Courtroom business is “likely to have changed indefinitely”, according to Law Society President Michele O’Boyle.

Following the initial meeting of the Court User Consultative Group, the President updated practitioners that reactivating physical court business will mean a change of both mindset and culture.

Updates

“As practitioners, we will need to manage court user expectations and lead that cultural change,” the President said. She is due to give a more detailed update on the meeting this week.

Meanwhile, there have been updates from the Court of Appeal, High Court, and Circuit Court.

Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has published detailed arrangements for remote hearings of civil appeals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The guidance applies to civil appeals of all kinds in the Court of Appeal until further notice and is available on the Courts Service website.

High Court

The President of the High Court has directed that any motions which were listed in the Common Law Lists 1, 2, 3 and 4 from Monday 16 March to today, Monday 18 May inclusive, and have been previously adjourned generally with liberty to re-enter, together with any motions listed on Monday 25 May to Monday 27 July 2020, can be dealt with by way of a consent order without the necessity to attend court.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, has also published a notice on the operation of the Family Law High Court List during the pandemic.

In particular, the notice highlights Practice Direction HC89 – providing for consent orders to be made in the High Court without the necessity of parties attending in court – along with guidance on procedures for contentious matters and paperwork requirements.

Circuit Court

Further to the statement of the President of the Circuit Court published on 8 May, and due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, practitioners are required to complete the case management questionnaire and/or a statement of fact in order to have a trial listed in Dublin Circuit Court.

These documents can be submitted to the Dublin Circuit Court Office by post or by e-mail at dublinciviloffice@courts.ie. Upon receipt of these documents, the Circuit Court Office will allocate hearing dates.