International migration, including changing one’s place of residence, work, and entire center of life, is no longer unusual. We are increasingly dealing with situations in which people move to Poland after a U.S. court has issued a final judgment ordering them to pay child support or support to a former spouse.
In such cases, the enforcement of child support obligations becomes particularly important. The debtor’s change of residence alone does not deprive the entitled person of the ability to enforce child support payments. Polish, EU, and international regulations provide procedures for enforcing foreign judgments concerning child support obligations.
Nevertheless, the main concern for creditors is still whether they will be able to collect the child support awarded by the court. Doubts about enforcement often arise when the child support amount was set in U.S. dollars and reflects the economic realities of the United States, but after conversion into Polish zlotys may seem excessive.
Under Polish law, including the Polish Family and Guardianship Code, the scope of child support obligations depends, among other things, on the earning and financial capacity of the person required to provide child support. After moving their center of life from the U.S. to Poland, debtors who were previously ordered by a foreign judgment to pay child support often earn income in Polish zlotys and according to the realities of the Polish labor market.
In the cases we handle, a high amount of child support after conversion from USD to PLN, together with its alleged mismatch with the debtor’s current earnings, is often the main argument raised by child support debtors against enforcement in Poland. The question is whether this argument is justified.
The public policy clause as one of the obstacles to declaring a foreign judgment enforceable
One of the obstacles to declaring a U.S. court judgment awarding child support enforceable in Poland may be a finding that the judgment violates the fundamental principles of the legal order of the Republic of Poland. This is known as the public policy clause.
This obstacle is exceptional and concerns only the most basic and fundamental principles of the Polish legal system. It should be applied only in exceptional and serious cases. Nevertheless, the possibility of declaring a child support judgment enforceable is sometimes considered through the lens of this clause.
Can the amount of awarded child support be subject to examination by polish court under the public policy clause?
In most cases, as a rule, no.
First, when deciding whether a judgment can be enforced, Polish courts should not carry out a substantive review of the judgment. This means that the amount of child support awarded by the U.S. court, as the result of that court’s legal assessment of a specific factual situation, should not be reviewed again by the Polish court.
The public policy clause should not be interpreted broadly. It certainly should not be used to assess whether the amount of child support corresponds to the debtor’s current financial capacity.
One of the leading principles of Polish family and guardianship law is the best interests of the child. In my view, this is the perspective from which it should be assessed whether a judgment awarding child support could be contrary to the fundamental legal order of Poland.
In the context of child support, and therefore in most cases the provision of means of maintenance to a child who cannot support themselves independently, such a conflict will generally be difficult to find.
In summary, the public policy clause, as one of the potential obstacles to declaring a child support judgment enforceable, is sometimes used in practice by debtors as an argument against enforcement in Poland. However, it should not be overlooked that child support awarded in the U.S., based on the U.S. court’s assessment of the facts at that time, should not be subject to a new substantive review by a Polish court.
The amount of child support alone, even if it may seem very high after conversion into Polish zlotys — especially when the debtor, after returning to Poland, earns income according to Polish market realities — does not automatically mean that the judgment cannot be enforced.
How can we help?
KBIW Law Firm provides legal services related to the recognition and declaration of enforceability of judgments issued by foreign courts, including in particular:
- assistance in obtaining the necessary documents and preparing the application with appropriate legal arguments;
- representation in court proceedings and, later, in enforcement proceedings.
Incomplete documents or formal defects in the application often lead to delays in the proceedings and, as a result, may delay the family’s receipt of child support payments.
Seeking legal assistance reduces the risk of making mistakes already at the stage of filing the application for recognition or enforcement of a foreign court judgment in the territory of the Republic of Poland.
