Court cases are becoming “longer and longer” and should be more concise, a Supreme Court judge said as he retired after two decades on the bench.
Judge Peter Charleton said he and others have made efforts to shorten hearings, as “consision is needed in our courts” but “we are not there” yet.
He compared Irish courts’ management of legal cases to how cases are run in the United States. He pointed to a strict time limit being applied in a New York federal civil case arising out of the 911 terror attack.
The judge, who has served in the Supreme Court since 2014 and on the bench since 2006, said he has always noticed litigants in the Four Courts who “lean their heads against the stone walls” while waiting for their cases to be heard. It is these people whom barristers and judges serve, he said.
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“Of course, there are the obsessed litigants who drive us all to distraction, but most people are genuine and only come in here as a last gasp,” he said, adding that being a judge was an “honour”.
Charleton practised as a civil and criminal barrister from 1979, including prosecuting “some of the most significant criminal trials in the history of the State”, said Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell at a ceremony marking the judge’s retirement on Friday.
He served as counsel on the Morris tribunal, set up in 2002, inquiring into allegations related to some gardaí in Donegal.
O’Donnell commended Charleton on his “remarkable judicial career” and reputation for producing “speedy judgments”. In the Supreme Court, he has penned “very significant judgments” clarifying the law on the defence of provocation in murder, self-defence and, in a 2023 judgment in the murder conviction appeal brought by Patrick Quirke, set out when gardaí can obtain evidence from phones and computers, said O’Donnell.
Paying tribute, Attorney General Rossa Fanning referenced an Irish Times interview in which Charleton was asked how it feels to sentence someone for a crime. Charleton responded: “When you go into a court and you walk up, the first thing that certainly I notice, the harp is there above my head. It is not me that makes the decision, it is the law that makes the decision. I apply the law and I go home with a clear conscience.”
Fanning said Charleton has “served the people with distinction, integrity and great respect for the law”.
During the tributes, speakers said Charleton wrote a significant number of legal books and articles alongside his practice as a barrister and while a judge. He was praised for dedicating substantial time and effort to helping younger generations progress.
