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Is it possible to obtain a copy of judgments from the High Court Central Office?
Already Tried: www.courts.ie
1. Apart from the judgments that are available on the courts.ie website, there are no judgments available in the High Court Central Office. They do not hand out copies of written judgments. If you want a copy of a written judgment, you need to consult the Irish Reports or the Irish Law Reports Monthly, which you would find in the National Library, or one of the University Libraries, such as UCD TCD UCG etc.
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What about copy of the decision of a judge on a motion?
2. A judge rarely if ever writes a judgment when giving a decision on a Motion. However, if the judge did so, then you should speak with the Registrar who was in court on the day in question when the judge handed down his decision. The Registrar, who is the person who sits in front of the judge in court and calls on the cases, will know if a judgment has been written down, or if the judge has approved a note of his judgment. Additionally, it will be the Registrar who will have drawn up the Order made on the MOtion a copy of which you will need to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
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So, one would have to contact that Registrar in order to obtain a copy of the Order made on the motion?
Experience: Barrister 17 years experience
3. Yes, the particular Registrar who was sitting in court on the day the Motion was heard. However, that assumes that the judge gave a written decision. Alternatively, if the judge merely gave an oral decision, then a note of the decision, usually from counsel, but if a lay litigant can agree the note with the other side, then the judge can be asked to sign the written note of his judgment, which then forms the basis of the Appeal to the Supreme Court. This is how the note of the decision gets before the Supreme Court where there is no actual written judgment.
When outlining the grounds of appeal in the Notice of Motion to Appeal, what aspects should the Plaintiff concentrate on? Perceived flaws in the process of/judgment? Statutory provisions neglected?
4. When you are arguing an appeal on a Notion of Motion which dismissed the case, you should direct your arguments to the fact that there fundamentally is a good cause of action inherent in the litigation and the action is taken to attain justice. ULtimately, a court will only listen to arguments which prove or show that you have a good cause of action. Arguments directed to the decision making process are irrelevant and statutory provisions are only relevant to the extent that the are the basis for the action. YOu are there to show that you have a good cause of action and you should not deviate from this.
So the grounds of the appeal should be in the merits of the case? Should one reference perceived flaws in the previous judgment at all?
5. The appeal to the Supreme Court is a rehearing. So referring to perceived flaws in the previous High Court hearing is a waste of time. It sounds petty and turns the Supreme Court against you. In the Supreme Court, you put your best foot forward and argue only the merits.
Is one always entitled to an oral hearing when appealing to the Supreme Court? or is the judgement sometimes made on affidavits?
6. You are getting confused here. A Supreme Court appeal is always a rehearing of the Motion. This involves reading the affidavits in the Motion again and hearing the oral arguments presented by both sides. Affidavits are statements of evidence in the case. An affidavit is not used for giving judgment. An affidavit is purely the means whereby parties put the relevant evidence before the court. Where a Motion is concerned the parties are always given an opportunity to make oral submissions. The Supreme Court never decides the case without hearing both sides, as this would infringe the audi alteram partem (hear the other side) rule of litigation. There is no US Supreme Court style consideration of the Motion without hearing either side which occurs on certiorari motions in the US.