Move likely to traumatise domestic violence victims

The transfer of courts will have severe consequences for victims of domestic violence, according to an agency which represents their interests.

The West Cork Women Against Violence Project said the proposed move would have “several catastrophic consequences” on its service delivery.

The agency, which is based in Bantry, said the proposed changes would reduce court accompaniments for clients due to time constraints in travelling and funding.

The organisation said it would have to prioritise to whom it could offer the service.

As part of its submission to the Courts Service, the project said such a move would put “increased and unnecessary stress on clients”.

They could suffer emotional trauma because they would not be accompanied to courts and would have to cope with increased expense in relation to transport and childcare costs.

“Inevitably, some clients may decide not to seek court protection due to the associated difficulties,” the agency said, adding that this could place the client and her children at risk.

The project pointed out that, in many situations, its clients come into contact with the same judge.

“This can lessen the stress on the client as the judge becomes aware of the violent background and there is less need to inform him of the background details [which retraumatises the client],” the project said.

“Having cases referred to Cork means the client will need to revist the entire history of her experience with an unknown judge. We would expect that some clients will drop proceedings rather than re-experience the trauma of disclosure.”