FAMILY LAW cases in the Circuit Court should be processed more quickly following the signing into law of new Circuit Court rules, according to Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern.
Mr Ahern who signed off on the rules yesterday, which come into effect on October 1st, told The Irish Times the purposes of the new rules are to ensure that proceedings are prepared for trial “in a manner which is just, expeditious and likely to minimise the costs of the proceedings, and that the time and other resources of the court are employed optimally”.
They will mean that family law cases are closely supervised as they proceed towards hearing, and the issues at stake are identified through what are described as “case progression” hearings with the county registrar. Through this process the issues can be narrowed and even reach a point where a settlement could result.
Applications for judicial separation and divorce can be heard in both the Circuit and the High Court. However, according to the latest Court Service figures, over 98 per cent of all such cases are heard in the Circuit Court.
The volume of pre-trial motions in family law cases in the Circuit Court is considerable. The new rules will help to relieve Circuit Court judges of a large pre-trial applications caseload, freeing them up for trial work.
The new rules allow county registrars to supervise the preparation of cases. They assign to the county registrar the task of overseeing preparation of family law cases for trial in the Circuit Court; generally monitoring the progress of the case pre-trial and making final arrangements for the trial.
The rules will allow the county registrar establish what steps remain to be taken to prepare the case for trial, fix a timetable for the completion of its preparation for trial or adopt any timetable proposed by the parties if satisfied that it is reasonable.
The county registrar will also be able to make a range of pre-trial directions, like the vouching of items in an affidavit of means and identifying the issues in dispute between the parties. He or she will be able to award or disallow costs of the case progression hearing.
County registrars are at present empowered to make a range of pre-trial orders, including discovery, and may make ruling settlements, provided they do not involve children or dependants.
The recently enacted Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 allows county registrars to support a county registrar in another Circuit. Previously a county registrar could only act in his or her own county. The provision was aimed at county registrars in high caseload counties.