Where the court enforcement officer came from

The PWN Encyclopaedia states that the komornik was originally a ruler’s courtier responsible for his chamber, or komora, and for managing movable property. In the 14th century, the lifetime office of territorial chamberlain emerged to hear disputes over boundaries between noble estates, and from the late 14th century he presided over a court whose members included komornicy assigned to assist him. Territorial and boundary komornicy did not hold the highest-ranking offices: they were deputies and assistants to the judge, deputy judge and chamberlain. The same word also described landless peasants lodging in other people’s cottages.

The komornik in today’s sense, an official enforcing judgments, appeared in independent Poland with the unification of the courts. The Presidential Regulation of 6 February 1928, Law on the Organisation of Common Courts, entered into force on 1 January 1929, accompanied by Justice Minister regulations on enforcement officers at local courts (24 December 1928) and on enforcement officers (1 December 1932). After the war, enforcement officers were state employees appointed by provincial court presidents and worked at district courts.

The turning point was the Act of 29 August 1997 on Court Enforcement Officers and Enforcement, effective from 30 November 1997: the enforcement officer ceased to be a mid-level official and became a public officer running their own office, with professional self-government. General meetings of enforcement officers’ chambers took place in January 1998, and on 12 February 1998 the first National Congress of Enforcement Officers elected the president of the National Council of Enforcement Officers. Since 1 January 2019 the profession has been governed by the Act of 22 March 2018 on Court Enforcement Officers.