The Irish Legal System by Byrne and McCutcheon

paulanthony

Hi
I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on this book and whether it is worth buying at the price below. It is a new edition from 2009.

Is it useful as a general overview of the Irish legal system in terms of the practical elements of practicing law or is it more geared towards undergraduate law students?

Thanks

P


http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781845922788/Byrne-and-McCutcheon-on-the-Irish-Legal-System

Available for about €85 with free p&p

Reloc8

With no disrespect to the authors of a very useful book, it is more useful to somebody studying towards a law degree than to practictioners in my opinion.

Tom Young

I agree with Reloc8 totally.

With the caveat that there are some practitioners who should be made to take a course in it but as an academic text it is excellent.

Tom

paulanthony

Thanks

I won't bother so

paulanthony

Anybody have any suggestions of a decent book from a practitioners point of view with a general overview of the Irish legal system?

Cheers

dats_right

paulanthony wrote: »

Anybody have any suggestions of a decent book from a practitioners point of view with a general overview of the Irish legal system?

Cheers

Quite simply, there isn't one! For one thing, despite what Tom Young says , I don't think many practitioners require a dummies guide to the legal system! Secondly, and I'm not trying to be smart or anything but it doesn't take years and years of study in many, many different areas of law and practice to become a lawyer for nothing. Certainly it is not possible to have a book which even touches on the main principles of the legal system that would suffice for practitioners. Rather there are very many textbooks covering very many individual areas.

OP, in the spirit of trying to assist you, perhaps you might give a little bit more detail as to what exactly you require and we may be able to assist you in terms of practioner textbooks.

paulanthony

dats_right wrote: »

Quite simply, there isn't one! For one thing, despite what Tom Young says , I don't think many practitioners require a dummies guide to the legal system! Secondly, and I'm not trying to be smart or anything but it doesn't take years and years of study in many, many different areas of law and practice to become a lawyer for nothing. Certainly it is not possible to have a book which even touches on the main principles of the legal system that would suffice for practitioners. Rather there are very many textbooks covering very many individual areas.

OP, in the spirit of trying to assist you, perhaps you might give a little bit more detail as to what exactly you require and we may be able to assist you in terms of practioner textbooks.

Thanks for replying,

As a recent law graduate, FE1 student and about to embark on a traineeship, I'm aware that it has taken, and will take, many years

I was hoping for something less related to specific areas of the law like tort, criminal etc and more focused on the day to day workings of the Irish legal system.

For example I was looking at the contents of the Byrne and McCutcheon book and noticed there are chapters like

Chapter 3: The Legal Profession
Solicitors
Barristers
The Law Officers
etc

Chapter 4: The Court System....

It is something like this I'm after as opposed o the rest of the book which seems to be about development of Irish law, the constitution, effect of EU law, criminal procedure etc.

Thanks

walrusgumble

paulanthony wrote: »

Thanks for replying,

As a recent law graduate, FE1 student and about to embark on a traineeship, I'm aware that it has taken, and will take, many years

I was hoping for something less related to specific areas of the law like tort, criminal etc and more focused on the day to day workings of the Irish legal system.

For example I was looking at the contents of the Byrne and McCutcheon book and noticed there are chapters like

Chapter 3: The Legal Profession
Solicitors
Barristers
The Law Officers
etc

Chapter 4: The Court System....

It is something like this I'm after as opposed o the rest of the book which seems to be about development of Irish law, the constitution, effect of EU law, criminal procedure etc.

Thanks

go into the law society/other law libraries and have a look at the books/journals/materials and be sure you have what you want before departing on your hard earned cash

read up on the district, ciruit and superior court rules might help(get them on courts.ie), probably a start, eg how to file what papers, when, what and when to deliver said papers to the other side, applications for judicial review and other actions like personal injuries (make sure you see the amedments!) see what forms are needed. Basically know what you have to do, last thing you want is to be stuck in the high court central office for 1-2 hours waiting to get papers filled (its busy in there) and then at your next turn, you realise you forgot something etc only to annoy both yourself and the person who is attending you. the courts.ie is a bit of a bible. as you know, it contains the legal diary, judgements, court rules and practice guidelines for various lists


books/articles from the law society on solicitor's conduct & ethics, guidelines, agreed/common practice, fees? legislation on solicitors? keep an eye on the irish law annuals/quaterly reports? there are a number of academic/pratical books on criminal law such as sentencing etc(as you know)
http://www.tottelpublishing.com/551/Bloomsbury-Professional-The-Law-on-Solicitors-in-Ireland.html

http://www.claruspress.ie/QRTL.html

Having a decent solicitor(s)/colleagues will probably help you when you are learning on the job. defintely read up on the rules on ethics, section 68 letters, common practice, rights & responsibilities of solicitors (you know this, of course)

Reloc8

To be honest, if you pick up a copy of the Byrne and McCutcheon book and find stuff in it that you don't know already, you should buy it as it will be useful to you.

You can also try this http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/product.php?intProductID=459 which is somewhat helpful in particular as regards the manner in which day to day court lists are run etc, if all that is foreign to you.