HISTORIC FIRST EVER HIGH COURT SITTING IN FERMOY
The High Court this week set a precedent by holding its first ever sitting in Fermoy. The Fermoy District Court was chosen due to its state of the art facility, which has been recently refurbished and now meets all the requirements, which enable such proceedings to take place.
It is not often that the High Court holds its trials in small towns like Fermoy, but this might soon change as more non-jury trials, similar to the ones tried in Fermoy this week, are moving out of Dublin.
Thomas Brown, chief clerk at Fermoy District Court, explains the reasons why the local facility was chosen by the High Court for the entire week.
“The main reason is that we have a brand new building with all the required facilities. We have the right infrastructure in place and the right size court. We can offer good road links to Cork. The Fermoy District Court is now the jewel in the crown and it’s a great boost for the town that the High Court decided to come here. This month we had the District Court, Circuit Court and the High Court, all, sitting here.”
A number of other towns including Midleton and Mallow were considered for the proceedings this week, but Fermoy was chosen to be the final selection. High Court registrar David Colbert points out, “the experience so far has been very good. The High Court has been sitting here since Monday and it will be here for the rest of the week.”
He continued, “The Central Criminal Court and the High Court have two cases at the moment in Cork. We are trying to use all facilities in Cork effectively and to get the maximum benefit from the new Fermoy Courthouse.”
The cases tried by the High Court this week are non-jury trials and Circuit Court appeals with one of the cases being a long disputed planning case. The judge presiding over the proceedings is Mr Justice Frank Clarke and the senior counsel are John Rogers, John Gleeson and John Aelmore.
Mr. Brown is confident that this will not be an one off case and that the High Court will come to Fermoy again in the near future. The refurbishment of Fermoy Courthouse cost €2.7 million and it took 25 months to complete.
Published:
Thursday 17th July 7:39pm
