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The individual asked for an adjournment 2 weeks prior to the case going ahead as they would be unavailable due to being outside of the country
The judge granted the adjournment with no time advised as to the length of the adjournment.
This seems very strange. A case is almost always adjourned to a specific date either for hearing or for mention (meaning that it is mentioned in court again to keep it in the court list and depending on circumstances will be adjourned again for mention or given a new hearing date).
Other type of adjournment is "generally with liberty to re-enter" but it seems very unlikely that a defendant would get that type of adjournment in the circumstances outlined by you. Did you object to the adjournment? What did the judge say to you? Were you represented in court?.You really need to talk to the court officials for whtever court you were in to clear this up.
in general, it is not that difficult to get an adjournment of a case if you have a good reason. a witness or the defendant being out of the country is more than acceptable. it is quite common for cases to get adjourned a number of times for a number of different reasons. you can of course object but if the other side will be prejudiced, the judge will simply adjourn the case "in the interests of justice".
this of course cannot go on forever. a special date can be fixed for hearing the case if parties have to travel from abroad. the defendant can't simply say they are leaving the country every time a date is set. it will all depend on what is "reasonable". if you think the other side are simply delaying for the sake of delaying, this argument can be made before the judge highlighting all the previous adjournments.
as for the issue of adjourning to a specific date. in the civil circuit court, cases are adjourned back to the circuit court office rather than to a specific date. (this saves people having to turn up on the next day in circumstances where the case is still not ready to proceed). somebody then applies for a new date.
the reference to "liberty to re-enter" may have meant the above. the other possibility is that the case was struck out but you have liberty to re-enter the case.
in summary, contact the circuit court office, ask for a new date, tell the other side about the new date, tell them you won't be consenting to any further adjournments and hopefully the judge will agree with you!
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