You are hereby advised that the following arrangements have been put in place in order to reduce the risk of infection from the coronavirus to court users, legal practitioners and court staff.
1. All criminal jury trials will be adjourned to a date after June 10th 2020.
2. All sentencing hearings, arraignments and district court appeals will be adjourned to a date after April 20th 2020.
3. All civil and family matters will be adjourned to a date after April 20th 2020.
4. Only urgent matters and bail applications will be dealt with before April 20th 2020.
5. Litigants and their legal representatives in both civil and criminal matters are excused from attending court sessions that are scheduled to take place before April 20th. It should be noted that persons on bail are excused from attending court and will be advised by the court office of the revised date for their court attendance. All cases will be adjourned on the basis outlined above and the relevant parties will be advised by the court office of the adjourned date.
6. Judge Johnson will sit at 10 on Wednesday March 18th in Portlaoise to adjourn the case list and deal with bail applications and any other urgent matters.
7. Judge Johnson will sit in Longford on next Wednesday afternoon March 18th at 2 to adjourn the civil and family law list for remainder of those sessions to the next county registrars list to fix dates and to deal with any urgent applications.
8. Judge Comerford will sit in Roscommon on March 24th to adjourn the list and deal with any bail applications and any other urgent matters.
9. Judge Johnson will sit at 11 on each Tuesday until April 20th in Mullingar to deal with any bail applications and urgent matters.
10. The civil and family sessions scheduled to start in Tullamore on March 24th will be adjourned in full to the next county registrars list to fix dates.
It is hoped that after Easter the hearing of civil and family matters can resume together with all criminal matters save jury trials. If this should happen it is intended that the capacity created by the inability to hold criminal trials will be used to deal with longstanding civil and family cases. Obviously this plan is dependent on the public health emergency having passed or abated to such an extent that the expert medical advice sanctions such an approach. The cooperation and understanding of all stakeholders including the public and legal professionals to the safety measures taken is very much appreciated.
It is important to emphasise that litigants and their legal representatives (save those seeking bail and involved in urgent matters) are not required to attend court for any of the hearings scheduled for before the Easter as all of their cases will be adjourned until after April 20th. Only litigants requiring bail, those who have urgent applications that cannot be adjourned and their lawyers are required to attend sittings held before Easter and while at court they are required to observe all self and community protection guidelines as set down by the HSE including the “social distancing” and “hand sanitising” guidelines. In respect of any bail application or urgent applications which have to be dealt with and cannot be adjourned, any person who is in the vulnerable category to catching the virus should not attend court. Likewise anyone who is symptomatic should not attend court. All such persons can email or phone the court office to advise of their situation and that will be sufficient to excuse them from attending.
Given the fluidity of the current situation the arrangements may have to be changed to accommodate changing circumstances and should this happen it is intended that stakeholders will be advised of such changes through the court service website and local media. It is also intended to update the arraignments in the week after Easter to determine how matters will be progressed next term.