Supreme Court to restart physical hearings, with caveats
The Supreme Court has announced details of its plan to restart the physical hearing of appeals in the Four Courts in Dublin this month.
The court said, however, that case-management hearings, and other court business, would continue to be conducted remotely, unless a party put forward a cogent reason why a physical hearing was necessary.
In a notice on the Courts Service website, it set out several proposed measures aimed at facilitating the health and safety of participants and the public during physical hearings:
- Don’t attend appeal hearings if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, or if you have tested positive,
- Wear a face covering at all times, unless addressing the court, exercise good respiratory and hand hygiene, and practice social distancing,
- Parties will be entitled to make an application for a hearing to proceed remotely, if they can establish a good reason,
- These arrangements will be reviewed after 22 October.
The court says that it will adopt any other measures that it considers necessary – including physical distancing within the courtroom, the staggering of start times of proceedings, and breaks to allow increased ventilation within the courtroom.