The Chair of the Council of the Bar of Ireland and the Chair of the Family Lawyers Association have both written to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee warning her that provisions in the current draft of the Family Courts Bill 2022 has the potential to create “a two-tier family justice system.”
Sara Phelan SC, and Paul McCarthy SC, both state in their joint letter that the Bill as it is currently constituted, proposes to automatically assign cases relating to divorces, judicial separations and co-habitation applications to the District Court, but only where the asset values involved refer to land (which might normally include a family home) of less than €1million in value.
The danger here is that assignment to the District Court will lead to ‘summary jurisdiction regardless of the complexity of their issues.”
Summary jurisdiction refers to instances where a judge can dispose of a case or proceedings in “an expedient manner.”
As they go on to note however, greater regard to the complexity of such cases will be accorded to those with assets exceeding a value above €1million as they will continue to be assigned to the Circuit Court, where more time will be available to the parties to have their case resolved.
According to both Chairs, this essentially means that “the less well-off will be dealt with in a brisk, ‘summary’ system, operated by the overworked and under-resourced District Court.”
In comparison, they say, those who have assets above €1million will still have the opportunity to have their cases dealt with in the Circuit Court, where there is a more “considered and less hasty process for very similar cases, but where the only real difference is a land value in excess of the District Court threshold.”
The submission accompanying the letter to Minister McEntee also makes clear that in their view:
“Although the proposal to have most of the divorce and judicial separation cases disposed of in the District Court is undoubtedly well intentioned, we fear that far from serving the interests of families, the allocation of these often complex and challenging cases to the District Court, a court of summary Jurisdiction is likely to have the unintended effect of disadvantaging the very persons whose interests most acutely require to be defended.”
The submission also makes the argument that:
Divorce and judicial separations often give rise to challenging and complex legal and factual scenarios. As well as addressing the breakdown in relations where the parties have not been able to resolve their differences, the courts have to disentangle economic and welfare interests and adjudicate on what is in the best interests of dependent children. The decisions made will have a lifelong effect on the parties and their children.”
Where there is a dispute and competing claims, the court process must ensure that all relevant evidence is before it and properly tested. Parties emerging from marital breakdown deserve to be heard carefully, to have their issues analysed forensically and this is a process that takes court time. This is not appropriate for a summary procedure – which is the approach used in the District Court – and it should not be rushed.”
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so what you saying is that the minister was bribed here with this and rightly should be sacked ,
we already have a 2 tier system in place regarding financial legal matters as it is , those who owe millions get off without paying a cent ,those who have little get hit with the full weight of the law and end up with fines and costs beyond their means . you only need look at the likes of anglo to see that .
So the bar council want a system that will involve a lot more professional legal involvement whereas what people want is a quick, minimal cost procedure so that they can get on with their lives.
I’m afraid I’m with McEntee on this one. Even though it kills me to say it.