Judge says case management better in north than south

Judge Conal Gibbons last week refused to hear a case which would have taken between two and three hours to complete because there were too many other cases in the list.

While remarking on his decision, he said there was much better case management in Northern Ireland’s courts and the Courts Service of Ireland could stand to learn from it.

He added: “We don’t have good case management and this is an example of it. The district court should manage the cases in a more coherent manner.

“It’s our own fault for not doing it right. We should set a date when a case has eight witnesses and not bring people in here when we know it is not going on. It does not make sense.”

After a short adjournment, he scheduled the case for a special sitting of Belmullet District Court on 9 June 2016.