Court cases & reporting

razor8

I was called for jury service in Leitrim not long ago but not selected. I was following up on how the case went & curious to know why there is absolutely no reporting on the case?

I understand that in sensitive sexual assault cases the victims can ban all reporting but I understood the result of the case would still be published without naming anybody 

anyone clarify?

Uncle Pierre

Am guessing it's likely it's the sort of case that would only really be material for the local paper? Formerly worked with local papers myself. Several reasons it may not have been reported on, e.g.:

• case may not have gone ahead at all
• case may have been adjourned
• case may have been judged too dull, too technical, or too 'niche' to be of any great interest to local readership
• Editor may not have had room for it in the week it was written up, held it over with the intention of using it in a future edition, but then not have had room for it in the following week(s) either, when there was fresher material written.
• Reporter may even have decided themselves to just not bother writing it up, and not say a word about it! Doesn't happen very often, but has been known to happen all the same.

Basically, while papers are entitled to report on any case held in open court, there's no obligation on them to do so.

razor8

from the initial briefing before the jury was selected this case would definitely be of interest to a local newspaper and i have checked on courts.ie and the trial definitely took place but I'm not sure it has concluded

can a case be banned from reporting on?

Radio5

Reporting restrictions may have been imposed, depending on the nature of the case involved. that's always a possibility.

razor8

i understood restrictions can only be imposed on naming individuals but that entire cases couldn't be restricted?

ohnonotgmail

have you checked all of the local papers for reporting?

Uncle Pierre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118137414#Comment_118137414

It's possible, albeit rare, for a judge to impose a blanket reporting ban on a case. More common is a situation where parties such as defendant or alleged victim can't be identified. This can extend even to not being able to report other details of the alleged offence, such as location, if doing so would narrow things down so much for people with local knowledge that they'd know who you were talking about anyway.

Don't know if you're searching actual copies of newspapers, or if you're searching online? If online, using search terms such as names and locations might not yield any results for that particular case, then. Could also simply be that the paper doesn't put everything online.

Overall though, can't actually answer your question. Can only throw out possibilities for why a report might not have been published. And just to add to list of possibilities above - could also be the case that the paper simply didn't have a reporter available to cover the court that day. It's been known to happen. As stated above, while they're entitled to cover court proceedings, and indeed normally do cover them, there's no obligation on them to do so.

Uncle Pierre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118137430#Comment_118137430

Would expect there's only one paper in question here - The Leitrim Observer. Freesheets (if there's any in the area) don't generally carry local court reports, and unlikely a paper from a neighbouring county would send somebody across to cover courts in Leitrim unless there was some high-profile case involving somebody from that other county.

brian_t

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118140967#Comment_118140967

Your local library might keep back copies.

Homelander

There are loads of reasons. 99% of what goes on in court isn't reported in papers, on radio, or online. Not necessarily because it's not news-worthy, but because no-one was there to report on it.

Maybe they deemed it not interesting, maybe they didn't have the resources to cover it, maybe they were unaware it was taking place, who knows.

There are many local radio stations/papers that are almost never in court because they don't have the resources.

Uncle Pierre

Wouldn't say it's anywhere close to 99% - not outside of Dublin, anyway - but there are definitely court proceedings that are never reported on, for any or all of the reasons outlined above.

Am not aware of any regional radio stations that send to reporters to local courts as a matter of course, and as already stated, "freesheets" don't generally have reporters in the traditional sense of the word either, and instead fill their pages up with press releases, stuff lifted and re-written from other sources, etc.

Tends to be the traditional paid-for regional newspapers who generally cover the local District and Circuit Courts, but again, they're not always at every single sitting, and even for the sittings they're at, no obligation to report on absolutely everything dealt with.