Yes, in accordance with the Polish Code of Civil Procedure (Article 244 and Articles 2431- 257 of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure), an authentic instrument has probative value.
Moreover, pursuant to Article 2 par. 2 of the Polish Notaries Law Act of 14 February 1991, actions performed by a notary in accordance with the law, have the quality of an authentic instrument.
According to the provisions of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure documents may be classified either as authentic or private documents.
In civil procedure conducted before courts, the competence to certify copies of documents has been granted to notaries (Article 79 point 2 and Articles 96-101 of the Notaries Law Act of 14 February 1991), consuls (Article 28, Article 32 of the Consular Law Act of 25 June 2015, Journal of Laws, item 1274), lawyers, legal advisers, patent agents and counsels of the General Counsel to the Treasury (Article 89 and Article 129 of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure).
Pursuant to Article 129 § 3 of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure, a copy which has been certified and bears a clause stating that it is a true copy of the original has the quality of an authentic instrument. With regard to the notarial certification of a copy of a document, the said provisions distinguish between copies certified to “be a true copy of the document produced” and copies certified “to be a true copy of the original”, with only the latter being considered as an authentic instrument because the clause certifying that they are “true copies of the original” shall be included therein.
