District Court President Judge Colin Daly has announced the following measures:

1)    Parties with non-urgent cases are not required to attend court at this time,

2)    The District Court will continue to hear urgent matters in all District Court districts throughout the country, and will resume hearings of certain other urgent matters,

3)    Urgent matters are now extended to include more areas in criminal, family, and childcare law.

In the District Court, custody cases will proceed on the adjourned date. Non-custody cases will be listed for mention only on the adjourned date.

Parties are requested not to attend, according to District Court President Judge Colin Daly.

A new hearing date will be allocated and parties advised of the details, except for the Northern Circuit, where non-custody cases will be dealt with on the adjourned date, if possible.

Family law cases and motions

Family law matters adjourned since March 2020 will be given a hearing date by the court office as soon as possible.

Consideration will be given to dealing with matters remotely, where this is possible and appropriate.

On civil cases and motions, hearings which were adjourned since March will be given a hearing date by the court office as soon as possible. 

Protection orders

In the area of family law, the matters to be dealt with include:

• New applications for protection orders or interim barring orders and return hearings of interim barring order cases,
• If safety order hearings are being adjourned, interim protection orders will be extended to the new date,
• Applications and hearings for breach of maintenance or access that have occurred during the emergency period, or applications and hearings for temporary guardianship orders,
• Remote call-overs and hearings may be conducted in some courts,
• Consent orders that do not require the hearing of evidence may be applied for by email, by the applicant’s solicitor, exhibiting consent in writing from the respondent’s solicitor.
• Following consideration by an assigned judge, orders will issue from the court office, as appropriate, without the need for the parties or their legal representatives to attend court. 

Civil matters

All District Court civil matters are, at present, considered to be non urgent and will be adjourned, generally with liberty to re-enter, either on consent or on notice to the other party.