The District Court () is the lowest court in the Irish court system and the main court of

summary jurisdiction Summary jurisdiction, in the widest sense of the phrase, in English law includes the power asserted by courts of record to deal ''brevi manu'' (directly) with contempts of court without the intervention of a jury. Probably the power was originally ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It has responsibility for hearing minor criminal matters, small civil claims, liquor licensing, and certain

family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriag ...

applications. It is also responsible for indicting the accused and sending them forward for trial at the

Circuit Court Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. It may refer to: * Courts that literally sit 'on circuit', i.e., judges move around a region or country to different towns or cities where they will hear cases; * Courts that s ...

and Central Criminal Court.

Jurisdiction

The District Court is a court of local and limited jurisdiction. The civil jurisdiction is limited to damages not exceeding €15,000; the court has no equitable jurisdiction. The court has the power to renew licences for the sale of intoxicating liquor and grant licences for lotteries. The family jurisdiction of the court includes the power to award guardianship, grant protection or barring orders, and award maintenance of up to €150 a week per child, €500 per week for a spouse or a lump sum up to €15,000. The criminal jurisdiction is limited to

summary offence A summary offence or petty offence is a violation in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment (required for an indictable offence). Canada In Canada, summary offe ...

s – i.e. offences heard without a jury where the maximum punishment is 12 months imprisonment.

Indictable offence In many common law jurisdictions (e.g. England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore), an indictable offence is an offence which can only be tried on an indictment after a preliminary hearing ...

s may also be tried by the court provided the accused, the judge and the Director of Public Prosecutions agree. In such a case the maximum penalty imposed by the judge for the indictable offence can not exceed 12 months imprisonment. Murder, treason, rape and aggravated sexual assault are crimes that can not be disposed of summarily in such a manner.

Bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...

hearings for offences triable by both the District Court itself and the

are heard here also with a right to appeal to the High Court for a refusal to grant bail. Most of the offences are usually minor as the more serious cases are sent to the Circuit Court and Central Criminal Court. The District Court continues to hold

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...

hearings for the more senior criminal court, although since 1967, the court no longer has any discretion whether or not to send forward the accused, as long as the DPP serves a book of evidence on the accused.

Appeals

All judgements of the District Court in both civil and criminal trials can be appealed to a ''de novo'' hearing in front of the Circuit Court. The decisions of a District Court judge can also be judicially reviewed by the High Court.

Organisation

The court consists of a president and sixty-three judges. Although, strictly speaking, there is just one District Court, in reality for the purposes of the administration of justice the country is divided into a Dublin Metropolitan District (covering the same area as the

Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace") is the national police and security service of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards". The service is headed by the Garda Commissio ...

Dublin Metropolitan Area The Greater Dublin Area (GDA; Irish: ''Mórcheantar Bhaile Átha Cliath''), or simply Greater Dublin, is an informal term that is taken to include the city of Dublin and its hinterland, with varying definitions as to its extent. At the expansive ...

) and 23 District Court areas. At least one judge is assigned to each District Court area and a significant number of judges are normally assigned to the Dublin Metropolitan District. The District Court sitting in a particular location is normally referred to as (name of town) District Court, e.g. Tullamore District Court.

Judges

Judges of the District Court, other than the President, are styled e.g. Judge John Smith (or sometimes, as District Judge John Smith, or simply Judge Smith) and addressed in court as "judge" ( Irish: ''A Bhreithimh''). Prior to the Courts Act 1991, judges of the District Court were known as justices of the District Court or commonly as district justices and styled e.g. District Justice John Smith or Justice Smith (N.B. not ''Mr'' Justice Smith as this was and is the style of a superior court judge). The President, as an judge of the Circuit Court, is entitled to the style of a circuit judge, so is styled e.g. His/Her Honour Judge Smith instead.

President of the District Court

The President of the District Court was established under the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961 Part 4.

Children Court

The Children Court is an ancillary court of District Court, whose role is to deal with minor offences and most

indictable In many common law jurisdictions (e.g. England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore), an indictable offence is an offence which can only be tried on an indictment after a preliminary hearing ...

offences where the defendant is below the age of 18. The

has its own permanently sitting Children Court centre in

Smithfield, Dublin Smithfield () is an area on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Ireland. Its focal point is a public square, formerly an open market and Common land, common, now officially called Smithfield Plaza, but known locally as Smithfield Square ...

, while across the rest of the country the Children Court usually sits in the same location as the District Court, but on different times and days.

History

The current District Court was established in 1961. However, the jurisdiction vested in it stems from the earlier courts of

petty session Courts of petty session, established from around the 1730s, were local courts consisting of magistrates, held for each petty sessional division (usually based on the county divisions known as hundreds) in England, Wales, and Ireland. The session ...

s. Petty sessions were originally held by justices of the peace, who were lay people (and in Ireland, typically members of the

Protestant Ascendancy The Protestant Ascendancy (also known as the Ascendancy) was the sociopolitical and economical domination of Ireland between the 17th and early 20th centuries by a small Anglicanism, Anglican ruling class, whose members consisted of landowners, ...

), as preliminary hearings for

quarter session The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Scotland establ ...

s and the assizes). From 1836, the justices acted under the supervision of

resident magistrate A resident magistrate is a title for magistrates used in certain parts of the world, that were, or are, governed by the British. Sometimes abbreviated as RM, it refers to suitably qualified personnel—notably well versed in the law—brought int ...

s. The Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851 regulated petty sessions, organising the country into petty sessions districts and providing for the appointment of clerks of petty sessions. A series of Summary Jurisdiction (Ireland) Acts, beginning in 1851, vested petty sessions with summary jurisdiction in minor criminal matters. Both these Acts are still on the statute book, though heavily amended. In Dublin, the divisional magistrates exercised similar power to petty sessions under the Dublin Police Acts. During the

War of Independence Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

, the

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the island was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom. A sep ...

retreated to barracks, and petty sessions could not be held in most of the country. A system of

Dáil Courts The Dáil Courts (also known as Republican Courts) were the judicial branch of government of the Irish Republic, which had unilaterally declared independence in 1919. They were formally established by a decree of the First Dáil on 29 June 192 ...

was set up by the

First Dáil First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

to replace them. A Dáil parish court exercised summary jurisdiction in IRA-controlled areas. After the outbreak of the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...

, however, the Provisional Government decided to "revert" to the British courts, pending the report of a commission headed by

Lord Glenavy Baron Glenavy, of Milltown, Dublin , Milltown in the County of Dublin, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 26 July 1921 for the noted Irish lawyer and Unionist politician James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy , Sir Ja ...

on what would replace them. It decided, however, immediately to make changes to summary jurisdiction by dismissing all remaining resident magistrates and terminating the commissions of justices of the peace, many of whom had resigned anyway. It then proceeded to appoint 27 new resident magistrates who would sit alone without justices of the peace, giving them the title of district justices. The District Justices (Temporary Provisions) Act 1923 changed the name of petty sessions to district courts and confirmed the appointment of the existing district justices. The Dáil parish courts were wound-up separately by the ''Dáil Éireann Courts (Winding Up) Act 1923''. The District Court of Justice was formally established in 1924, replacing the renamed district courts and the Dublin Metropolitan Police Court. The Courts Acts of 1961 replaced this court with the current District Court.

References

External links

* {{Judiciary of the Republic of Ireland, state=collapsed Courts of the Republic of Ireland