More legal news in brief.
West Dublin courthouse is opened
Blanchardstown courthouse was officially opened last Friday by the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan.
The courthouse and full-time court office will serve west Dublin, allowing court users to lodge small claims applications, pay fines and have family law matters heard in their local area, according to the President of the Circuit Court, Mr Justice Matthew Deery.
The new courthouse means witnesses and gardaí will no longer have to travel to the city centre for cases to be dealt with.
The District Court will deal with cases arising in the Dublin west area including Blanchardstown, Clonsilla, Mulhuddart, Carpenterstown and Castleknock.
The court facilities includes two courtrooms where the District Court, the Children's Court, Family Law hearings and Circuit Court jury trials will be heard.
There is a District Court office as an integral part of the facility and an interview room where members of the public can conduct sensitive business with court staff.
Facilities also include a legal practitioners' room, consultation rooms, an information desk, a victim support room, a jury room, judges' chambers, a media room, a State prosecutor's room, holding cells, a probation office and a Garda room.
The facilities are wired for video-conferencing.
According to a spokesman for the Courts Service, this project will be used as a model to provide new courthouses and offices in Swords and Tallaght, where the Courts Service is actively pursuing locations for such facilities.
End of Irish exam for law trainees
Those seeking entry to the Law Society's law school and to the King's Inns will no longer have to pass a compulsory examination in Irish following the enactment, in the last moments of the latest Dáil session, of the Legal Practitioners (Irish Language) Act.
There was some anxiety as to whether it would be passed in time for the entry examinations for the next session of the Law Society's education programme, and the Law Society had such an exam scheduled for later this month. That exam has now been cancelled and the fees for it will be refunded.
Instead both the Law Society and the King's Inns will be providing courses in Irish as part of their curriculum.
Conference on drugs postponed
Due to unforeseen circumstances the "Drugs at Work" conference, organised by Merchants Quay Ireland with input from Ibec, Landwell employment law specialists and the ESB, which was due to be held at Dublin Castle on July 25th last, has been postponed until October.
The new date will be published as soon as it becomes available.