Professional Disciplinary List

The President of the High Court hereby issues the following Practice Direction in accordance with the general authority of the President of the High Court and s. 11(12) and (13) of the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020.

Introduction

1. Practice Direction HC 115 is hereby revoked with effect from Friday 20 December 2024 and is replaced by this Practice Direction which shall commence on that date.
2. This Practice Direction is intended to apply to all applications, appeals and other proceedings falling under Orders 53, 53A, 53B, 53C, 53D, 53E and 95 of the Rules of the Superior Courts or which are otherwise heard in the Professional Disciplinary List by the President of the High Court or his or her nominee (“professional disciplinary applications”).

Hearing of Professional Disciplinary Applications

3. Professional disciplinary applications should be issued in the Central Office of the High Court and will be given the next available date in the Professional Disciplinary List.  In cases of utmost urgency, practitioners should contact the Registrar at hcpresidentsregistrar@courts.ie to enquire whether an earlier date can be given.
4. Professional disciplinary applications will be heard at 2pm each Monday, save where otherwise directed by the President.  Such applications may, where necessary, also be listed for hearing at 2pm on a Friday.  Longer applications may be listed for hearing on such other days as may be determined by the President.
5. Until further notice, and save where otherwise directed by the President, professional disciplinary applications will be heard on a hybrid basis where the judge and registrar will sit physically in court and the practitioners and litigants will have the option to attend and participate either in person in court or remotely. 
6. Where one or more of the participants wish to participate remotely, it will be necessary to obtain the relevant log in details.  For legal practitioners, virtual courtroom log in details for the Professional/Disciplinary List can be found at the following websites:

   
   https://members.lawlibrary.ie
   https://www.lawsociety.ie/Solicitors
   
   Any unrepresented party should contact highcourtvmr@courts.ie to obtain the relevant log in details. When contacting that address, the relevant party must provide the name of the case, the record number and the date of the hearing as well as indicating the status of the party.

Format of Papers for Professional Disciplinary List

7. Special directions are given at paragraph 12 below for confirmation of sanction applications.
8. The moving party in a professional disciplinary application is responsible for providing the papers for the application to the Professional Disciplinary Registrar. 
9. Unless otherwise directed by the President, the moving party is required to provide the papers for the professional disciplinary application in hard and soft copy form.
10. Hard copy papers must be bound or contained in a folder and must be indexed and clearly paginated.  Hard copy papers must be lodged in the List Room and not in the Central Office.  Any additional papers intended to be relied upon by the moving party or by any of the other parties to the application must also be lodged in hard copy in the List Room. 
11. Soft copy papers must be provided to the Professional Disciplinary Registrar on an electronic file sharing platform or by email sent to hcpresidentsregistrar@courts.ie.  In the event that a party does not have access to a file sharing platform, the Professional Disciplinary Registrar will create a file share folder for provision of the soft copy papers to the Court.

Format of Papers for Confirmation of Sanction Applications

12. Papers for Confirmation of sanction applications should be lodged by the applicant/moving party in the following format:

1. All papers for the application should be uploaded in soft copy format to the Courts Service Sharefile platform. Practitioners should contact the Registrar at hcpresidentsregistrar@courts.ie to obtain a link to the relevant Sharefile folder in advance of the deadline for the lodging of papers as detailed at paragraphs 13-15 below.
2. A slimmed down hard copy booklet of papers should also be provided and lodged in the List Room in accordance with the directions below.  The booklet should contain only the following:

1. the initiating document (ex parte docket/notice of motion);
2. the grounding affidavit and any further affidavits;
3. the relevant complaint;
4.  the notice of inquiry;
5. the report of the relevant fitness to practise committee or equivalent committee;
6. the transcript of the hearing before the relevant professional disciplinary council/board/sanctioning body only (the transcripts for the fitness to practise hearing itself must be provided in soft copy form only, see sub-paragraph (c) below);
7. the decision of the relevant council/board/sanctioning body; and
8. any correspondence relevant to the hearing of the confirmation application.

3. All other exhibits including the transcripts of the fitness to practise hearing should be provided as part of the exhibits to the affidavit in soft copy form through the Courts Service Sharefile platform only.

Date and Time for Lodging Papers

13. Hard copy papers must be lodged by the moving party in the List Room, marked with the words “Professional Disciplinary List” and the return or adjourned date of the application, as the case may be, and for the attention of the Professional Disciplinary Registrar, and also soft copy papers must be provided to the Professional Disciplinary Registrar by 12 noon on the Tuesday preceding the date of the hearing of the professional disciplinary application. 
14. Papers for a professional disciplinary application which is listed for a date other than a Monday or a Friday must also be lodged in hard copy and provided in soft copy in the same manner and with the same markings as set out at para. 9 above by 12 noon on the Tuesday preceding the hearing date.
15. Save in exceptional cases, no additional papers will be accepted in respect of a professional disciplinary application after 12 noon on the Tuesday preceding the hearing date.
16.   Any additional papers in respect of a professional disciplinary application must also be provided in hard and soft copy by that same deadline.

Further Information Required where Application Adjourned

17. When a professional disciplinary application is adjourned to another date, it will be necessary for the moving party to inform the Professional Disciplinary Registrar by 12 noon on the Tuesday preceding the adjourned date whether it is anticipated that the application will proceed for hearing on the adjourned date and, if so, what reliefs will be sought.  If it is anticipated that the application will be further adjourned, the moving party must so inform the Professional Disciplinary Registrar by the same deadline.

Failure to Comply with these Directions

18. A failure to comply with the directions set out in this Practice Direction in respect of any professional disciplinary application may lead to the application being adjourned or struck out on such terms, including as to costs, as the Court may determine.

David Barniville
President of the High Court
4 December 2024