Family Courts Act 2024
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Family High Court on Circuit | ||
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17. The Act of 1936 is amended— | ||
(a) by the insertion of the following section after section 33: | ||
“Family High Court Circuits | ||
33A. (1) The Courts Service, after consultation with the President of the High Court and the Principal Judge of the Family High Court, may by order— | ||
(a) divide the State into Family High Court Circuits and make the distribution of the several counties in the State (other than the city of Dublin and the counties of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin) amongst the several Family High Court Circuits as it thinks proper, and | ||
(b) attach to each such Family High Court Circuit a name by which it shall be known. | ||
(2) The Courts Service, after consultation with the President of the High Court and the Principal Judge of the Family High Court, may by order— | ||
(a) alter the composition of a Family High Court Circuit by adding or removing part of a geographical area, and | ||
(b) where appropriate, attach to the Family High Court Circuit a name by which it shall be known in substitution for its existing name. | ||
(3) An order under subsection (2) may make provision for the continuation and completion of any family law proceedings in a Family High Court Circuit to which the order relates— | ||
(a) initiated before the commencement of the order, and | ||
(b) not completed before such commencement. | ||
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3), proceedings shall be regarded as being initiated on the day on which the originating document relating to the proceedings was issued. | ||
(5) Every order made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if either such House shall, within the next 21 days on which such House sits after such order is laid before it, pass a resolution annulling such order, such order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.”, | ||
(b) by the insertion of the following section after section 34: | ||
“Family High Court on Circuit | ||
34A. (1) Subject to subsections (6), (7) and (8), the Family High Court shall, not less than once in every year, at such times as shall be determined by the Principal Judge of the Family High Court, in consultation with the President of the High Court and having regard to any information provided by the Courts Service in relation to such sittings for which the Courts Service is responsible, sit in the appeal towns referred to in subsection (2) for the purposes mentioned in that subsection and to sit and hear family law proceedings. | ||
(2) Subject to subsections (6), (7) and (8), the Principal Judge of the Family High Court, following consultation with the President of the High Court and having regard to any relevant information provided by the Courts Service, shall designate the appeal towns in which the Family High Court shall sit in accordance with subsection (1) to hear appeals from the Family Circuit Court. | ||
(3) For the purposes of this section, one or more judges of the Family High Court shall hold sittings of the Family High Court in the appeal towns referred to in subsection (2) where their attendance is required as determined by the Principal Judge of the Family High Court, in consultation with the President of the High Court. | ||
(4) The Family High Court when sitting in an appeal town in accordance with this section shall be known and is in this Act referred to as ‘the Family High Court on Circuit’, and the sittings of the Family High Court in any such appeal town in accordance with this section shall be known and are in this Act referred to as ‘sittings of the Family High Court on Circuit’. | ||
(5) The Principal Judge of the Family High Court, following consultation with the President of the High Court and having regard to any information provided by the Courts Service on the number of matters listed for hearing and to the guiding principles in section 8 , shall determine, in respect of each sitting of the Family High Court on Circuit, the number of judges who shall sit for the purposes of the Family High Court on Circuit and the day and hour at which such sittings shall commence in an appeal town on each such Circuit and shall notify the Courts Service of that determination. | ||
(6) Where in respect of any sitting of the Family High Court on Circuit, the judge (or if more than one judge shall be sitting, the senior of the judges) who shall be sitting ascertains that there is no business to be transacted at such sittings in any particular appeal town, that judge shall, following engagement with the Courts Service, notify the Principal Judge of the Family High Court of that fact and may direct in writing that it shall not be obligatory to hold such sitting in that appeal town. | ||
(7) Where the Principal Judge of the Family High Court, following consultation with the President of the High Court, determines that the effective discharge of the business of the Family High Court so requires, he or she may direct that no sitting of the Family High Court on Circuit shall be held in a particular appeal town in a particular year and shall notify the Courts Service of any such direction. | ||
(8) Where the Principal Judge of the Family High Court, following consultation with the President of the High Court, gives a direction in accordance with subsection (7), appeals from the Family Circuit Court which would, but for such direction, be due for hearing in the appeal town concerned, shall be heard at— | ||
(a) a sitting of the Family High Court on Circuit in such other appeal town, or | ||
(b) the Family High Court sitting in Dublin, | ||
as the Principal Judge of the Family High Court may direct. | ||
(9) Where the Principal Judge of the Family High Court, following consultation with the President of the High Court, gives a direction under this section, he or she shall make arrangements for the direction to be sent to the county registrar for the county in which any appeal town so affected is situate.”, | ||
and | ||
(c) by the insertion of the following section after section 35: | ||
“Judges of Family High Court on Circuit | ||
35A. The Principal Judge of the Family High Court shall, if and when he or she thinks proper, travel and sit as a judge of the Family High Court on Circuit, and every other judge of the Family High Court shall travel and sit as a judge of the Family High Court when requested by the Principal Judge of the Family High Court to do so.”. |