Making law accessible

Plans have been made to modernise the country archaic courts system

Mon, 11 Nov, 2002 - 00:00

ensuring electronic accessibility to all courts within the next five years.

Hopefully this will only take five years and not be dragged out like the decentralisation plans.

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in litigation involving private firms. The number of cases handled by the High Court and Supreme Court jumped by a third last year. The Committee on Court Practice and Procedure chaired by Supreme Court judge, Mrs. Justice Susan Denham recommended the establishment of a commercial court not only to tackle the backlog of court cases but also to reinforce Ireland's position as an e-commerce hub.

A Commercial Court, staffed by experts in company law, will therefore be set up as a division of the HighCourt on a trial basis in January 2003. It is intended that clients would be able to use e-mail to file claims, submit legal documents and pay fines.

This should provide for more accessibility to the courts by speeding up the system, thereby helping to unclog some of the backlog, which has been virtually paralysing the whole court system.