Want to know what happened in a case

Big Lar

I'm just being nosy here but a person that I know was in the district court lately for committing a driving offense, he told me he got a fine but I dont believe it.

I've had a look around the courts website but its a bit all over the place to a novice. Are those records in the public domain and if so how can I access them ?

Thanks

CIARAN_BOYLE

Big Lar wrote: »

I'm just being nosy here but a person that I know was in the district court lately for committing a driving offense, he told me he got a fine but I dont believe it.

I've had a look around the courts website but its a bit all over the place to a novice. Are those records in the public domain and if so how can I access them ?

Thanks

nah the higher courts are available but the lower courts aren't

ResearchWill

Big Lar wrote: »

I'm just being nosy here but a person that I know was in the district court lately for committing a driving offense, he told me he got a fine but I dont believe it.

I've had a look around the courts website but its a bit all over the place to a novice. Are those records in the public domain and if so how can I access them ?

Thanks

The volume of DC cases in a day, it would be difficult to track down a decision.

BTW why dont you believe he got a fine for most DC traffic offences it is usual only to recieve a fine, except of course drink driving.

mikemac1

Pretty much all local papers have a court report section

If you know the date or even just the week the person was in court they may well be in the local paper

nuac

or with great respect, get a life.

I am often amazed how curious people can be about what is not their business,

I recall many years ago buying a property in trust. A quite a number of people tried to get me to identify the new owner

ResearchWill

nuac wrote: »

or with great respect, get a life.

I am often amazed how curious people can be about what is not their business,

I recall many years ago buy a property in trust. A quite a number of people tried to get me to identify the new owner

I would disagree, matters of a criminal nature are public and should be. If the OP is curious say because this person was convicted of Drink Driving, and now saying he only got a fine when a mandatory disquilification is always used in such matters, say the person is still driving then the OP has every right to be nosey.

If you do the crime you deserve the punishment, which includes all knowing what you did and how you are punished.

Who buys a house in thrust on the other hand is usually no ones business.

Big Lar

nuac wrote: »

or with great respect, get a life.

It's work related, and the person in question drives for a living. There is a lot of tension between management and employees at the minute and I don't want to aggravate it by asking for proof. This would be a simpler workaround

Nermal

Government is supposed to be committed to making data freely available (cf. property prices). Where's our freely available legal cases database?

ResearchWill

Big Lar wrote: »

It's work related, and the person in question drives for a living. There is a lot of tension between management and employees at the minute and I don't want to aggravate it by asking for proof. This would be a simpler workaround

I would think there is an obligation on the company to inform their insurance company that a driver under the policy has a driving conviction, to properly inform them you would need to ask the guy for a copy of the DC order, and to confirm if no appeal has been lodged by him.

ResearchWill

Nermal wrote: »

Government is supposed to be committed to making data freely available (cf. property prices). Where's our freely available legal cases database?

The difference between property transactions and criminal trials, you can go and observe one freely anyday while the other is a transaction you cannot usually witness. So I don't think there is a need to have an easily available database of who was convicted for pissing in the street.

In any case most local towns report any case of note in the local paper.

Procrastastudy

Nermal wrote: »

Government is supposed to be committed to making data freely available (cf. property prices). Where's our freely available legal cases database?

http://www.bailii.org/ not as far as I know given any state money but there nevertheless...

There a difference between making data freely available and spoon feeding it to people. Court data has been freely available since 1937 (probably before) by walking into any court, with some obvious exceptions. There's also a certain point where data really is redundant. The district court seems and excellent example. If anything happens or any good jokes are made the media report it.

Anyone know of any Polish Charities in Ireland?

Milk & Honey

Big Lar wrote: »

It's work related, and the person in question drives for a living. There is a lot of tension between management and employees at the minute and I don't want to aggravate it by asking for proof. This would be a simpler workaround

It should be easy to find out when the person was in court if there are records of when he was absent from work. If the date is found it should be possible to get a copy of the court order.

Nermal

Procrastastudy wrote: »

http://www.bailii.org/ not as far as I know given any state money but there nevertheless...

There a difference between making data freely available and spoon feeding it to people. Court data has been freely available since 1937 (probably before) by walking into any court, with some obvious exceptions. There's also a certain point where data really is redundant. The district court seems and excellent example. If anything happens or any good jokes are made the media report it.

Thanks for the resource.

Realistically, any organisation that has a reporter in every court in the land every day that it's open would have to charge for data.

I guess I'm saying - surely the government ALREADY HAS a database (I may be totally wrong in this and the whole thing could still be largely paper based) - just let the public see it!

I can think of uses for even the most mundane data - who wouldn't want to know how often a service provider is brought to the small claims court? Or how many times an employer has been to an employment tribunal? That's with a moment's thought - when you free the data, people have a habit of coming up with interesting uses for it.

Procrastastudy

Nermal wrote: »

Thanks for the resource.

Realistically, any organisation that has a reporter in every court in the land every day that it's open would have to charge for data.

I guess I'm saying - surely the government ALREADY HAS a database (I may be totally wrong in this and the whole thing could still be largely paper based) - just let the public see it!

I can think of uses - who wouldn't want to know how often a service provider is brought to the small claims court? Or how many times an employer has been to an employment tribunal? That's with a moment's thought - when you free the data, people have a habit of coming up with interesting uses for it.

I'm frequently shocked by the amount of times (in my very short time studying law as an undergrad) how many times the answer is "We don't have that data" it's especially prevalent when you want to look at anything to do with prisons or re-offending.

That said the amount of people who might actually want the vast majority of information from the DC is probably quite limited. As for paper based as I understand it the vast majority is orally based! Obviously there is paper when there's a fine or what ever. That said I know very little.

L1011

For the OPs question - Google their name and "District Court". Unless you live, erm, where I do basically your local paper will probably have a website and put up the court reports.

Here, unless something funny happens it'll just be a tiny mention in small print and nobody will remember in a while - as the paper isn't archived. Rest of the country, its findable. I don't intend to move far!

Del2005

Procrastastudy wrote: »

That said the amount of people who might actually want the vast majority of information from the DC is probably quite limited. As for paper based as I understand it the vast majority is orally based! Obviously there is paper when there's a fine or what ever. That said I know very little.

Are there not court stenographers who record all that happens in court? Would it not be possible to just post the transcript of all cases, apart from the restricted courts, to a website and let people look if they want? We are already paying for it and it's accessible by just walking into a court room so it should be available elsewhere.

Procrastastudy

Del2005 wrote: »

Are there not court stenographers who record all that happens in court? Would it not be possible to just post the transcript of all cases, apart from the restricted courts, to a website and let people look if they want? We are already paying for it and it's accessible by just walking into a court room so it should be available elsewhere.

I could be wrong but I don't think there are stenographers in any court in Ireland. Perhaps they are just well hidden not that I've ever been in a DC or CC. My understanding is the CCJ is wired to have everything recored but isn't used.

A shame as when you look at the US they've been recording things for donkeys years. For example Roe v Wade is available to listen to and is quite interesting.