In the justification of the jury of the competition, we read that it was awarded for "engagement in the legal education of children and activities for the transparency of court hearings that take place online’.
It was already in the first months of pandemic that the District Court for Łódź-Śródmieście in Lodz, managed by dr Kurosz, decided to make it possible for the audience to take part in the court hearings in a safe way. To do so, the first in Poland court hearing online took place using Microsoft teams platform. Previously such software was used only to ensure communication between judges and parties to proceedings.
By engaging judges, IT specialists and personnel of administration of the Court, dr Kurosz has made court hearings of the court in Lodz gain more transparency during this difficult for everyone time. Additionally, it enabled future adepts of the law to observe the work of the judiciary.
Electronic admission cards for the audience of online court hearings can be obtained here
Dr Krzysztof Kurosz is engaged in educational activity for children. Together with dr. Izabela Florczak from the Faculty of Law and Administration, UL he has participated in court hearings for children, during which the youngest played the procedural roles of the court, attorneys or witnesses. By issuing sentences, the children dealt with, among others, mobbing in the case of Cinderella, or failure to pay remuneration in Snow White. This way, they had a chance to get involved in the court's activities and understand functioning of the judiciary better.
He also gets involved in promotion of pre-litigation mediation proceedings, aimed at reaching an agreement between the parties to the dispute at the pre-trial stage, which translates into the speed of a dispute resolution and a significant reduction in the costs of the proceedings. With this in mind, the District Court for Łódź-Śródmieście has created a "Green Room", where, with participation of a mediator, the parties try to reach an agreement.
Dr Krzysztof Kurosz is an assistant professor at the Department of Civil Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, UL. He was a Disciplinary Spokesman of the University of Lodz for PhD Candidates Affairs over the years 2012-2016 and 2017-2020, the President of the District Court for Łódź-Śródmieście.
University of Lodz is one of the biggest universities in Poland. Its mission is to educate top-class scientists and specialists in numerous fields of humanities, social sciences, natural and exact sciences as well as health sciences. UniLodz cooperates with business, both at the staff level by providing qualified employees as well as at the scientific level, by offering its know-how to enterprises from various areas of economy. University of Lodz is an academic institution open to the world – the number of its international students is constantly growing, while its Polish students, thanks to Exchange programmes, get to know Europe, Asia and travel overseas. The University is a part of Lodz, it operates for and with the community of Lodz by getting involved in many socio-cultural projects.
Source: Faculty of Law and Administration, UL
Edit: Promotion Centre, UL