Appendix I explains the structure of the Irish courts system. However, you also need to understand how the system works. Once litigation is initiated the process is controlled by the courts system. It is generally thought that the litigation process is slow. Some believe the system of court vacations contribute to delays. However, the opposite is the case. The system needs breaks to catch up with the paperwork created by the system. Court registrars are sitting in court during hearings but they have non-court work too and need time to get through it.
Judges of the higher courts have a huge workload. Often cases run into days or weeks. They deliver ex tempore (oral) judgments to cases they hear on the day. These are at the conclusion of the case and delivered orally. But in longer cases they cannot deliver a judgment on the day with so much evidence to digest and consider so they need the vacation periods to consider the evidence and write up their judgments. On the day or evening preceding a new case they will read the court papers so they have an idea of what the dispute is before the case opens. The High Court delivers in excess of 500 written judgments a year, with the duration of cases running from a day to several weeks and in some instances longer. The High Court has to cover all of the country and goes out to the provinces to hear appeals from the Circuit Courts.
Litigants can understandably become frustrated with delays waiting to get a hearing date due to the congestion of the lists. So it makes sense at the outset to consider whether one of the forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) could resolve the disputed matter (see Chapter 8). Nowadays there is greater choice for resolving disputes; ADR can be used for a huge range of cases and can deal with the issues in a time frame where the restraints of our courts system do not get in the way.
The lowest level of the courts system is the District Court, which is a court of local and summary (judge only) jurisdiction. It deals with minor civil and criminal matters, family law and licensing. Above this is the Circuit Court, which deals with more serious civil and criminal matters, and also family law. Ireland is divided into eight circuits: Dublin, Cork, Eastern, Midland, Northern, South-Eastern, South-Western and Western. Barristers become members of a circuit of their choice and travel to the circuit towns where the Circuit Court sits. Circuit barristers ply their business during the week on the circuit and as the Circuit Court usually does not sit on Mondays circuit barristers on that day usually are in Dublin attending cases from their circuit that may be in the High Court.
Cases heard in one court can be appealed to the next higher court, e.g. appeals from the District Court go to the Circuit Court, Circuit Court appeals go to the High Court and High Court appeals go to the Supreme Court.
Solicitors normally operate in the District Court, though for any complex matters barristers can be used; it is very seldom a senior counsel would appear in a District Court. In Circuit Court cases barristers are more commonly used.
The Commercial Court and the Central Criminal Court are divisions of the High Court which exclusively hear commercial and criminal cases respectively. There are also a number of other legal bodies which can hear cases within their specific jurisdiction, such as the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Equality Tribunal and the Labour Court. Findings from these bodies can be appealed to the Circuit Court.
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