An incident between a District Court judge and a solicitor, which led to a number of other solicitors leaving court in protest at the judge's treatment of their colleague, will come before the High Court today.
Solicitor Yvonne Bambury complained to the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, on Saturday about her treatment by Judge Patrick Brady when she had sought to adjourn a bail application for a client.
She was unable to deal with the cases of two other clients, she said, because she had been removed from court on the orders of the judge.
Arising from this Ms Bambury brought a High Court challenge to the legality of the detention of three of her clients. The High Court granted bail to one of those clients but a second remains in custody pending the outcome of proceedings today.
A third client, whose bail application Ms Bambury had earlier sought to adjourn until today, was in fact granted bail by Judge Brady after Ms Bambury had been removed from the court on his order.
After hearing from Ms Bambury in the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan said he did not believe it was appropriate to deal with the case of the third client without giving Judge Brady an opportunity to be heard and he adjourned the matter to today.
At the District Court sitting Ms Bambury sought to adjourn until today a bail application for a client. She told the judge she had the consent of a prosecuting garda to that adjournment.
When Judge Brady said he would adjourn it until Tuesday, she again asked for a hearing for today, stating Tuesday meant an extra day for her client in custody.
Judge Brady told Ms Bambury to sit down and said she was being "disrespectful".
When she again sought to raise the matter, he told her to sit down or she would be removed from court.
She tried again to raise the matter and the judge asked a garda to remove her from the court. He then rose from the bench for a short time.
During that brief time, six other solicitors, who were present in court, discussed the matter and when the court resumed, one of them, Jenny McGeever, said she and her colleagues believed Ms Bambury had been treated unfairly.
The judge told Ms McGeever he disagreed with her and indicated he intended to proceed with the next case. Ms McGeever told the judge she and her colleagues were leaving the court in protest and did so.
The judge then heard other cases including that of Ms Bambury's client, the subject of the original adjournment application.
