– Life along the Slaney

At last week’s sitting of Gorey District Court, it seemed as if the court service were trying to break the world record for the most people in a courtroom at one time.

As it was the first criminal court sitting in four weeks, it would have been expected that a larger than normal crowd would be in the courtroom at 10.30am on Thursday morning, however it seems as if every case that is currently before the court in Gorey was listed for hearing on this day.

For some it was a family day out with kids, buggies and Nintendo DSs all out in force. For others it was the sobering shock of their first experience of a court room. Every strata of society were packed into the crumbling courtroom on Charlotte Row awaiting the arrival of the Judge who would dispense wisdom and hand out justice from on high – county councillors, former TDs, TV stars, doctors, thieves, drug users were all well represented.

However the reality of a District Court such as this is: less complex legal argument; more cattle market. It is a matter of sheer volume. The court list had over 220 separate cases listed for last Thursday. Over 380 separate charges were to be dealt with in some way – and these are before the last minute bench warrants, fresh charge sheets and search warrants are added.

There were more than ten separate contested cases due to be heard in full – with witnesses, gardaí and defendants all in court ready to argue their side. Only one of these was heard and only because the defendant was in custody.

Despite only hearing one contested case, the Judge, court clerk, gardaí, reporters and defendants didn’t finally leave the court until past 7pm that evening.

As the court clerk diligently began calling out one list after another, the Judge could be heard to utter with incredulity: “There’s another list?” on several occasions. He made several public comments as to the length of the list and asked how anyone was to get anything done with such a list.

While the Judge, gardaí and solicitors were aware (for the most part) of what was going on during the sitting, the public were left to stew in their own juices while legal argument and jargon flew at the top of the room. It was chaos.

There was no justice handed out last week – only cases shoved from one date to the next with everyone looking to gain an advantage. The Judge tried his best to make some progress in each case that was called before him but it was like fighting a rising tide.

Every time he seemed to be making progress another spanner would be thrown in the works and the whole thing would collapse and have to be heard again on another date.

For some people coming back to court will be another day out but for other it will mean an extended period of uncertainly and pain.

The District Court can be a superb mirror to the current state of the nation – a sharp increase in robberies shows people are getting desperate; a growth in the number of people driving without insurance shows people are willing to take a risk due to lack of money and an overcrowded courtroom shows either an inefficient system or an alarming spurt in the crime rate.

It seems as if certain Judges are happy to continuously adjourn cases with some appearing on the list last Thursday for the 11th or 12th time. This clogs up the court system and cases are not heard in a timely manner and as a result a solicitor will claim undue delay in bringing the case to trial and the whole case will be thrown out.

No doubt this overcrowding is not an isolated occurrence and while it would be nice to think people would learn their lesson and not reoffend, I have a feeling we will be looking to break the world record in Gorey’s new courthouse in the near future.