As Irish society continues to mature and with more pressure on the Court System, there have been moves in recent years to bring forward certain reforms. These will not only speed up the application of law to particular problems, but also try to reduce the cost of litigation and mediation, benefiting both individuals and SME companies. Individuals and companies have been the most common complainers that the legal system for the settlement of disputes has been too expensive and has forced them into compromising matters they would prefer to take before an independent judge.
The first big change as far as litigation is concerned is that the amounts Courts are able to deal with will change. At present, the District Court limit is €15,000 for any type of claim or compensation. This will increase to €20,000 under the proposals. Following this, the Circuit Court, which is the Court above the District Court, will see its limit increase from €75,000 to €100,000. Up to this, there was a limit, but this has now been removed. The intention is to move things out of the High Court into the local Circuit Court, with the resultant saving to the parties concerned.
A second change is a move to limit a pattern which has arisen in the past few years, relating to personal litigants. In recent times, the arrival of the personal litigant in Court usually means that the entire Court Lists slow down, as Judges trying to be fair to persons new to the system have to explain what they can and cannot do with their case. The proposal seems to be that Judges, in supervising cases at an earlier stage, will be able to throw out any claim that has no basis, which in turn will save Court time.
A third change has been in operation for the past two years of remote access to call over lists in the Circuit Court. Previously, personal attendance was always needed at any call over of a list for cases for hearing. Now, with the advent of technology, with both Teams and Zoom available to solicitors, barristers, and the court system, there’s no need to travel to make applications. This is particularly welcome in relation to our ongoing fuel crisis situation.
Progress of cases will be monitored much closer by the Court Service, with time limits placed for the service of documents. Within this, there is a proposal to do away with a process known as Discovery and make the parties produce any documents they have to the other side at the start of proceedings. Discovery was always a process which delayed the completion of cases and, very often, despite the production of many documents, did not always progress a case any faster. By making parties put their best case forward at the early stage, it allows for either an earlier settlement of a case or allows parties to go to mediation. Again, all designed to speed up the completion of any dispute.
Mediation will be encouraged and, in fact, now before one issues any Circuit Court proceedings, it is necessary for the parties to consider Mediation, and a Certificate must be produced to the Court Office if the matter goes on for proceedings. This change was called for many years ago but is only now coming into daily use by the Courts and practitioners.
There will be some move to improve the situation for both landlords and tenants to try to simplify matters. This would mainly concern commercial properties rather than domestic family home situations. It will be necessary to wait and see what legislation finally passes before we know whether these moves are beneficial to the consumer.
There are other changes proposed in relation to medical negligence claims and defamation cases, but all are based on the idea that rather than let matters run to a hearing, the relevant information should be shared at an early stage to prevent matters going on when they could be negotiated or mediated earlier.
Perhaps the biggest change, which follows the trend in other jurisdictions, is that if you want to bring a case but have no funds to pay for it you may be entitled to fund the case by what is known as third-party litigation funding. In simple terms, it means that some party not part of the proceedings can finance either a Claim or a Defense of a claim on the basis that when of if there is a financial payment at the end, they benefit from the payment. This would be a very new idea in Ireland, which already is known to be a very litigious society, and may well encourage all types of class actions. It may also open up access to justice for parties previously unable to bring a case due to the cost implications.