JUDGE DONNCHADH Ó Buachalla has warned that defendants seeking hearing dates for cases, only to then plead guilty, face stiff penalties.
Faced with huge court lists and very little time with which to hear cases, Judge Ó Buachalla issued the warning at Wexford District Court yesterday.
With a large number of adjournments granted at every sitting in Wexford, Judge Ó Buachalla has warned solicitors not to waste the court’s time or their clients will suffer.
When a local solicitor told the court that a drink-driving case would be contested and he was seeking a hearing date, the judge warned him that if he changed his mind, and the defendant then entered a guilty plea on the hearing date, the penalties would be far stiffer than if he chose to enter a guilty plea earlier.
“If a matter is fixed for hearing and a plea is entered on that date a defendant now runs a grave risk of incurring a very serious penalty,” said Judge Ó Buachalla.
The solicitor in question, heeding the advice, then felt that perhaps putting the case back for mention, rather than to fix a date for hearing, on April 4th was more advisable.
The judge made his views on the matter clear once more during a later case, as he seeks to clear some of the growing backlog of cases.