How long can they wait before bringing you to court?

maidhc

unkel wrote:

The summons is either a registered letter you sign for or a letter personally delivered by a Garda (that you do not sign for). I guess the courts will take her/his word for it that said Garda has indeed personally delivered the letter?

Yes. And a "complaint" is what the Garda makes in order to get a summons.

The courts accept a "statutory declaration of service", which is just that.

Service of summons need not be made by a garda until 7 clear days before trial... I had to look that up...(Courts Act 1991, s22) normally they don't cut it that fine though and you get the summons by post around the date of the complaint.

Anan1

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this thread - you've all been a great help.:)

unkel

maidhc wrote:

a "complaint" is what the Garda makes in order to get a summons.

The courts accept a "statutory declaration of service", which is just that.

Service of summons need not be made by a garda until 7 clear days before trial...

So, to summarise, I could commit a simple parking offence on 01/01/2008. A garda could call on my door on 01/01/2015 with a summons to appear in court on 08/01/2015?

Madness, surely?

NB I'm not having a go at any poster here. Thanks a lot for all your help. Just trying to establish what the legalities are...

Marcus.Aurelius

Pay the damn fine, it's only €70. Excessive delay is indeed set at the Judge's discretion, so pay the damn fine and stop worrying about it.

Marcus.Aurelius

unkel wrote:

So, to summarise, I could commit a simple parking offence on 01/01/2008. A garda could call on my door on 01/01/2015 with a summons to appear in court on 08/01/2015?

Madness, surely?

NB I'm not having a go at any poster here. Thanks a lot for all your help. Just trying to establish what the legalities are...

Would seem to be the case, but any reasonable judge would dismiss the case.

Anan1

maoleary wrote:

Pay the damn fine, it's only €70. Excessive delay is indeed set at the Judge's discretion, so pay the damn fine and stop worrying about it.

Have you taken the time to actually read this thread?

maidhc

unkel wrote:

So, to summarise, I could commit a simple parking offence on 01/01/2008. A garda could call on my door on 01/01/2015 with a summons to appear in court on 08/01/2015?

No, because when he makes a "complaint" (witin the 6mths) the district court will give him court date in the next available slot.

Our man in Havana

maidhc wrote:

No, because when he makes a "complaint" (witin the 6mths) the district court will give him court date in the next available slot.

Sometimes the next slot might be 6-12 months away. That is certainly the case in the Dublin courts.

unkel

So we are now talking 6 months for the complaint + a maximum of 12 months for the next slot = 18 months

What is the story with the 5/6/7 years you mentioned, maidhc?

Another one: can a court session be cancelled? If so, what happens?

maidhc

unkel wrote:

What is the story with the 5/6/7 years you mentioned, maidhc?

Another one: can a court session be cancelled? If so, what happens?

Adjournments. The particular case I refer to was adjourned about 7 times for various reaons (garda not being able to attend and a case of interest being before the High Court being the main reasons).

When a case is adjourned (cancelled) it is given a new date.

Jo King

Bond-007 wrote:

Sometimes the next slot might be 6-12 months away. That is certainly the case in the Dublin courts.

The next available slot will be within a few weeks around Dublin. If the accused does not plead guilty, and wants a hearing date, it may be put back a number of months for hearing.

Our man in Havana

Yee do things differently in the city so. Down here we call those cases up for mention. But generally for small matters the trial happens the same day.