Gardai attending Court

PollyPrince

Hi all,

New poster - at the moment I have all stages complete and I am waiting on my call to Templemore.

I have some questions on the court process for Gardai and it's something that I am completely unfamiliar with. Would love if any current Gardai or anyone with the required info could help.

1) How often do rank-and-file Gardai attend court?

2) Is the training in Templemore adequate to prepare you for this?

3) How many people are present in court - is it nerve racking?

4) What is the standard process on a day that you are required in court?

Looking forward to getting some insight into this!

Thanks!!

Alfasudcrazy

(1)
Depends how active you are I suppose. Some Gardai seem to manage to rarely appear in court. There was this Garda in my station who was there for two years before appearing in the district court - the Judge asked him 'are you new here?' :eek:

Generally most active Gardai will have to attend court on a weekly basis minimum. I often had to attend court 3/4 times in one week and sometimes your district court cases can conflict with your circuit court cases.

(2)
Its basic enough (at least it was in my time). A good idea is to simply sit in the public gallery of a district or a circuit court and observe what goes on. After a few such experiences you should have a good idea what is required from a Garda perspective. Like all aspects of policing you learn from experience as you go along. Court cases will continue to throw up new and unexpected situations right through your career so you can never say you know it all at any point.

(3)
Again that depends on your location. Rural courts can be quite small and obviously city based courts are quite large gatherings but all have the same intensity in terms of giving your evidence right and having all your documents etc. Of course it will be nerve wracking the first few times but you eventually don't pay much attention to who or how many people are in court. I was more concerned with the complexities of my cases and making sure I had all my witnesses present and all my facts right so as to give the best presentation of my case in the witness box.

(4)
Well while all courts proceed in a general standard way there is no rigid procedure as circumstances change and so you can never predict with certainty how things will proceed.
Lets take a typical drunk driver case. These days your case could be listed for court a number of times before it actually goes to a full hearing - that means where all the evidence is heard and the case is defended by the drunk driver's solicitor and the judge either convicts or dismisses the case. So you may not be required to even attend at the first few hearings. Usually the first hearing or listing (means the same thing) will be for simple giving evidence of arrest charge and caution of the drunk driver. At the next hearing the drunk driver's (the defendant) solicitor will apply for disclosure of documents from the Gardai (a so called Gary Doyle order). At the next hearing a date is set for full hearing of the case. If all goes to plan the case is heard at this hearing and there is an end outcome to it. If the defendant communicates to your superintendent or court presenter his intention to plead guilty in the case you may not be required in court at all.
Even after the district court process is completed the defendant could appeal the case to the circuit court - either a full appeal in which case you will have to go through the whole thing again from scratch at the circuit court or just an appeal against severity of sentence. In the latter case you would not usually be required to attend court as this is something your superintendent or court presenter would deal with.
You always have to have an up to date list of a defendants previous convictions but only ever mention these at the conclusion of the case and when asked to by the judge.