Relevant Matter
Matters involving public funds
Public Policy Area
Justice and Equality
Period
1 May, 2021 to 31 Aug, 2021
Specific Details
A letter concerning the appointment of extra High Court Judges
Intended results
Introduce the automatic striking out of court proceedings if there has been no activity in the case for 12 months, without the need for a court hearing.
Shorten the period within which proceedings must be served to three months and require an attempt at service by registered post or personal service within that period or the action is automatically struck out; this would stop plaintiffs delaying and would also avoid unnecessary court hearings
Require plaintiffs in personal injuries matters to furnish a copy of all medical notes and records for three years before and one year after an accident, within three months of service of proceedings. This would avoid wasting court time with discovery applications that are always granted of this category.
Set the PIAB Form A to be the originating court document if an assessment is not accepted. This would save court and court office time.
Identify categories of discovery documents in straightforward cases; e.g. photographs of the scene of an accident, any non-privileged contemporaneous witness statements that will be presumed to be discoverable, and which must be discovered by plaintiff and defendant. This would streamline straightforward matters.
The maximum legal costs permitted should be set by law. There should be scales for the value of the claim, the type of issues and whether it is settled or run to trial. This is already done in the district court, and German Federal Courts provide an even more comprehensive scale. This incentivises resolving matters efficiently.
Charge parties for judges' time. There should be a maximum High Court judge time for particular types of case. Beyond this, the court fees should rise (and come out of the overall budget).
Use judges’ time better. Improved informal (by appointment; not by court list) case management by court officials, Masters or deputy judges. Our system of case management is too formal and judges are too involved. We have one High Court Master whereas in Northern Ireland they have seven, who do a lot of this type of work. Equally, in England are more masters and deputy judges who do much of the organisational side pre-trial. This is done much more efficiently in chambers.
Use witness statements as the evidence of the witness so that the hearing involves cross-examination only, as is the norm in England and Wales
Require that judgments are limited in length barring extreme exceptions. A lot of High Court judges' time is taken in the writing of decisions on cases that are of little or no precedent value.
Require that costs must follow the event. This is already set out in law and is a rule of the superior courts, but it is routinely ignored by judges. Plaintiffs dismissed as fraudulent by a lower court are free to appeal to the High Court or the Court of Appeal without a care as to their ability to pay their costs if they fail.
Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity
CEO Neil McDonnell
Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?)
No
Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign?
No
Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client?
No
Lobbying activity
The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.
Designated public officials lobbied
The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them.
As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.
Heather Humphreys
Minister (Department of Justice)
Leo Varadkar
Minister (Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment)
Robert Troy
Minister of State (Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment)
Oonagh McPhillips
Secretary General (Department of Justice)
Oonagh Buckley
Deputy Secretary General (Department of Justice)