Are fathers discriminated against in family courts? MPs question the minister

Long waits for expert opinions, disputes over contact with children, and questions about the equal treatment of mothers and fathers. Mr Paweł’s story has drawn MPs’ attention to the problems parents can face in family courts. They have asked the Minister of Justice for data and explanations about judicial practice.

• MPs are asking Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek about the situation of fathers in family courts.
• They want data on rulings on parental authority and on waiting times for opinions from the OZSS (Advisory Teams of Court Specialists).
• The case of Mr Paweł, who asked parliamentarians to intervene, shows the problems parents seeking shared custody can face.
• He waited months for the court to regulate his contact with his sons, and about 16 months passed between the appointment of the specialists and the OZSS examinations.

“The system gives the impression that it is calibrated so that only the mother can be a fully fledged parent. Family courts operate under murky legislation that allows a great deal of discretion,” Witold Węgorkiewicz of the Association for Boys and Men tells Zero.pl. “The Ministry of Justice collects a great deal of detailed data. But the data that matter for assessing the impartiality or bias of the justice system have very carefully not been collected, despite our petitions,” he says.

Węgorkiewicz cites figures for 2019–2024 according to which in 90.5% of cases where the exercise of parental authority was assigned, the ruling favoured the mother, and in 9.5% the father. He cautions, however, that this is an indirect indicator, not direct data on where children live. The numbers alone do not prove discrimination: they do not show, among other things, the family situation, how responsibilities were previously divided, or the children’s needs.

Even so, the association’s representative believes the disparity should prompt a closer examination of judicial practice. He is also critical of cases in which conflict between the parents is used as an argument against shared custody.

Michał Wawer intervenes. MPs question the minister

MPs have also decided to look into the problem. On 19 September 2026, Michał Wawer of Konfederacja submitted an interpellation to the Minister of Justice, Waldemar Żurek, which was also signed by Karina Bosak and Marcin Józefaciuk.

Interpellation No. 19926 concerns the story of Mr Paweł, a father fighting for the right to shared custody, who asked for parliamentary intervention. The MPs state plainly that they have heard similar stories from other citizens many times. Among other things, they ask about the monitoring of deadlines for hearing applications for interim orders, the average waiting time for OZSS opinions, data on which parent courts usually decide the children should live with, and whether conflict between the parents should in itself rule out shared custody. They also want to know what remedies are available to a parent who believes the court is discriminating against them on the basis of sex.

The interpellation also raises the question of changing the rules on shared custody and on interim custody arrangements for the duration of proceedings. A “temporary” decision can remain in force for years before a final judgment is given. That is exactly what happened in Mr Paweł’s case.

“I reviewed the materials from his case and simply saw that it was right to ask a few questions about why this particular case has unfolded and ended the way it has. And secondly, to use it as a basis for asking about general problems and pathologies in the justice system,” MP Michał Wawer told Zero.pl, explaining his decision to submit the interpellation.

Read the full article (in Polish) at Zero.pl.