The Gazette 1986

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1986

High Court Non-Jury Actions Listing Procedure by Mr . Justice Sean Ga nnon*

F URTHER to the practice direction that as from the 1st of October, 1985 no case will be listed for hearing in the non-jury list unless and until a certificate signed by counsel for the party giving notice of trial or where counsel is not briefed by the solicitor for such party certifying that the case is ready for hearing has been filed in the Central Office and notice of the filing of such certificate has been served on all parties, the fol- lowing procedure will be followed. On the Thursday of each week a list of actions set down for hearing in the order of setting down and not yet reached will be published for the purpose of allocat- ing from them dates for hearing in the week commen- cing on the second next Tuesday following that Thurs- day listing. It is intended that the Thursday list will comprise only cases certified in accordance with the practice direction as being ready. The listing or allocation of dates will be given only to cases which have in fact been certified as ready. Each term cases set down for hearing which have not been certified as ready for hearing will be listed for the purpose of explaining the delay in getting ready. On the occasion of the Thursday call-over claims for priority and for special fixing may be made and considered and thereby an opportunity will be given to other parties interested in the allocation of dates to note the nature and probable course of the cases given priority or special fixing. The dates beyond that "second next Tuesday" will be kept open with no cases allowed beyond or ahead of the Thursday listing for call-over. By so doing any party claiming priority or wishing to have a special fixing may confidently know that all dates ahead are open to be claimed on the call-over date. The parties who may be concerned in obtaining a specially fixed date or dates will also have an opportunity of discovering the course of cases already in the list and the likely length of their hearing to ensure that an intended or selected date will be suitable. The mischiefs which it is desirable to avoid by this listing procedure may be summarised briefly as follows: (1) Delay or postponement of a hearing due to com- plete inactivity or desultory preparation. (2) Delay or postponement of a hearing due to prepar- ation without complete advice or direction. (3) Delay or postponement of a hearing due to failure to conform to competent advice or direction. (4) Delay or postponement of a hearing due to the per- sonal convenience of solicitor or counsel inconsistent with the interests of the client or witnesses. (5) Deliberately contrived delays for the sake of time only. (6) Inconvenience to clients and witnesses caused by late or many changes of dates requiring their avail- ability. (7) Inconvenience or difficulties caused to counsel by

late briefing. (8) Inconvenience or difficulties caused to solicitors (and clients and witnesses) by late return or hand- over of brief by counsel. (9) Inconvenience to counsel and solicitor by erron- eously projected length of hearing of cases ahead in the list or at hearing. (10) (Build-up of arrears of specially fixed or other cases which become necessarily adjourned or postponed. Under the procedure proposed above the solicitor has a target date of his own choice by which to ensure he has his case ready, namely the Thursday call-over date. It seems probable that having a specific target date rather than an indefinite future period as a time for which to be prepared would be more likely to achieve efficient results. A solicitor in choosing his target date namely the Thursday call-over may be able to check that his opponent also is ready. If a specially fixed date will be required by either party the parties can reach agreement

IMPORTANT REMINDER Dublin High Court Non-Jury List (including High Cou rt Chan- cery List) Practitioners are reminded that set- ting down an action is not sufficient to have the action ultimately listed for hearing. In addition Counsel's Certificate of readiness must be filed in the Central Office before an action will be actually listed for fixing a date for hearing. IMPORTANT REMINDER Dublin High Court Jury List Practitioners are reminded that applications are now taken each Wednesday after the call-over of that day's list in relation to actions appearing in the warning list. N .B. This is a change from Thurs- days to Wednesdays for such appli- cations.

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