Solicitors hope for near normal working in courts

The President of the Meath Solicitors’ Bar Association has said that the Courts Service is working hard to get the courts back to working in as near normal conditions as possible.

Trim Courthouse. Photo © Google Maps.

James Murphy said that while the courts in the county were still functioning at a certain level, this was only achieved by the co-operation of court staff and legal practitioners. He said that some criminal cases and family law matters were being dealt with and he said that there had been invaluable assistance from the Garda authority at a local level. No one could be certain about what would happen in the future but it was essential that the health and safety of judges, court staff, Gardai and the general public was essential and nothing could be allowed to jeopardise that.

He was speaking as the President of the Law Society Michelle O’Boyle warned that it was certain that the working lives of practitioners would continue to change but this would demand creativity from practitioners themselves, service providers and stakeholders. She said that the Courts Service was putting in an intensive effort to reopen courthouses for physical hearings. A very low volume of cases is currently listed before the courts and talks have been in progress in an effort to improve this. Ms O’Donnell said that in recent months Law Society representatives have been engaging extensively with the Courts Service and the judiciary tlo also develop remote technology-based hearings. However, it was also agreed that it was unlikely that there would be a return to the volume and process of cases traditionally heard in the courts for a very long time, if ever.

“The capacity to deal with court work is now limited by the size of courtrooms and court buildings. Each courthouse building is different and therefore each courthouse presents its own unique challenges”. Ms O’Donnell said that there would be no court specific public health advice issued. The Government’s public health advice as issued by the HSE would apply in courts as it did universally. There would be an emphasis on personal responsibility of all court users to comply with the HSE public health advice. Quotas on the number of people permitted in a courtroom at any one time would be an expected feature of courtrooms in the future.

“Going forward, even the largest courtroom in the Four Courts will in future be restricted to no more than 15 people being present at any one time. It follows that smaller courtrooms are likely to have smaller quota”, the Law Society President said.

In addition, in order to comply with social distancing rules, signage would be in place to specifically identify where those attending at courtroom were permitted to sit. Courtrooms are currently being fitted with Perspex screens for the bench and hand sanitisers for the judges. The screens would make the use of microphones more important. If the use of face masks is introduced on Government recommendations, parties attending the court will be expected to provide their own.

Solicitors may be asked to keep a note of who accompanies them to a courthouse in case it may be necessary to access it subsequently for contact tracing purposes.  One piece of planning for the Four Courts is that, when a judge is sitting in one courtroom, the adjacent courtroom will be utilised as the waiting area for the next case.

To the extent possible, depending on the characteristics of different court buildings, a one-way system for the passage of people will be put in place. It will be very important that no one clusters or loiters in the corridors of court buildings. Ms O’Donnell said that local court managers would deal with each courthouse on an individual basis. She has put forward a proposal that a small users’ forum be set up by individual Bar Associations to work in consultation with the court manager to identify a pathway forward to conduct cases in local courts.