The President of the High Court Mr Justice David Barniville has today established, by way of a detailed Practice Direction a new Planning and Environmental Division of the High Court. New procedures, rules, dedicated judges, technology, and a build-up of expertise in this area – will allow for more efficient and clearer case management and throughput of cases.
Highlights of the New Planning and Environmental Court:
- Priority being given to environmental litigation as well as in resolving challenges to major infrastructural and other projects.
- Technology and court directions being used to streamline processes and efficiencies.
- Advocacy before specialist judges will be much more efficient as there is no need to traverse the regulatory background – the parties and the court will start from a shared pool of knowledge in the area. This also increases the confidence of lawyers and parties in the end result.
The application of this approach and the assignment of an extra judge as the court worked towards it official establishment day – has already resulted in a 50% increase in the number of cases processed in the court.
The court will operate with three judges assigned to its work full time, with the list presided over by Mr Justice Richard Humphreys.
It is hoped as the new Court brings consistency, new templates and guidance in how matters are litigated, and a clarity as to the law in this area, that this will encourage a situation whereby weak cases are not brought, and strong cases are settled at an earlier stage.
The President of the High Court Mr Justice David Barniville said of the new Court ;
“This new court will allow specialisation in a complex area. This in turn allows more robust and faster decision-making and less requirement to read into various complex technical areas. The plan is the work of the court over time will lead to simpler, more effective law - thus support planning and environmental decision-making, as well as investment”.
Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said:
“The document-heavy, technicality-heavy and EU-law heavy nature of Planning and Environmental cases is such that a significant number of them are relatively anomalous in a regular list and present in such a context as relatively time-consuming and problematic. The new specialised court will be better placed to keep track of developments in this complex area than would arise if such cases were dealt with in a general list.
The specialised court will enable the development of a high level of judicial expertise, which will strengthen the capacity of the courts to engage in properly independent review and analysis of evidence and submissions in this area of work”.
Practice Direction HC124 has been signed by the President of the High Court and is effective from today (Monday 11 th December). It establishes the Planning and Environment Court as a Division of the High Court.
https://www.courts.ie/planning-and-environment-court-high-court
The new High Court division consists of three judges, a judge in charge of the list Mr Justice Richard Humphreys and two other judges Mr Justice David Holland, and Ms Justice Emily Farrell.
The Practice Direction sets out detailed rules for the efficient management of the business of the court.
The availability of an additional judge in the list has already contributed significantly to efficiencies and flexibility in the List.
Excluding matters dealt with by the judge in charge of the list, matters processed have increased by about 50% by reason of the extra judge.
Features of the new court are:
- Hearings are generally paperless, with pleadings uploaded to an online platform, not delivered physically to the judge.
- Monday listings are remote.
- The target is to produce judgments within 2 months if possible, and for transparency, lists of reserved judgments are published every sitting week.
- All cases are case-managed with default directions, which are generally significantly varied only if parties so agree.
- The vast majority of cases get a date for hearing in the next list to fix dates that follows the case being certified as ready.
- Hearings are generally confined to 3 days. Before 2020, it would not be unusual for planning cases to run for 2-3 weeks.
- A system of clear pleading requirements, including a need for core grounds of challenge, allows the simplification of the whole process of identifying what the issues in dispute are.
The ongoing planned expansion to the full Planning & Environment Court is likely to involve anything up to a 50% expansion of business. That will require further judicial resources in due course.
Since its initial establishment in October 2020, the list in its current form, has processed 299 cases, of which about half (155) have been finalised. Most of the rest are going through agreed standard directions for the exchange of pleadings.
In broad terms, given how complex these cases are (5,000 pages of material as standard), one judge is required for every 50-60 live cases. At present there are about 144 live cases in the list (equivalent to about 720,000 pages of materials), so the list is already at or approaching capacity even with the third judge.
The intention is to show how the extra resources are being used constructively in order to make the case for ongoing support, as demand increases.
Advantages of the New Court:
- The establishment of the court signals a priority being given to environmental litigation as well as in resolving challenges to major infrastructural and other projects, thus signalling the importance of the various balancing policy goals and international commitments involved in this area;
- Systematic resolution of legal questions in this area will over time lead to simpler, more effective law and thus support planning and environmental decision-making as well as investment. For example, a number of recent references to the CJEU from the List have resolved a number of significant questions that had been haunting planning law for some time, thus facilitating future decision-making.
- The specialised court has been able to develop sophisticated technological approaches including a fully online ShareFile platform for court papers and some continued use of remote hearings.
- Specialisation allows more robust and faster decision-making and less requirement to read into a complex technical area;
- The document-heavy, technicality-heavy and EU-law heavy nature of these cases is such that a significant number of them are relatively anomalous in a regular list and present in such a context as relatively time-consuming and problematic. The new specialised court will be better placed to keep track of developments in this complex area than would arise if such cases were dealt with in a general list;
- The specialised court will enable the development of a high level of judicial expertise, which will strengthen the capacity of the courts to engage in properly independent review and analysis of evidence and submissions in this area.
- Advocacy before specialist judges will be much more efficient as there is no need to traverse the regulatory background – the parties and the court will start from a shared pool of knowledge in the area. This also increases the confidence of lawyers and parties in the end result.
- The intention is for the court to be a centre of excellence in the planning and environmental law space, on the model of the Commercial Court. This will lead to more consistency due to strong, standardised case management, default directions by way of court order, detailed practice directions, and clear pleading requirements;
- Greater consistency will in turn create more predictability in the law and in forensic outcomes, which will encourage a situation whereby weak cases are not brought, and strong cases are settled at an earlier stage. It also eliminates problems of forum-shopping, which can arise where at present planning cases can be taken in at least two lists.
- More rational prioritisation of cases in a context where an overview can be taken of the field as a whole rather than dealing with cases on an atomised basis.
Picure shows (L to R) Minister of State for Law Reform, James Browne; AG Rossa Fanning SC; Ms Justice Emily Farrell; Mr Justice David Barniville; Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee; Mr Justice Richard Humphreys; Mr Justice David Holland.