Praktyka stosowania środków zapobiegawczych w polskich prokuraturach apelacyjnych w latach 2007-2010

The article is concentrated on preventive means which were used by Polish prosecutor’s offices of appeal in 2007-2010 in order to protect the correct course of criminal proceedings. The author starts with defining the essence of preventive means, and continues with comparing particular courts of appeal in respect of their practice in using such means. Each court is analyzed in respect of kinds of the means applied and the frequency of their usage. The analyses lead to a series of conclusions which show these courts of appeal where coer-cive means are practiced frequently, and those which abstain from applying them. They reveal these courts of appeal which regard isolation means as best guarantors of the proper criminal proceedings, and those where non-isolation means seem to be more convenient ones. They also present statistical changes in using coercive means by particular courts of appeal in 2007-2010, and deter-mine trends followed by such structures of courts.