Court costs vs. mediation costs in Poznań
Starting a dispute in a consortium for a construction investment in Poznań is an expense of around 15,400 PLN just to start in court. Mediation at the Chodkiewicz & Partners office at Roosevelta 22 St. costs a fraction of that amount and usually ends after 3-4 meetings. Facts win over emotions when we count the hours lost by contract managers preparing testimonies.
Court fees in Poznań (Facts)
In the District Court in Poznań at Hejmowskiego St., the lawsuit fee in commercial cases is exactly 5% of the value of the subject of the dispute. If your consortium is arguing over the settlement of 287,000 PLN, you must transfer 14,350 PLN to the court's account even before the first hearing. This money disappears from your account for long months. In 2023, the average waiting time just to set a date in the commercial division exceeded 6 months, which means the capital is blocked without any profit.
Another burden is the cost of procedural representation. According to the regulation, for a dispute worth over 200,000 PLN, the minimum rate for one side's lawyer is 10,800 PLN. Since at least three parties usually appear in a consortium (leader, partner, and subcontractor), total legal service costs exceed 32,000 PLN already in the first instance. This is money that could have been allocated to the purchase of 120 cubic meters of concrete or paying two invoices for fuel for construction machinery.
A fee of 14,350 PLN to start in court versus 5,200 PLN for mediation is a calculation that every manager understands without explanation.
Mediation cost structure at Chodkiewicz & Partners
Mediation in our office at Roosevelta 22 St. is billed for specific meetings. For projects involving three companies, a typical session lasts 4-5 hours. The cost of such a session is 1,700 PLN net shared by all participants. Usually 3 meetings are enough to develop an architecture of compromise. The total cost of the process closes at 5,100 PLN net. Compared to 26,000 PLN in court costs, savings at the level of 20,900 PLN are immediately visible in the quarterly balance sheet.
It is worth adding that a settlement reached before a mediator, after being approved by a court, has the power of a court judgment. The fee for approving a settlement in court is symbolic and amounts to 100 PLN. Moreover, if a settlement is reached before the first hearing begins, the court returns 99.4% of the proportional fee paid earlier. This is a powerful financial argument for a board seeking a way to recover liquidity after a blocked project.
Engineer and manager time
We analyzed 47 projects carried out by our clients in 2021-2023. Preparing for one court hearing engages a contract manager for about 14 hours of work. He must search for entries in the construction log, emails from two years ago, and prepare notes for lawyers. At an average hourly cost of an engineer's work at 140 PLN, one hearing costs the company nearly 2,000 PLN in the employee's time alone. Lawsuits in Poznań often require 4-6 such hearings.
Mediation reduces this process to a minimum. Instead of analyzing the past in terms of guilt, we focus on touchpoints and future settlements. Sessions take place at times adapted to the construction calendar, not imposed by the court schedule. Thanks to this, we avoid situations where a key engineer must leave the construction site for a whole day, which in large investments generates delays costing up to 3,200 PLN for every day of machine downtime.
We look for touchpoints instead of wasting 156 hours analyzing emails from two years ago.
An example from the Poznań market: Warehouse renovation
In July 2024, we conducted a mediation for three companies involved in the renovation of a warehouse in Swarzędz. The dispute concerned a defective floor and contractual penalties in the amount of 243,000 PLN. The companies were at a deadlock for 4 months, exchanging letters. Going to court would have cost the consortium leader 12,150 PLN in registration fee alone. Thanks to mediation, we closed the case in 84 days from the first contact with our office.
The cost of mediation was 4,800 PLN net, divided equally among the three entities. Each company paid 1,600 PLN. The result? Work was resumed within 11 days of signing the settlement, and contractual penalties were converted into additional service work. Had the case gone to the District Court for Poznań-Stare Miasto, the first expert opinion would probably have appeared only in mid-2025, blocking the investment completely.
