DP-Stats: the data behind our figures

Some figures in our guides are marked DP-Stats. They come from Dudkowiak & Putyra’s own reporting, not from public statistics offices. This page explains where those figures come from, how we calculate them, and what we do not publish.

Every article that uses a DP-Stats figure states, next to the figure, what it counts and which period it covers. This page describes the sources behind all of them.

Three kinds of DP-Stats figures

DP-Stats covers three different things, and each published figure says which of the three it is.

The distinction matters. A figure from our own files describes our work and is not a forecast for your case. A figure from the public registers describes the market, within the limits of what those registers disclose. A figure from court judgments describes published case law, within the limits of what courts publish. Those limits are set out below.

Where the data comes from

Our own databases

We draw on three separate databases. The first two are kept in our practice management system; the third is a separate accounting system.

These databases have not been kept in this form since the firm was founded in 1991. Matters from earlier years exist on paper and in older systems and are not part of DP-Stats. That is why our own-file figures start in 2012 and why most of them cover recent years only.

The accounting database is younger still: it was rebuilt when we changed accounting systems on 29 February 2024, and it holds nothing from before that date. Any figure drawn from it therefore covers 2024 onwards, and we say so next to the figure rather than letting the reader assume a longer history.

Public registers and our own software

We built software that reads the Polish public registers directly, because our lawyers need to see filings and register entries as they happen rather than days later. The same connection lets us count and filter those entries: by legal form, by date of registration, by the country of a disclosed beneficial owner.

The registers themselves are public and anyone may read them. What we add is the filtering. We publish the results as counts and shares; we do not republish the register data, and we do not name the software or its suppliers, for security reasons.

Published court judgments

For some areas of law the most useful figures describe how courts decide. We obtain judgments of Polish common courts that match a defined search – for example, every judgment of a stated period that refers to mobbing or to art. 94³ of the Labour Code – and review them for claims, amounts, dates and outcomes using automated text analysis, with manual verification of selected cases by our lawyers. We do not describe the retrieval method in more detail.

Three limits apply, and we state them next to any figure they affect:

• Published judgments only. Only judgments that courts have made public can be analysed, not every judgment given. The figures describe published case law, not all cases in Poland.
• Small samples. A search may return a few hundred judgments, of which a few dozen decide the question we count. We state the number of cases behind each figure, and shares based on small numbers should be read as indicative.
• The law at the time. Judgments apply the law in force when the case arose. Where the law has since changed, the article says so.

We publish counts, shares and medians. We do not republish the judgments and do not name the parties.

Other sources

For some figures none of the above is enough. We then use the sources below and name the source in the article itself rather than calling it DP-Stats:

• licensed legal information systems that we subscribe to
• data from our own S24 and PRS accounts, which record what we filed and when
• the Central Register of Beneficial Owners (CRBR) and the EU VIES system

How we calculate the figures

• Medians, not averages, wherever a few unusual matters would distort the picture. Where we publish an average, we say so.
• Calendar days, unless the article states otherwise. Court proceedings are measured in months from the filing of the claim to the judgment.
• The period and the number of matters, entries or judgments behind each figure are stated with the figure.
• Rounding. Days are whole numbers; shares are rounded to one decimal place.
• A record is not a matter. The counts in our own databases include open, closed and administrative entries. Figures in articles count what the article describes, not raw records.
• Simplifications happen. The person preparing a figure may exclude matters that are clearly unrepresentative, for example a filing suspended for years at the client’s request, or a claim withdrawn before judgment. Where that affects a published figure, the article says which matters were excluded and why.

What the registers do and do not show

Where we count foreign ownership, we count it by the beneficial owner disclosed in the Central Register of Beneficial Owners, not by the shareholders listed in the National Court Register. That matters: the court register discloses shareholders of a limited liability company only above 10% of the share capital, and discloses a shareholder of a joint-stock company only where there is a single one, while the beneficial owner register covers every company regardless of its legal form. A branch of a foreign entrepreneur has no beneficial owner of its own and is treated as foreign by definition.

Two limits remain, and we state them next to any figure they affect:

• Late filings. A company has 14 days from its entry in the court register to report its beneficial owner. A company registered shortly before we take an extract may not have filed yet, so the most recent weeks in any period are slightly understated.
• Entries, not activity. We count register entries, not trading. A company registered and never used counts the same as one that trades from day one, and the counts say nothing about the amount invested.

What we do not publish

• No client names, contact details or anything that could identify a client, unless the client has agreed to be named in a case description.
• Nothing covered by professional secrecy. Our lawyers are bound by the confidentiality rules of the Polish Bar and of the National Chamber of Legal Advisers, and those rules come before any statistic.
• No fee, revenue or other internal financial data.
• No details of the systems we use, for security reasons.
• No names of the parties to the court judgments we analyse.

We publish aggregates. We do not publish, sell or share the underlying records.

Version and updates

The current release is DP-Stats 2026.4, based on extracts of 26 September 2026. We refresh the data quarterly and update the figures in our guides after each refresh. Where a figure changes, the change is noted in the corrections line of the article concerned.

Who prepares DP-Stats

Each figure is prepared by the author of the article in which it appears, using extracts from the databases and sources described above. Before publication it is approved by two partners of the firm and by the reviewer of that article. Questions about the method go to the address below.

Our commitment

We prepare these figures in good faith and to the best of our knowledge, with the same care we apply to legal work. They are descriptive: they say what happened in our files, what the registers showed, or how courts decided, during a stated period. They are not a promise that your matter will take the same time or end the same way.

If you think a figure is wrong, write to [email protected]. We check it, correct it if needed, and record the correction in the article and in the table above.

Using our figures

If you need a figure we have not published, or a breakdown for a specific question, ask us at [email protected]. We answer enquiries within 24 hours.