Joint Civil Litigation
The civil procedure tools having a form of joint, collective or group litigation are seen as subsidiary help for environmental cases only, especially where the class action legislation is missing or is not applicable to the environment. These civil procedure provisions have diverse forms in the individual countries; they usually enable either NGOs or groups of individuals to initiate proceedings. However, these forms are usually seen as having lower importance and impact than the public law entitlements of NGOs.
In the Czech Republic, in civil proceedings concerning damages before the civil courts, there are in principle no limitations of the number of actors or defendants in one case. However, when there are more actors on one side of the litigation, each of them shall act in the proceedings only for himself. Only if the case concerns such joint rights or duties where the judgment has to apply to all participants acting on one side shall acts of one of them also apply to the others. A change in the petition, its withdrawal, admission of the claim and conclusion of the settlement require the consent of all participants acting on one side. Nevertheless, the law on joint participation in court proceedings does not serve as a collective redress mechanism. Only at first sight do the rules on joint participation seem to be applicable to the proceedings of administrative judiciary. The administrative courts concluded that joint participation is in principle excluded in administrative matters, since administrative justice protects the individual public-law rights of both natural persons and legal entities.
In Poland, non-profit nongovernmental organisations may, to protec citizens' rights, initiate proceedings and take part in the pending proceedings, including, in environmental cases, within rules of civil procedure. They also may represent other (third) persons based on their written consent.