Lawyers who brought a judicial review against former Justice Minister David Ford’s plans to close six courthouses say they do not feel the issue has been put to bed.

Last year, Justice Minister Claire Sugden made a U-turn on her predecessor’s proposal to close Armagh, Ballymena, Lisburn, Limavady, Magherafelt and Strabane courthouses.

Lawyers at John Fahy & Co. Solicitors were in the middle of a judicial review of the decision when it was overturned.

Korina Bradlin, partner at John Fahy & Co. Solicitors, told Irish Legal News: “The judge in the case elected not to rule on the specific points that we had raised in our judicial review against the closures on the basis that the Minister for Justice had already decided against the proposal to close, which was to my mind a bit disappointing.”

Ms Bradlin said their local Strabane courthouse was threatened with closure in 2011/12 and 2015/16 and that she was thankful that Ms Sugden later granted “a reprieve in relation to the courthouses, but we still do not feel safe in terms of the long-term future of our courthouse”.

She added: “The court did award costs in our favour, which I think is indicative of the court’s attitude towards the veracity and the validity of our case, but I would have wished that we would have something a bit more copper-fast in regards to a judgment.”

The judge in the case did outline that any future decision to close the courthouse must be based on a “completely fresh process”.

But Ms Bradlin said this “only gives me some limited comfort, and as I say I would have much preferred it had the judge decided to give a full ruling on it and to put the issue of closure to bed”.