No summons received, is court attendance required?

Exclamation Marc

Hi all,

Just a quick question I'm trying to answer to help a friend out.

She received a text from a garda telling her that she is needed in court next week as a witness.

The garda in question claimed to barristers that the court summons was given in april. (the trial was originally scheduled for march but new evidence came to light so it the trial suspended until next week.) but my friend never received the new summons for this trial nor expenses for the first trial.

I'm just unsure what sort of advice to give her as I'm unsure on summons on retrials or postponed cases. Seeing as the garda claims a new summons was given in April and it wasn't I'm assuming the original summons expired and a new one was needed, yet seeing as my friend never received it, is she obliged to attend?

Cheers for any advice.

coylemj

If the court session next week is as a result of an adjournment of the original case then the original witness summons is still in effect since it applies to any adjournment of the original trial.

Can't advise on witness expenses, if your friend submitted an expenses claim then it may be held over until the conclusion of the trial given that the eventual sentence could include an award for expenses which would include prosecution costs and witness expenses.

Exclamation Marc

coylemj wrote: »

If the court session next week is as a result of an adjournment of the original case then the original witness summons is still in effect since it applies to any adjournment of the original trial.

Can't advise on witness expenses, if your friend submitted an expenses claim then it may be held over until the conclusion of the trial given that the eventual sentence could include an award for expenses which would include prosecution costs and witness expenses.

The expenses part was just further information which I thought might help with determining her requirement to attend. I shall pass on the advice about the summons.

Thats perfect coylemj, I appreciate the quick advice

coylemj

You can't draw any conclusions from the fact that she wasn't paid expenses, there's a multitude of reasons why she hasn't been paid, I'd regard that as a completely separate issue from whether she needs to attend next week or not.