday life. We may include in this type of contracts, contracts for the organization of sports, educational or childcare activities.

Such agreements are usually concluded for a specified period (for example, one year in the case of admission to sports or ‘term’ in relation to educational activities) and should generally not be terminated before the end of the period for which they were concluded.

However, the current situation is extraordinary, which is often the reason why service providers are unable to perform contracts (even for reasons articulated in the regulations limiting the effects of an epidemic).

In such a situation, the provisions on the consequential impossibility of performance may apply, i.e. article 475 of the Civil Code. According to it, “if a performance becomes impossible due to circumstances for which the debtor is not liable, the obligation expires.”.

What about the situation, when the payment was made in advance for the entire contract period?

In many cases it will be possible to apply article 495 § 1 of the Civil Code, according to which “the party which was to make the performance cannot demand the reciprocal performance, and, if it had already received it, it is obliged to return it according to the provisions on unjust enrichment.”.

To simplify a bit – in many cases, the provider not only cannot demand payment from the consumer, but is obliged to refund the sum, which was already paid in advance. However, it should be consulted that each case should be assessed individually.