Judicial Council

Judges have approved judicial conduct and ethics guidelines to be enforced by the Judicial Council. Chief Justice Donal O'Donnell said the new guidelines, approved in a vote of 167 judges this morning, are "not a code".

The Judicial Council's plans to develop landmark sentencing guidelines for Irish judges could be frustrated by a lack of sentencing data, particularly for cases dealt with at the District Court, a new report has warned. Professor Cyrus Tata of the Centre for Law, Crime & Justice at Strathclyde L

The Judicial Council has commissioned a Scottish university to lead a new study into the quality of sentencing data. Professor Cyrus Tata of the Centre for Law, Crime & Justice at Strathclyde Law School will lead an international team of experts to examine the quality of available data about sen

Judicial conduct and ethics guidelines to be adopted shortly by the Judicial Council will close a "gap in judicial accountability and transparency", Chief Justice Frank Clarke has said. Writing in the foreword to its annual report for 2020, Mr Justice Clarke – who is due to retire in October &

New personal injury guidelines which will lead to significantly reduced payouts in most cases have been approved by the Judicial Council. The guidelines were drawn up by the personal injuries guidelines committee, chaired by Ms Justice Mary Irvine, and approved by the Judicial Council on Saturday at

The Board of the Judicial Council will meet today after bringing forward its meeting due to the ongoing controversy around Mr Justice Séamus Woulfe's future on the Supreme Court bench. There are no specific agenda items for today's meeting. The 11-member Board will have a "general discussion"

Mr Justice Séamus Woulfe postponed his planned meeting with Chief Justice Frank Clarke this morning for "personal reasons". The pair were due to meet in the wake of former chief justice Susan Denham's report into Mr Justice Woulfe's attendance at a controversial Oireachtas Golf Society dinner

The Law Reform Commission has identified two "constitutionally permissible" models for capping personal injuries pay-outs in Ireland. In a new report, the law reform body said two of the four models it first detailed in an issues paper last December could be introduced.

Lay members have been appointed to a number of Judicial Council committees and nominated for the panel of inquiry. Kieran Coughlan, Claire Archbold, Professor Maeve Conrick, Patrick Doyle and Professor Bernard McCartan have been appointed as lay members to the judicial conduct committee, which has p

Prisoner numbers continued to rise in Ireland last year, putting pressure on the penal system in areas including prisoner accommodation, the provision of services and the volume of prisoner escorts. The total number of prisoners in custody in 1 January 2019 was 3,904, which increased to a peak of 4,

Recruitment for lay members of the Judicial Council has begun, in another milestone for the new judicial body. The Judicial Council met for the first time in February following its establishment through legislation late last year.

The new Judicial Council will "authoritatively assert judicial independence and respect for the rule of law should it ever come under threat", Chief Justice Frank Clarke has told its inaugural meeting. The entire Irish judiciary attended the plenary meeting at the King's Inns this morning, where the

Legislation allowing for the establishment of the Judicial Council has been commenced in a "landmark moment in the history of our State". The first full meeting of the Judicial Council will not take place until the first week of February, but some elements of its work have already been brought forwa

The Chief Justice of Ireland, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, has identified judges to sit on the Judicial Council's personal injuries guidelines committee, he announced this morning. Ireland's top judge told Insurance Ireland's annual fraud conference in Dublin that he had picked judges from the High Cour

The establishment of the new Judicial Council must be "legally robust" and shouldn't be rushed, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, has said. Legislation to establish the new body was passed by the Oireachtas in July, and the Government is aiming to complete its rollout by the end of the yea