Specialist Circuit Court judges to be appointed

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 231:

  • Schedule: In page 122, before the Schedule, to insert the following new section:
    • 149.--Section 17 of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961 is amended--
      • (a) in subsection (2) (as amended by section 5 of the Court and Court Officers Act 2002), by deleting "A person" and substituting "Subject to subsection (4), a person",

        (b) in subsection (2A) (inserted by section 5 of the Court and Court Officers Act 2002), by deleting "A judge" and substituting "Subject to subsection (4), a judge",

        (c) in subsection (2B) (inserted by section 5 of the Court and Court Officers Act 2002), by deleting “A county registrar” and substituting “Subject to subsection (4), a county registrar”,

        (d) by inserting the following after subsection (2B) (inserted by section 5 of the Court and Court Officers Act 2002):
        • “(2C) A specialist judge of the Circuit Court shall be qualified for appointment as an ordinary judge of the Circuit Court.”,
        and

        (e) by inserting the following after subsection (3):
        • “(4) Any of the following persons shall be qualified for appointment as a specialist judge of the Circuit Court:
          • (a) a person who is for the time being a county registrar, having held such office for not less than 2 years continuously, and

            (b) subject to subsection (5)--
            • (i) a person who is for the time being a practising barrister or a practising solicitor of not less than 10 years standing, and

              (ii) a judge of the District Court.
          (5) Subsection (4)(b) shall come into operation on such day, being not later than 1 January 2014, as the Minister may by order appoint.”.”.
Seanad amendment agreed to.
Seanad amendment No. 232:

  • Schedule: In page 122, before the Schedule, to insert the following new section:
    • 150.--The Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961 is amended by inserting the following after section 26:
      • 26A.--(1) Notwithstanding any other enactment conferring functions, powers and jurisdiction on a judge of the Circuit Court, a specialist judge of that court may only perform the functions and exercise the powers and jurisdiction that are conferred upon him or her by this section.

        (2) The functions, powers and jurisdiction conferred on the Circuit Court by the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 may, subject to this section, be performed and exercised by a specialist judge.

        (3) A specialist judge may make any order that may be made by a County Registrar under section 34(1) of, and the Second Schedule to, the Courts and Court Officers Act 1995, subject to the following modifications and any other necessary modifications--
        • (a) a reference in the Schedule to a County Registrar shall be construed as a reference to a specialist judge,

          (b) section 34(2) of the Act shall not apply to such an order,

          and

          (c) the deletion of paragraph 8 of the Schedule.
        (4) In performing the functions and exercising the jurisdiction conferred upon him or her by this section, a specialist judge shall have all powers ancillary to those functions or that jurisdiction.

        (5) A specialist judge may perform functions and exercise powers and jurisdiction in respect of proceedings to which subsections (2) and (3) apply that are before the Circuit Court only in a relevant circuit.

        (6) A specialist judge may, in any place in the State outside a relevant circuit, hear and determine any application which he or she has power to hear and determine within that circuit and which, in his or her opinion, should be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

        (7) A specialist judge may adjourn proceedings or any part of proceedings before him or her to any other judge of the Circuit Court within a relevant circuit.

        (8) A specialist judge may make out of court any orders which he or she may deem to be urgent.

        (9) In this section--

        "enactment" means--
        • (a) an Act of the Oireachtas,

          (b) a statute that was in force in Saorstát Éireann immediately before the date of the coming into operation of the Constitution and that continues in force by virtue of Article 50 of the Constitution, or

          (c) an instrument made under--
          • (i) an Act of the Oireachtas, or

            (ii) a statute referred to in paragraph (b);
        “relevant circuit” means, in relation to a specialist judge, a circuit to which he or she is assigned under section 10(3) of the Courts of Justice Act 1947 or section 2A (inserted by section 154 of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012) of the Courts Act 1977.”.”.
: Seanad amendment agreed to.
 
Hi island

When looking for something else, I just noticed this in passing, and posted it here. I have not fully understood it myself.

It seems that when someone is applying to the Circuit Court for any action under the legislation, they will be dealing with a specialist judge.

It seems like a very good idea to me.

Brendan
 
Brendan

See the extract below from the Dail Debate on 19th December 2012. I am puzzled as to how the intial appointment of 6 judges will cover 8 circuits! For legislation that was supposed to introduce a non-judicial way of dealing with debt resolution, the whole process has become very judicial!

Deputy Niall Collins: Will the Minister clarify whether the specialist judges to the Circuit Court will be appointed from the existing judicial complement or will they be new personnel appointed via the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board, JAAB?
<A name=ZZ04000>Deputy Alan Shatter: It is envisaged under the Bill that the initial specialist judges will come from the existing cohort of county registrars, who will be entitled to make applications to be appointed as specialist judges to the JAAB. The board will be asked to recommend county registrars to fill the posts initially. It is envisaged that up to eight appointments will be made initially. It may be that we will require only six in the start-up phase. Coming from the cohort of county registrars, the initial appointments will ensure that there is no additional public expenditure of any major extent incurred on the courts' side.

County registrars have particular expertise. They will clearly, like everyone else dealing with this legislation, require training in the legislation and how it works. Although they will operate as independent specialist judges, they will still be able to do some of the court work that county registrars currently do.

Ultimately, future appointments thereafter will be extended as the legislation prescribes to practising solicitors and barristers. The JAAB will be involved in the process.
<A name=ZZ04100>Deputy Niall Collins: The initial complement will be appointed from the existing body of county registrars. Will they vacate their roles as county registrars?
<A name=ZZ04200>Deputy Alan Shatter: Yes.
<A name=ZZ04300>Deputy Niall Collins: Will there be a consequential filling of those vacancies?
<A name=ZZ04400>Deputy Alan Shatter: We have very well qualified county registrars around the country. A number of them have made the case that they do not have enough work to do, which is interesting in the context of the work and the extensive powers that they have. It is not envisaged that, in the short term, this will require the appointment of replacement county registrars. It is envisaged in the short term that some of the general administrative work of county registrars will be taken over by the existing county registrars and the appointees will operate as specialist judges.

It is also envisaged that the specialist circuit judge will, when the assisted decision making capacity Bill is enacted - we hope to publish it fairly early in the new year; it will result in fundamental reforms of the wards of court structure and a complete change of law in this area to modernise our laws - the Circuit Court will have a jurisdiction under it. We would envisage that specialist judges will also absume some jurisdiction under that Bill as well.

The purpose of this is to ensure we have a cohort of judges who are immediately available to deal with any of the debt resolution mechanisms that have to come before them, that they are approved rapidly where approval is appropriate and that, where there is a need for court applications, they are readily made without undue delay. It would defeat the purpose of the Bill if the court aspect of this in the context of what are primarily non-judicial resolution mechanisms created undue delay in them becoming operational. This is designed to ensure that does not occur and that we do not impose an additional burden on the existing Circuit Court Judiciary to the detriment of dealing with other areas of law.

Jim Stafford
 
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