PROTECTION OF PERSONAL RIGHTS

What are personal rights? According to article 44 of the Civil Code these are: health, freedom, honor, freedom of conscience, surname or alias, image, correspondence confidentiality, inviolability of home, and scientific, artistic, inventive and rationalisation achievements and others not listed here since this is an open catalog, which means that the above list is only exemplary. Therefore, apart from the above-mentioned values, personal rights also include, among others, the sphere of mental life, family life, private life, including intimate life, cult of memory of a deceased person and a sense of belonging to a particular sex. It is clear from the above that violation of personal rights is unlawful and all of them are protected by law.

First of all, remain calm and document exactly how your personal rights have been violated. Then contact a law firm that specialises in this type of cases and, after a consultation, even take the matter to court. This is because there is always the possibility of an amicable solution to a dispute. However, we know from practice that mediation is rarely successful in such cases.

What are the legal means to protect my personal rights? According to the Civil Code (more precisely art. 24) one whose personal rights are endangered by somebody else’s action, is entitled to demand termination of this action (art. 24 § 1 of the Civil Code). In case of infringement they may also demand that the person who committed such infringement shall perform necessary actions in order to remove its effects, i.e. submit a statement of relevant content and form (Article 24 § 1 of the Civil Code). Moreover, on the basis of the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure the injured party may also demand financial compensation or request payment of an appropriate sum of money to a designated social purpose (Article 24 § 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure). What is a social purpose? A social purpose is most frequently understood as various foundations usually providing help to various people. Thus the injured party may demand that the defendant pay a certain sum of money to a given foundation in order to eliminate the effects of the infringement. As we have seen, the protection provided by Article 24 of the Civil Code is very comprehensive.

Moreover, if as a result of the infringement of a personal right a pecuniary damage was inflicted, the injured party may demand its rectification on general terms.

And this does not end here, because liability under the Civil Code does not affect the rights provided for in other laws, in particular copyright law and the law of inventions. This means that in addition to claiming protection of personal rights under the Civil Code, we may also claim liability under other laws, especially if our logo has been infringed, regardless of the protection provided by the Civil Code.

What is more, these claims are not subject to the statute of limitations as they are means of protection of personal rights! It is only necessary to ensure that the person who committed the infringement complies with the provisions of the court ruling required of them!

However, it is worth mentioning that the perpetrator of the infringement of personal rights will be relieved from the responsibility, if their action was not illegal, e.g. a journalist, who published material infringing personal rights, will be relieved from the responsibility, if they acted in defence of a justified social interest and kept particular diligence and reliability while collecting and using the material. In that case, protection of personal rights will be difficult. It should be added, however, that the Civil Code presumes lawlessness and it is the defendant in a suit for infringement of personal rights (in this case, the journalist) who must prove the existence of circumstances justifying the act and thus eliminating the lawlessness. In simpler terms, the defendant will have to show that the violation of personal rights could have been done, as if legally, in pursuit of a higher good. But in many cases something that in fact can be considered a violation of personal rights will not be so. Let us illustrate this with an example:

If you have good eyesight, then if someone alludes to this feature by pointing out that you have overlooked something, it is unlikely to be particularly painful for you. Even if someone calls you blind, as a rule your first reaction will be to take an interest in what you have failed to notice, and you will not treat this as an infringement of personal rights. On the other hand, addressing a person moving around with a white cane in the same manner, may be interpreted completely differently and lead to a violation of personal rights and other consequences that will require a legal response.

It is worth pointing out that there is a tendency to assign more and more goods the character of personal rights, which is connected with the continuous social and economic development. This direction should be assessed in two ways. On the one hand, the fact that it is an adequate response of the law to the needs of the modern world should be assessed positively. On the other hand, however, creative interpretation of the Civil Code increases the fear that goods which are not so important and significant will be subject to strong legal protection provided for personal rights

To summarise, from the market perspective the protection of personal rights is extremely important. For this purpose, a legal firm that not only represents clients in court, but also possesses the technical background and experience enabling them to independently and proactively detect and counteract infringements of personal rights of our clients. We have experience in combating negative content that infringes upon our clients’ personal rights. Moreover, we have the means and facilities to ensure the execution of the ruling by the defendant in case of a favourable judgment. With us, infringements of personal rights are not intimidating, and the need to protect personal rights can never be overestimated.

We effectively represent clients’ interests both in a direct dispute with the infringer and on opinion-sharing websites (on the Google Moja Firma, Pracuj.pl, Opineo.pl, CENEO and other profiles). Protection of personal rights is our specialty!