A DRAMATIC rise in cases involving debt, insolvency and the winding-up of companies has been recorded in the annual report of the Courts Service.
Crime statistics also show an increase, but the number of people seeking to end their marriages is down, which may indicate the difficulty in unravelling joint financial lives during the recession.
The 2009 annual report recorded a 9.5 per cent cut in the Courts Service budget last year, though the volume of work of the courts continues to rise.
The service recorded a reduction in its net expenditure of almost 34 per cent, accounted for by savings of 24 per cent and an increase in the money obtained in fees and fines. The number of cases processed has increased by 40 per cent in the past three years.
The service will implement a modernisation programme drawn up by its Transforming Administration and Structures in the Courts (Tasc) committee, which identified reform in line with those sought by the Government and the OECD, according to a spokesman.
The Croke Park deal will facilitate the implementation of many of these proposals, he said. The service has reached capacity, with an anticipated 800,000 cases this year, but further reforms should allow it handle any increase.
All three jurisdictions of the courts saw increases in debt and insolvency cases in 2009, with the High Court seeing a 53 per cent rise in new cases admitted to the Commercial Court list. There were 373 new cases, and 304 cases disposed of in that court. The High Court made 128 orders to wind up companies, a 66 per cent increase on last year, bankruptcies doubled to 17, and there were 293 orders for possession, a 23 per cent increase on 2008.
This trend is continuing this year, according to the spokesman, as there have been 12 bankruptcies so far in 2010. He said the orders for possession have slowed down since the Government introduced measures to curb them. There have been 229 summonses issued in possession cases this year, compared with 493 in the same period last year.
Debt recovery accounted for 5,653 claims in the High Court, a 53 per cent increase on last year; the Circuit Court saw 13,613 debt judgments and the District Court saw 29,285. This meant there was a 48 per cent increase in debt cases in the High Court, a 33 per cent increase in the Circuit Court and 28 per cent in the District Court.
The decline in some commercial activity was also reflected in the court statistics, with a 26 per cent decrease in pub licences granted, a 51 per cent decrease in restaurant licences and a 43 per cent decrease in hotel licences. There was also an increase in employment disputes, from 266 in 2008 to 368 in 2009.
There was a dramatic increase in the amount of costs claimed through the Taxing Masters, the court officials who adjudicate on disputed High Court costs. These increased from €46 million in 2008 to €63 million in 2009. They were cut on taxation by 40 per cent. There was an increase from 86 to 105 in applications received by the High Court in relation to solicitors’ misconduct.
For the first time in some years there was a small drop in the number of asylum judicial reviews in the High Court, from 785 in 2008 to 749 in 2009. Asylum judicial reviews make up more than half of all judicial reviews.
In the Central Criminal Court there were 53 new murder cases last year, the highest number since 2002, but new rape cases were down to 49, the lowest number since 2005.
Crimes against property increased, with 28 per cent more theft and robbery offences dealt with by the Circuit Criminal Court. Drug offences were also up, with an increase of 23 per cent on 2008. Of these, 51 resulted in sentences of over 10 years.
Road traffic offences showed a decrease, with the number charged with dangerous driving and drink-driving down almost 20 per cent over the past two years. Car theft was up last year, after a decline for the previous two years.
There was a drop in the number of applications related to domestic violence in 2009, down from 10,401 in 2008 to 9,856 in 2009. This continues a trend over the past two years, with the number in 2008 falling from a high of 11,394 the previous year.
In 2006, there were 9,924 domestic violence applications in the District Court.
Child care orders were down in 2009. These are care orders and supervision orders made in relation to children at risk, on the application of the HSE.
There were 627 care orders and 941 granted, compared to 804 care orders and 1,044 supervision orders in 2008.