On 30th October 2018 Geraldine Manners, Registrar of the Court of Appeals issued notice having regard to the current waiting times in the Court of Appeal current cases scheduled for the 8th November 2018 and 15th November 201 8, “are deferred until further notice”. She further states Practice Direction CA03 even if successful, “However, it should be noted that having to the current waiting times it is unlikely that any such hearing date will be before Michaelmas term 2020”.
The Thirty-third Amendment to the Constitution of Ireland was voted affirmatively by national referendum on 4 October 2013. It established a Court of Appeal to which matters heard by the High Court could be appealed. The intent of the amendment was to reduce the work load of the Supreme Court where waiting time for the hearing of an appeal could exceed five (5) years.
The notice issued by Court of Appeal Registrar Manners deals with only the first part of the process before this court, i.e., obtaining a hearing for the purpose of having allocation of a fixed date for the hearing of the appeal. The notice warns that this initial hearing to obtain a fixed date for the actual appeal to be heard is unlikely to be scheduled before 2020. The waiting time for completion of the above fixed date procedure is again subject to even further delay for a hearing of the appeal to occur.
The national pre-referendum assurances given to the law profession and public for correction of waiting times occasioned by Supreme Court delays of five or more years have evaporated. The delay for justice at the Supreme Court level has merely been replaced by the intermediary Court of Appeal.
Ireland’s New Court of Appeal – Arthur Cox
The Court of Appeal Act 2014 (“the Act”), which was signed into law on 20 July last, provides for the establishment of a general Court of Appeal which will sit between the High and Supreme Courts.
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