Law & Disorder: Adjournments

There are 63 District Court judges working across 24 areas around Ireland. Last year each judge dealt with an average of almost 5,000 criminal offences.

To get a picture of how the system operates we visited all 24 court districts observing the cases of 6,500 defendants at 100 court sittings.

On three of those days over 150 defendants were due to appear in court at a single sitting.

The most common decision by a judge is to adjourn. Of 6,500 cases the RTÉ Investigates team observed in District Courts around Ireland, precisely half of them were adjourned.

Court Service figures show that the average case was adjourned 1.5 times last year, meaning it was disposed of in 2.5 court appearances. But some drag on much longer as this graphic shows.

Cases may be adjourned for many reasons. The defence may need time to inspect documents provided under discovery, or consult with their client; a witness defendant or prosecuting Garda may be unavailable; the State or defence may not be ready to proceed for other reasons.

CASE YEAR STARTEDADJOURNMENTSCOURT AREA NAME

Adjournments cost money for the State, not only are Gardaí supposed to turn up for court but so are the solicitors for defendants who are often paid under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme. Fees paid to solicitors under the scheme are €201.50 for the first court appearance and then €50.39 per appearance thereafter.

For those defendants who have no legal representation judges can assign them with solicitors who happen to be in court. If a judge assigns three or more defendants to a solicitor on the same day the fee for the first court appearance is reduced to €100.75 for the third and subsequent defendant. It all adds up, the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme cost the State €53m last year.