Civil trial juries would be abolished if Oireachtas knew about delays, judge claims

High Court reporters

Juries in High Court civil cases would be abolished if the Oireachtas was aware that so many of them were not ready to proceed when they came before the court, Mr Justice Alexander Owens said on Thursday.

The judge, who is in charge of the jury list, made the comment during what is known as the "callover" of jury cases awaiting trial dates. There were 37 cases listed before him which require to be heard by juries and some of which can take weeks to hear.

After adjourning a number when he was told the cases were not ready to proceed at the next sittings of civil jury cases, due to begin at the end of April, the judge was told a case in which a man is suing the gardaí and the State was not ready to go ahead and needed to be adjourned.

The judge said he would adjourn it but added: "If the Oireachtas found out about nobody being ready for trial, juries would be abolished [in civil cases]".

The judge also later said there were far too many personal litigants "floating around with misconceived cases". He said "there comes a time when this has to stop" when he dismissed one such case in which a personal litigant had failed to comply with court directions on having his case ready.

"We cannot have the courts clogged up with frivolous proceedings that cannot be maintained", he said.