THE chairman of the Bar Council, Mr James Nugent, has welcomed a move by a Circuit Court judge to clear a backlog of cases on the Dublin civil list.
Judge Harvey Kenny spent the last few weeks of the vacation disposing of "dead wood" cases which have choked up the Dublin civil list for years. He managed to clear almost 30 per cent of listed cases.
His clear out in Dublin follows a similar initiative on the Midland Circuit in 1994 when, in a once off call over of the complete Midlands list he demanded a "state of readiness" report on all cases from solicitors. He found hundreds of long settled cases which had never been deleted. Others had been listed for trial long before they were ready. Yet more, at the point of settlement, had been left in until a substitute could be found, a method of beating the delay.
Judge Kenny, in either striking out the action or the notice for trial, started an avalanche that spread from the Midlands into Galway, his next appointment, where he reduced a list of 2,000 cases to 800.
"In Galway we brought forward cases listed for hearing in October 1997 to trial dates in January next," said Judge Kenny. "We hope to do the same in Dublin. Reductions so far suggest we can meet that target."
Judge Kenny's success is all the more significant in that his initiative pre dated by two years the working group on a courts commission's advice to court presidents to delegate management responsibilities.
"I think it is important that there is discipline in the courts, particularly as to list management," he said. "I am doing with the practice of substitution, which offends against the principle of good organisation."
On the question of barristers seeking adjournments because dates for trial did not fit in with their schedule, he said such a practice would no longer dictate when a case would be heard. He wamed that no case would be held up because a barrister was on his feet in another court.
Judge Kenny said that in the new term beginning on Monday he would be draping up three court lists daily with approximately 15 cases in each. They would be called over before him prior to his assigning them to a particular judge.
Judge Kenny said cases would continue to be settled literally at the door of the trial judge, but the new system would inevitably increase judicial productivity. After Christmas they hoped to have four or five judges hearing civil cases.
Mr Nugent said Judge Harvey's efforts were unanimously supported by the Bar. "Measures such as these, which deal with the problem of court lists, have always and continue to have the full support and co operation of barristers. I was happy to have discussions with Judge Kenny in this regard before the initiative started.
Court lists, he said, were only one small part" of the problems facing the court system which had been identified by the working group.
Its proposal for an independent commission with responsibility for all aspects of the court service was approved by the Government earlier this year.