Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeal to take shorter holidays
22 May, 2013
The Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeal will sit in September this year in an effort to ease pressure on the system.
This has been done in an effort to reduce waiting times, which are currently running at up to four years at the Supreme Court, and 15 months at the Court of Criminal Appeal.
In a further effort to cut the backlog in cases Minister for Justice Alan Shatter earlier this month announced that the number of judges at the Supreme Court will be increased from 8 to 10 under a plan to cut the long backlog of cases.
There was a 20 % increase in the number of appeals to the Supreme Court in 2012 on 2011 figures. Mrs. Justice Denham announced earlier this year that the court could not accept any new priority cases, as there were already 70 waiting to be heard.
The Government plan to hold a referendum to create a Court of Civil Appeal, this is scheduled for September however, even if the referendum is passed it could take two years to set up.
Mrs. Justice Denham said the September sittings would be an “interim measure to lessen delays” before the Court of Civil Appeal is introduced, which would “provide permanent and sensible relief of the current logjam”.