The Gazette 1982

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INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND GAZETTEVol. 76 No. 7 September 1982
In this issue. ..
Employee Information and Consultation
Procedures --The Community Proposal 149
Computerisation of Companies
Registration Office 1 55
i «7
157
Medico Legal Society
i <7
Society of Young Solicitors l JI
1 59
The Solicitor as Advocate
High Court at Trim 1 64
Solicitors' Golfing Society 1 64
Executive Editor: Mary Buckley
Editorial Board: Charles R. M. Meredith, Chairman
John F. Buckley
Gary Byrne
William Earley
Michael V. O'Mahony
Maxwell Sweeney
Advertising: Liam Ó hOisin, Telephone 305236
The views expressed in this publication, save where
other-wise indicated, are the views of the contributors
and not necessarily the views of the Council of the
Society.
Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.
Comment...
. . . High Court on Circuit
— A Permanent feature?
THE recent experiment of having High Court Jury Sit-
tings in Trim and Naas, in an effort to reduce the
backlog of cases awaiting hearing in the Dublin Jury List,
has, by all accounts been successful as far as it went. It
seems that sufficient numbers of the Common Law Bar
were willing and able to attend, and medical and other
specialist witnesses were also able to attend without undue
difficulty.
In recent years the Cork Jury Sessions have to an extent
overlapped with the Dublin Jury Sittings and that has not
resulted in a void ofcompetent SeniorCounsel or specialist
witnesses at either venue.
Is it not, therefore, time to consider seriously the estab-
lishment of a High Court on Circuit which would continu-
ously sit not only in the various traditional locations outside
Dublin—Cork, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary,Waterford,
Kilkenny, Sligo, Dundalkbut in any others where adequate
court facilities are available — to deal in time, not onlywith
clearing the current arrears of pending Jury Actions, but
also with non-Jury Actions? It is obvious that more regular
High Court Sessions at those locations would diminish the
arrears very quickly and, more importantly, in the longer
term, it wouldbring the administration ofjustice in the High
Court nearer to the people concerned, that being the princi-
pal objective of the recent big increases in the jurisdictions
of the Circuit and District Courts.
Granted, the existence of a High Court continuously on
Circuit would giverise to some inconvenience and disloca-
tion for the members oftheHighCourt, all ofwhomreside in
Dublin, but an equitable rotation ofthe taskwouldmitigate
that, as would also the appointment of a greater number of
High Court Judges. It would require that Common Law
Barristers, particularly Senior Counsel, would have to
rationalise their practices, none having been as yet bestow-
ed with the divine gift of bilocation! However, even now
such rationalisation is taking place m that some Common
Law Senior Counsel have let it be known that they are con-
fining themselves to attending particular High Court Sit-
tings at venues outside Dublin. If the times of the more
regular Sittings in the various Circuit venues were firmly
established and the actual listing of cases for hearing on
each Sitting Day made more certain by an early call-over
procedure (such as is now working successfully in the
(Continued on P. 157)
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