Abstract

The Regional Court in Zamość was established on 1 June 1918. When Poland re- gained its independence, it was staffed by the President, 4 regional judges, one of whom was a vice-president, 4 examining magistrates, a prosecutor and 3 subcurators. By the end of 1928, preceding the introduction of the judicial reform, there were 2 vice-presidents, additional posts for regional judges, a reserve examining magistrate and a sub-prosecutor. The President of the Regional Court in Zamość at that time was Romuald Jaśkiewicz. The first structure of the court was based on lawyers of Galician provenance, but most of them were soon transferred to the for- mer Prussian Quarter in order to strengthen the Polish judiciary organised there, or left to serve in new central institutions of the Reborn Polish State. The vacant positions were filled by local sub-curators, examining judges and magistrates, as well as lawyers coming to the country from Russia, which was engulfed in civil war, who often had extensive judicial experience. The stories of their return to their homeland illustrate the complicated fate of Poles in the civil war-stricken Russia. It was very difficult to recruit local sworn attorneys or notaries for courts in Zamość. The reason was not only a small number of lawyers of Polish origin in the eastern part of the former Lublin province, but also the low salary of the regional judge.

Already in that period, examining judges, and sometimes sub-curators and magistrates, were sent to substitute trainee judges, which became the norm over time. The personnel turnover in these positions was high, sometimes associated with promotion to the positions of regional judges. In the years 1918—1928, 6 examining judges, 2 sub-curators and 5 magistrates of the peace were promoted directly to the positions of regional judges in the Zamość region. Some distinguished judges, after being retired, received lucrative notarial positions. Among them was President Romuald Jaśkiewicz and 4 regional judges.