1. Apostille in the will

The official certificate placed on documents signed by persons operating in a private capacity as well as the official and notarial certification of signatures are official documents, and not the document itself, e.g. a will. Thus, if the signature of the person making the document has been certified by a notary public, only the certifying part is affixed to the apostille clause and is treated as a separate document related in terms of form, and not as to its merits, to the basic document. The basic document itself does not fall within the scope of the Convention abolishing the requirement to legalize foreign official documents done at The Hague on October 5, 1961 (Journal of Laws No. 112, item 938).

Judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw of December 23, 2008. I SA / Wa 394/08

2. Apostille is enough for legalization

After Poland's accession to the Convention abolishing the requirement to legalize foreign official documents done on October 5, 1961 in The Hague (Journal of Laws of 2005 No. 112, items 938 and 939), the only action required to certify the authenticity of the signature, in which the person who signed the document and, if necessary, the identity of the seal or stamp with which he was attached operated, is to attach the apostille referred to in Article 4 of the Convention. This does not release the court from the obligation to examine whether the document bearing the apostille meets the requirements for the form of a given legal act, as defined in the law of the country in which the document was drawn up.

Resolution of the Supreme Court of 13 April 2007. III CZP 21/07