Have to go to court

clearz

Ok this is the story. A few months back me and my brother witnessed a young person geting the sh1t knocked out of him. After it was over we brought him to the guarda station were he was brought to hospital and we went back and identified the people involved. I was completely wasted and did not remember the next day. A while later I ger a phone call from the garda asking me did I want to make a statement and I said no which was fine with them. My brother went ahead and made a statement along with another witness. So anyway all was fine until the other day a guard lands upto my my house and hands my mother 2 witness summons for me and my brother saying that we have to go to court in November. Do I have to do this. My reason for not making the statement was I did not want to make a fool of myself saying I could not remember to the gards. Now I have to stand up in front of a judge, soliciters, guards and a courtroom full of people and say it. Surely there is a way out of this. This is the last bloody time ill help anybody.

Rb

I don't think you're legally obliged to appear in court.Ring you're solicitor and ask them, I'm sure theres ways of getting out of it anyway.

Borzoi

rb_ie wrote:

I don't think you're legally obliged to appear in court..

Actually that is the entire point of a summons - failure to show is 'contempt of court' whuich usually pisses of the judge no end. They'll then issue a bench warrant for your arrest to the gards who will make you appear.

If you have nothing to say of relevance, try explaining to the garda involved in the case

Superman

Man, just go you can help somebody!
No wonder ireland has became such a ****ty place, nobody likes to HELP anybody unless they get something out of it!

HarryD

I think you should do everything you can to nail the f00kers that hurt the young fella.
If you identified correctly on the night that's the most important thing.
If you since have forgotten what they look like, it's not as important.
When you see em again it might spark yer memory.

You'd appreciete it if you were on the receiving end of a beating.

delly

Superman wrote:

Man, just go you can help somebody!
No wonder ireland has became such a ****ty place, nobody likes to HELP anybody unless they get something out of it!

Its not that he doesn't want to help someone, its that he was locked at the time, and he may actually do more harm than good imho.

clearz

Superman wrote:

Man, just go you can help somebody!
No wonder ireland has became such a ****ty place, nobody likes to HELP anybody unless they get something out of it!

Did you even read my post. How can I help sombody by standing up and saying I cant remember because I was pissed as a fart myself. I did my bit anyway bringing him to the station.

pickarooney

What don't you remember? You described it acccurately enough in your first post.

seamus

As said, you are legally obliged to appear. I personally wouldn't have any gripe with standing up and going, "I don't remember, I was hammered.", I would appreciate the opportunity to see the court system in action, and get paid for it.

Talk to the Garda in charge, and explain that it will highly discredit the case for a witness to be say, "I don't remember anything about, I was really, really drunk.". It immediately renders any visual ID on the evening by you, inadmissable, and casts doubts on the reliability of your brother's statement.

If you're interested in being honest, i.e. not lying about what you saw, then you could do more harm by standing up there in the first place.

clearz

pickarooney wrote:

What don't you remember? You described it acccurately enough in your first post.

Did it ever cross your mind that I mght have asked my brother. Jaysus this thread is starting to sound like a bloody courtroom. All I asked for was some advice not an interrogation.

clearz

seamus wrote:

As said, you are legally obliged to appear. I personally wouldn't have any gripe with standing up and going, "I don't remember, I was hammered.", I would appreciate the opportunity to see the court system in action, and get paid for it.

Talk to the Garda in charge, and explain that it will highly discredit the case for a witness to be say, "I don't remember anything about, I was really, really drunk.". It immediately renders any visual ID on the evening by you, inadmissable, and casts doubts on the reliability of your brother's statement.

If you're interested in being honest, i.e. not lying about what you saw, then you could do more harm by standing up there in the first place.

Thanks Seamus thats what I am looking for.

vasch_ro

the be all and end all is that you have been summonsed and you have no choice
you have to go
there could be a glitch and u may have been summonsed accidently , but a summons is a court order and removes any element of choice that you may ahve had..........
if u show up and your brother the culpirt will probably plead guilty anyway and u may not even be required

if the sitiuation was reversed how would u feel ?

CuLT

clearz wrote:

Did it ever cross your mind that I mght have asked my brother. Jaysus this thread is starting to sound like a bloody courtroom. All I asked for was some advice not an interrogation.

Yeah, jeez christ people, when someone looks for this sort of info, read the damn post, assume it's honest (as there's no point in lying) and either decide you have something relevant to add or not.

woosaysdan

what was the quote that homer simpson uses when he is summons for jury duty?!? something about been bias to all races or something

gerire

I dont see any harm in turning up, saying yes I was there, but unfortunately I dont recall the incident, and this is why I didn't make a statement in the first place. Its not going to be that embarresing, just let your brother and the other witnesses make the comments on the actual event

mycroft

Heres what you do.

Arrive early, ask a Gardaí "who is here from the DPP" when they arrive walk up to them and explain your situation.

The Gardaí don't call witnesses in criminal prosecutions the DPP, and they're not going to call a witness who can cast doubt on your brothers testimony ie

"Your brother was locked and he can't remember, how can you?"
"Oh you weren't as drunk, but you had been drinking"

Cactus Col

Maybe you blamed the wrong people

surely the other side has the right to say the lads who identified them were drunk and aren't reliable

knifey_spoonie

Lads would you give it up he's doing the right thing, by not showing up, if he does any 3rd rate defence would have his and his bro's testimony thrown out

I dont know if it is this thread or not but Clearz aint doing the best on the old karma front

clearz

knife_fighter wrote:

Lads would you give it up he's doing the right thing, by not showing up, if he does any 3rd rate defence would have his and his bro's testimony thrown out

I dont know if it is this thread or not but Clearz aint doing the best on the old karma front

Your dead right. Since the beginning of the summer a lot of very bad stuff has started happeining to me.

Naos

above: just gotta laugh ...

karma - reputation clearz...

Anyway Im on the opinion of talking to the DPP same as the person who stated above. If not just say u were locked, ur brothers statement would not be thrown out, as he made a statement on the night in question. If he can back it up with identifying, plus be good for ur bro, give him support..

Tommy Vercetti

if you were drunk at the time, you will get torn apart in court - fact

clearz

I see a lot of people have given me bad rep because of this thread. I did not know we had I few scumbag supporters in here. One nice person even went as far as calling me a 'Wanker'. I wonder is that one of the knackers that is up in court. You know who you are.