Courts in Ireland to remain open; services to be curtailed amidst Coronavirus scare

The Courts Service in Ireland has announced measures to curtail the number and size of court hearings. The courts however are to remain open.

According to the Courts Service, the District Court will remain open throughout the country. But its work will be scaled back and only urgent matters would be dealt with. Other matters will be adjourned to future dates. Video conferencing will be available for use for custody hearings. Family law and child protection cases are set to continue as normal.

As per the announcement, no new trials will start in the Circuit Criminal courts for the next two weeks. Jurors in trials which have already started are required to keep attending. Those summoned to attend for jury duty in the Circuit Criminal Court for the next two weeks, will not have to attend.

The Courts Service says High Court civil lists are to continue as normal, “in so far as possible”. But the Cork Personal Injuries list of cases due to start on 16 March has been adjourned.

Trials in the Central Criminal Courts which have already started will continue and jurors are required to keep attending. No new trials will start in the Central Criminal Court and again, jurors summoned to attend for the next two weeks do not have to attend.

The Supreme Court and Court of Appeal in Ireland are set to continue as usual. The Court of Appeal will however stagger the calling of lists to minimize the numbers in court at the same time.

In its statement the service said its contingency planning group is continually reviewing and updating plans to meet the challenges caused by Covid-19.

The statement also states that additional sanitization of public offices and courtrooms is being undertaken every day and hygiene supplies for public offices and hand sanitizers for public areas are currently being installed.