Court lawyers have been ordered to smarten up after several dropped in on remote hearings wearing leisurewear, including some from their car.
Legal eagles attending formal court proceedings are required to dress accordingly – but standards slipped during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the President of the High Court Mary Irvine.
She was so alarmed that she has issued a strongly-worded letter to solicitors and barristers, instructing them to “dress in business attire which is suitably formal for a court setting” and attendance from a car “is not acceptable”.
A legal source told the Irish Mirror: “Some lawyers have been pushing things a bit.
“There was at least one hearing where someone logged on from a car. That’s what has prompted this.”
The source added: “Overall, the remote hearings have been hugely successful and most people are obeying the rules.
“It’s particularly good for the lawyers, because they can have two or three devices going, logged into hearings where they might only have to make an appearance before the judge for a couple of minutes.
“It saves them a lot of time and expense and it means the courtrooms aren’t as packed with people hanging on to be heard.”
But High Court president Irvine has had enough and issued her rebuke in accordance with the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provision) Act 2000.
She wrote: “As with physical hearings, all remote hearings must be conducted in a manner which is consistent with the dignified and orderly administration of justice.”
Her instructions called for participation from “a fixed premises which is, as far as practicable, free from background noise or any other avoidable disruption” and that calling from a “motor vehicle, save in wholly exceptional circumstances, is not acceptable”.
She added: “Practitioners are also requested to dress in business attire which is suitably formal for a court setting.”
The practice of allowing court hearings to be conducted by remote access became commonplace for the first time ever as a result of Covid-19 measures.
However, the Bar of Ireland, which represents the country’s barristers, has urged that the law should return to face-to-face proceedings, where possible.
A statement issued last May claimed: “There are, in our mutual experience, multiple and multi-faceted disadvantages with such hearings, when compared to the usual, in-person hearings that have delivered justice for centuries.”
The Bar said it does recognise “the justice system has undergone changes that are, and should be, here to stay” and “the use of remote hearings to deal with short or uncontroversial procedural business is unobjectionable, and indeed to be welcomed in many cases, even after the current crisis has passed”.
