IBEC welcome for commercial court

RADICAL reform of commercial legal procedures will kick in on January 12 after Justice Minister Michael McDowell announced the setting up of a Commercial Court to deal with cases where the amount in dispute is over €1 million.

Statutes for the creation of a Commercial Division of the High Court were formally introduced yesterday.

IBEC, the major employer body, welcomed the move, but warned it was only the first step.

Mary Daly, assistant director, legal and regulatory affairs, IBEC said industry was “absolutely delighted” with the move, having “lobbied strongly” for the reform.

The new Commercial Division of the High Court will cover business transactions of a very wide variety where the value of the claim is €1m or more. Issues such as intellectual property cases (patents, trademarks, copyright and designs) and commercial “passing off” claims, will all be dealt with by the new court.

Judicial review cases which relate to major commercial matters, will also come within its ambit.

The President of the High Court will appoint a senior High Court judge to manage the commercial list.

Under the radical changes new pre-trial procedures will apply to commercial cases in order to shorten the length of trials.

Under the new court issues will be clarified pre trial in order to agree on the evidence to be presented during the trial.

For that to happen experts will be obliged to confer with each other.

Case management will be provided for in certain cases.

To ensure the smooth running of the system the court has the power to require parties to set out their cases in writing, to avoid very lengthy oral opening speeches.

Mr McDowell also said that pre-trial conferences will be used to speed up trials by identifying the core issues and the type of evidence which will be required.

Witness statements will be exchanged in advance and can be used as evidence once verified on affidavit.

The court will also have power to make orders for electronic filing and exchange of documents and for the use in court of standardised IT formats.

“The purpose of the new commercial list provisions is to bring legal procedure in major commercial litigation into line with the needs of the 21st century”, said Mr McDowell.

“I wish to thank and compliment the Rules Committee and Mr. Justice Peter Kelly for their hard work on this initiative to bring about major legal reform,” he added.