The President of the High Court hereby issues the following Practice Direction in accordance with s.11(12) and (13) of the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020.

Introduction

1. This Practice Direction is intended to apply to all miscellaneous matters, proceedings and applications listed to be heard by the President of the High Court except for matters concerning Wardship or matters which fall under other Practice Directions such as HC 115 (Professional Disciplinary List) and HC 116 (Arbitration List). These matters will appear in a list called the “President’s List”.

2. For the avoidance of doubt, this Practice Direction is intended to apply to all matters listed to be heard by the President of the High Court:

(i)         Where the application must be made to the President of the High Court in order to comply with statute or any other legal requirement, or
(ii)        Where applications of that nature are conventionally made to the President of the High Court, or
(iii)       Where the moving party has requested the matter to be listed before the President of the High Court, or
(iv)       Where the moving party is on notice that the matter will be heard by the President of the High Court, or
(v)        Where the matter has been transferred by another High Court judge to be heard by the President of the High Court.

3. The President’s Registrar for the purposes of this Practice Direction (HCPresidentsRegistrar@courts.ie), or such other registrar as may be assigned by the Principal Registrar of the High Court. 

4. This Practice Direction is not intended to apply to applications or proceedings seeking relief on a very urgent or emergency basis from the President of the High Court, or to a matter which is transferred on a very urgent or emergency basis to the President from another judge of the High Court.

Hearing of Applications before the President

5. Applications or proceedings before the President to which this Practice Direction applies will be heard at 2pm each Monday in the President’s List, save where otherwise directed by the President.  Such matters may, where necessary, also be listed for hearing at 2pm on a Friday.  Longer matters may be listed for hearing on such other days as may be determined by the President.

6. Until further notice, and save where otherwise directed by the President, the applications or proceedings subject of this Practice Direction will be heard on a hybrid basis where the judge and registrar will sit physically in court and the practitioners and litigants will have the option to attend and participate either in person in court or remotely. 

7. Where one or more of the participants wish to participate remotely, it will be necessary to obtain the relevant log in details.  For legal practitioners, virtual courtroom log in details for the President’s List can be found at the following websites:

https://members.lawlibrary.ie  
https://www.lawsociety.ie/Solicitors

Any unrepresented party should contact highcourtvmr@courts.ie to obtain the relevant log in details.  When contacting that address, the relevant party must provide the name of the case, the record number and the date of the hearing as well as indicating the involvement or status of the party in the case.

Format of Papers for Applications/Proceedings covered by this Practice Direction

8. The moving party in a matter before the President of the High Court covered by this Practice Direction is responsible for providing the papers for the matter. 

9. Unless otherwise directed by the President, the moving party is required to provide the papers for the matter in hard and soft copy form.

10. Hard copy papers must be bound or contained in a folder and must be indexed and clearly paginated.  Hard copy papers must be lodged in the List Room and not in the Central Office.  Any additional papers intended to be relied upon by the moving party or by any of the other parties to the matter must also be lodged in hard copy in the List Room. 

11. Soft copy papers must be provided to the President’s Registrar on an electronic file sharing platform or by email sent to HCPresidentsRegistrar@courts.ie   In the event that a party does not have access to a file sharing platform, and the soft copy papers cannot be emailed, the President’s Registrar will create a file share folder for provision of the soft copy papers to the Court.

Date and Time for Lodging Papers

12. Hard copy papers must be lodged by the moving party in the List Room, marked with the words “President’s List” and the return or adjourned date of the application or proceedings, as the case may be, and for the attention of the President’s Registrar, and also soft copy papers must be provided to the President’s Registrar, in each case, by 12 noon on the Tuesday preceding the date of the hearing of the application. 

13. Papers for a matter listed for a date other than a Monday or a Friday must also be lodged in hard copy and provided in soft copy in the same manner and with the same markings as set out at para. 12 above by 12 noon on the Tuesday preceding the hearing date.

14. Save in exceptional cases, no additional papers will be accepted in respect of a matter after 12 noon on the Tuesday preceding the hearing date. Permission must be sought from the President’s Registrar before sending soft copy papers or lodging papers in the List Room outside of the time prescribed by this Practice Direction.  The President’s Registrar will consult with the President before communicating permission for the late lodgement of papers.

15. Any additional papers in respect of a matter in the President’s List must also be provided in hard and soft copy by that same deadline, save in exceptional circumstances.

Where Further Information Required

16. Where it is sought to adjourn a matter in the President’s List by agreement of the parties, the agreement to adjourn must be communicated to the President’s Registrar as soon as is reasonably possible to avoid the Court having unnecessarily to read the papers in advance of the hearing date.  The President reserves the right to refuse any request for an adjournment, even where it is on consent of all parties. 

17. When a matter is adjourned to another date, it will be necessary for the moving party to inform the President’s Registrar by 12 noon on the Tuesday preceding the adjourned date whether it is anticipated that the matter will proceed for hearing on the adjourned date and, if so, what reliefs will be sought.  If it is anticipated that the matter will be further adjourned, the moving party must so inform the President’s Registrar as soon as is reasonably possible and, in any event, by the same deadline.

Failure to Comply with these Directions

18. A failure to comply with the directions set out in this Practice Direction in respect of any matter may lead to the application being adjourned or struck out on such terms, including as to costs, as the Court may determine.

David Barniville
President of the High Court
29^th November, 2022