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GAZETTE
M
I
W
H
OCTOBER 1994
Judi c i al Appo i n tmen ts
Procedure under Scrut iny
Judicial Appointments
The main legal story in the period
under review concerned the filling of
the vacancy of President of the High
Court arising from the appointment
of the Hon Mr Justice
Liam Hamilton
as Chief Justice. While the
majority of the coverage focused on
the political dimensions of the
wrangle, the affair prompted scrutiny
of the method of selecting and
appointing judges. The front page of
the
Evening Press
on 20 September
under a banner headline "Lawyers
See Red Over Judges Row", reported
on a statement issued by the Bar
Council which criticised the
Government for doing a grave
disservice to the judiciary. The
Chairman of the Bar Council,
Frank Clarke
SC, said it was now
time for a more open and transparent
system of judicial appointments. His
remarks were also reported in the
national daily newspapers on
21 September.
A feature article in the
Irish Press
on
20 September noted that the
Progressive Democrats had suggested
that the job of selecting members of
the judiciary should be performed by
the commission which currently
appoints the Director of Public
Prosecutions. "This commission is
close to a three wise men system,
involving as it does the Chief
Justice, representatives from the Bar
Council, Law Society and Attorney
General's Office, as well as the
Secretary of the Government," the
article stated.
In an article in the
Sunday Tribune
on
25 October,
Dr. Eamonn Hall,
Solicitor, argued that a modern
democracy required a system of
selection of judges that was
transparent. He also made the point
that solicitors were not eligible for
appointment as judges in the higher
courts. Dr. Hall was also interviewed
on
Prime Time
on RTE 1 on Thursday
22 September.
(See also
Viewpoint
on page 281)
Does the law have to be so slow?
The
Irish Times
and
Cork Examiner
of
25 August 1994 reported on
comments by a solicitor in Cork,
Colm
Burke,
who said that the Circuit Court
in Cork would face a waiting list of
6,500 cases when sittings resume in
October and that the list could react
7,500 by mid-March 1995. This would
mean a four year wait for all civil
actions including family law cases.
"The demands on the Circuit Court
staff and judges have greatly
increased since the jurisdiction was
raised. What the Government did
effectively was to increase the
workload of the Court without
appointing any extra judges or staff,"
said Mr. Burke.
Colm Burke
was also
interview on
Morning Ireland
on RTE
Radio 1 on 26 August.
An article by
Diarmuid Doyle
entitled
"Courts System is Grinding to a
Standstill" published in the Sunday
Tribune on 18 September, commented
that "the justice system that will be
headed from next week by Liam
Hamilton is underfunded, understaffed
and riven with delay and
inefficiency". The article noted that a
joint submission to the Minister for
Justice last year by the Law Society
and the Bar Council had called for the
appointment of more judges and the
creation of a separate agency to run
the courts system, but had been
substantially ignored by the
Government. The article quoted a
spokesperson for the Law Society as
saying "delays are now chronic and
they will get worse unless there is
proper funding of the courts system by
the Government."
Meanwhile, the
Sunday Press
on 18
September reported that proposals to
eliminate the massive backlog of
Circuit Court cases around the county
were to be brought before the
Government by the Minister for
Justice,
Maire Geoghegan-Quinn
TD.
The article highlighted in particular
the delays on the Cork circuit and the
Carlow circuit. The article quoted a
spokesperson for the Law Society as
saying "at the time of the 1991
decision (to increase the Circuit Court
jurisdiction) we argued that you could
not increase the workload of the court
without increasing resources. There is
now a very large backlog of civil
cases". The spokesperson added
"having to wait so long becomes an
injustice in itself. This is an issue of
access to justice."
"Capping" of Personal Injury
Claims"
An article in the
Evening Press
on 26
August said that "a chorus of
opposition to moves to cut
compensation for accident victims
erupted today." According to the
article, the Irish Wheelchair
Association had said that bringing in a
fixed schedule of payments, or
abolishing compensation for pain and
suffering, would make a "sick joke"
of the ideas of fair play and justice. A
spokesperson for the Irish Wheelchair
Association,
John Dolan,
pointed out
that while everyone would like lower
insurance premiums, "the amount of
extra costs that people confined to
wheelchairs encounter is just
astronomical."
Gertie Shields,
President of Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, was quoted in the article as
saying "we should be looking at all
the things that are needed to make the
roads safer instead of hammering the
victims."
Disciplinary
The
Irish Times
and
Irish Independent
on 15 September 1994, reported on an
application for restoration to the Roll
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