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Personal injury actions before the Superior Court will not go ahead during the Level 5 coronavirus restrictions unless they are urgent, the judge in charge of those cases said.
Judge Kevin Cross, who had started hearing some cases from a backlog of more than 300 created during the closing earlier this year, said only cases with “genuine urgency” will get the nod.
Speaking during a remote call about cases on the personal injury list Tuesday, Judge Cross said that any witness action at the hearing will continue but, after that, only cases that are urgent will be heard.
He said he will consult the full list of personal injuries on Friday for the month of November to determine which cases are urgent. The call will be made remotely.
The judge warned that, for a case to reach the hearing during this lockdown, there must be a “real emergency.”
Personal injury actions resumed in Superior Court last July after a four-month absence due to Covid-19 and the first lockdown.
The backlog in unheard personal injury cases from mid-March to July is believed to be about 300.
The court had limited the number of legal teams that could be present if a case went to hearing. Bipartite actions involving a maximum of two legal teams could go ahead, but actions involving multiple parties could only get a hearing if they were represented by a legal team on each side.
The calling of cases that, before the pandemic, involved a crowded courtroom is now done remotely to prevent large numbers of people from congregating in court at any one time.
Attorneys have also been told that consultations and negotiations that would normally have taken place in corridors outside of court must take place outside the Four Courts building.
Practitioners must also wear face masks, except when heading to court and the capacity of each courtroom has been assessed with certain seats blocked to allow for social distancing.
To reduce the duration of the cases, the parties were also told to “do everything possible” to agree on medical and other expert reports.
