In the present study 80 cases of disputable paternity analysed at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Bialystok in years 1990-1993 were reviewed. Gene frequencies of HLA antigens calculated for the north-eastern population of Poland are not significantly different from those reported for all-Polish population. Similarly, the most frequent HLA haplotypes calculated per 10,000 individuals for the studied population corresponded to those reported by others for central European population. In 13 cases (16.3%) paternity of a defendant was excluded. One case (7.7%) represented exclusions based on three antigens (of loci A, B and C), four cases (30.8%)-exclusions based on two antigens (of loci A and B) and eight cases (61.5%) exclusions based on one antigen (three of locus A and five of locus B).