District court motor offence query

thecutter

Hi,

I was due in district court last week for a minor motor offence .

I contacted the courts to request an adjournment as I could not attend on that date and was advised to call back two days later to see what the judgement was.

I called up and was told that there was no conviction or penalty points served, and also no future date was set.

He did say that the guard 'may' re-issue a summons.

Does this mean that the case has been struck out or is it likely that the guard will re issue a summons for a minor offence?

I appreciate your feedback in advance

tom traubert

A likely explanation is that there was no appearance on the part of the prosecuting Garda and that the Judge struck it out "with liberty to re-enter".

The fact that the clerk advised that the summons "may" be re-issued suggests that you've dodged a bullet (so to speak), at least until such time as you're served again. You're in limbo basically, imho, unless you intend contacting the prosecuting Garda to find out.

Our man in Havana

They are now probably too late to reissue at this stage.

thecutter

Many thanks for your replies,

I was thinking that the garda didnt appear on the day

The fact that they didnt turn up im hoping that they dont follow up and issue another summons.

Its my understanding that they have up to two years to re issue one, is this correct?

Bloodwing

thecutter wrote: »

Many thanks for your replies,

I was thinking that the garda didnt appear on the day

The fact that they didnt turn up im hoping that they dont follow up and issue another summons.

Its my understanding that they have up to two years to re issue one, is this correct?

I'm not sure what the legal limit on re-issue is but hypothetically if a summons isn't applied for fairly quickly after the strike out an accused person would have a very good case for "justice delayed = justice denied". It'll all boil down to the argument the defence put forward and the Judges interpretation of everything before him/her.

coylemj

The OP says it was a 'minor' motoring offence so it's very unlikely that the Garda will re-enter the summons if he failed to appear for the original court case.

For all the Garda knows, the OP and his solicitor could have turned up for the case so as far as the Garda is concerned, he would be in for a roasting if he re-entered the summons and there was another day in court because the OP's solicitor could give him a hard time for making them show up for two separate days in court. The easiest thing for the Garda to do is nothing so it's highly unlikely the OP will hear any more on the matter.

thecutter

coylemj wrote: »

The OP says it was a 'minor' motoring offence so it's very unlikely that the Garda will re-enter the summons if he failed to appear for the original court case.

For all the Garda knows, the OP and his solicitor could have turned up for the case so as far as the Garda is concerned, he would be in for a roasting if he re-entered the summons and there was another day in court because the OP's solicitor could give him a hard time for making them show up for two separate days in court. The easiest thing for the Garda to do is nothing so it's highly unlikely the OP will hear any more on the matter.

This is exactly what I wanted to hear!! Thanks for the reply