Annual Report 2001 Tuarascáil Bhliantúil Mission Statement: To manage the courts, support the judiciary and provide a high quality and professional service to all users of the courts An tSeirbhís Chúirteanna Contents Message from the Chief Justice 03 Foreword by the Chairperson of the Board 04 Introduction by the Chief Executive Officer 08 Chapter 1 - Structures and Environment 12 Chapter 2 - Implementing our Mandates 24 Chapter 3 - Court Statistics 56 Chapter 4 - Our Staff 104 Reports of the Rules Committees 108 Financial Statements 112 Appendices I - Freedom of Information Act, 1997 121 II - Changes in District Court Areas and Districts 122 III - Circuit Court Statistics: Countrywide 125 IV - Circuit Court Statistics: Family law 127 V - Circuit Court:Average waiting times 129 VI - District Court:Average waiting times 131 Publications 132 Glossary of terms 133 Additional information 134 1 ANNUAL REPORT 2001 THE COURTS SERVICE 2 ANNUAL REPORT 2001 An tSeirbhís Chúirteanna Message from the Chief Justice I am pleased to welcome you to I am confident that you will find in this the second Annual Report of the Report strong evidence of the continuing Courts Service.This Report commitment and energy of the staff and Board of the Service in going about the work charts another progressive and of creating an efficient and exemplary Courts successful year for the Service. Service. I am proud of the success of the It continues in the vein of last Service in the short period since its year’s Report by providing establishment and I look forward to a detailed descriptions, insights continuation of this momentum in the coming and statistics about our courts year. system and the work of the Many thanks must go to all the legal many hundreds of people who community: judges, legal professionals, court work within it. users and the many State services who work in the area of justice and who continue to invest time, energy, thought and advice in our enormous project of modernising the administration of the courts. It is through such partnership that we will, in the not too distant future, be able to point to our Courts Service as a world leader in terms of its work. Ronan Keane Chief Justice of Ireland 3 ANNUAL REPORT 2001 Foreword by the Chairperson of the Board 4 ANNUAL REPORT 2001 Throughout this Report you will For a long time it was obvious that the read the impressive story of management of the courts in Ireland needed change and development which to be modernised. Judges and court staff were facing the challenges of a modern age is the Courts Service. It is a with the tools of yesterday. There were few record of effort, planning, resources and while those who worked in commitment and growth which the system did so with commitment and is transforming the experience the organisation clearly required administration of the courts in development. Ireland. In this Foreword I hope Through the work of the Working Group on to put this change and a Courts Commission we were able to development in context. catalogue, record and report the problems within the system and make recommendations for change. The creation of an independent Courts Service with the involvement of the judiciary was seen as, and is proving to be, a good way of bringing rejuvenation to court offices throughout the country. The broad remit of the Service is to provide the facilities and administrative services necessary for the courts to undertake their tasks; to support the judiciary; to ensure that facilities exist for the public conducting business with the courts, and to provide information to the public on the work of the courts. In all of these areas the courts have seen improvements. Extra investment has resulted in many newly refurbished courthouses.These act as an appropriate presence for the third branch of government in towns throughout the country. The information technology programme is beginning to create and will result in a significant change in the management of the courts system. Information technology will play an important role in giving greater access to the courts. It will enable easy access to information on the courts and will allow people file papers, pay fees and fines on-line and present evidence in electronic format. 5 ANNUAL REPORT 2001 THE COURTS SERVICE Foreword (continued) In the past I have referred to the paperless and unique model of court management has tradition of Brehon Law Courts and how been a key instrument in its success. information technology will see us once again operating courts free of the logjam of I am extremely grateful to my colleagues on paperwork.This change, a full circle of history, the Bench for their continued involvement in from paperless courts to paperless courts, this great enterprise. I would also like to offers an exciting opportunity to free up time thank the members of the Board who have and space for the operation of the courts. It given unstinting public service. Most especially will bring a new democracy of access, easier I wish to thank the Chief Executive Officer, access to court lists and processes and easier Mr. P.J. Fitzpatrick, and the staff of the Courts access to information on the courts.As well Service for their tireless efforts. as filing documents from PCs and having them electronically stamped and cleared, the ability to deal with motions and evidence from different venues in a virtual courtroom will become an option. The many information initiatives and Susan Denham publications of the Courts Service are Chairperson, Courts Service Board and highlighted in this Report.They have been Judge of the Supreme Court extremely well received and reprinted many times.The Courts Service’s fulfilment of the information remit has extended to the Internet and to all forms of modern and traditional media communications, through www.courts.ie, the Information Office, and a full-time Media Relations Service. The Courts Service is moving the management of the courts into a new era. It is leaving behind the Victorian era and embracing a 21st century court system. It is adopting new methods of work and management and embracing the opportunities offered in our modern age.The great traditions and best practices of the past are being incorporated into the development of a world class Courts Service. On behalf of the Courts Service I would like to thank the Minister for Finance, Mr. Charles McCreevy,T.D. and the staff of the Department of Finance for their assistance and encouragement.The funding and support given by the Minister and the Department have been a key factor in the success of our new Service. On behalf of the Courts Service I thank the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. John O’Donoghue,T.D. and the staff of his Department.The assistance and encouragement given by them to this new 6 ANNUAL REPORT 2001 Introduction by the Chief Executive Officer 8 ANNUAL REPORT 2001 I am very pleased to introduce In this Report, in addition to providing the Courts Service’s second detailed statistics on the work of the courts Annual Report for the year and court offices and highlighting the major developments during the year, we expand on ended 31st December 2001. Our the factors that influence the work of the first Report outlined the courts and court offices and emphasise the background to the steps taken by the Service to anticipate and establishment of the Courts participate in developments and initiatives, Service and explained in some internal and external, that impact on our detail the organisational work.We have also included a chapter emphasising the importance of the staff to structure and the nature of the our organisation by highlighting the many work carried on in our various ways in which they enrich the working court offices. It remains a very environment by their participation in many useful resource document and and varied activities both inside and outside copies are still available from the workplace. our Information Office and on The year 2001 was a very busy one for all our website (www.courts.ie). offices and staff within the Service. It is just over two years since the establishment of the Service and there has been considerable disruption to offices and staff movement in the meantime. However, I am pleased to be able to report that despite this all offices very successfully managed to support the operation of the courts and generally manage the business of their offices during the year.A new organisation with new structures necessitated the introduction of many change initiatives which required considerable input by the staff of court offices.The change initiatives introduced will of course yield significant benefits in the medium and longer term but in the short term have imposed an extra burden on already busy offices. An indication of the volume, type and nature of cases processed can be seen from an examination of the statistics in Chapter 3 of this Report. 9 ANNUAL REPORT 2001 THE COURTS SERVICE Introduction by the Chief Executive Officer The following summary illustrates some of during the year. During 2001 almost _0.800m the volumes:- (IR£0.630m) was spent on training compared with _0.070m (IR£0.055m) 3 years ago. ■ 648 appeals lodged in the Supreme Court (including the Court of Criminal Appeal). I am pleased to report that we have been particularly successful in recruiting and ■ 459 cases disposed of by the Supreme retaining staff and by the year end virtually all Court (including the Court of Criminal positions were filled. Appeal) Our partnership arrangements continue to ■ 24,163 cases initiated in the High Court develop very satisfactorily.The Partnership (including appeals).