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Talk to the Hand!

This blog has looked at the drawbacks of informality in conducting court proceedings HERE.

It seems the situation can be worse than this blog had believed.

In Thema International Fund PLC v HSBC Institutional Trust Services [Ireland] (2011) IEHC the judge made the following remarks:

“It has become a growing practice for solicitors acting for parties in cases before the courts (and, I would venture to suggest, in particular, the Commercial Court) to copy correspondence to the court. Some lay litigants have adopted the same course.”

AND

“…care should be exercised that documents which may not ultimately be admitted are not brought to the court’s attention until such time as there has been a proper decision as to whether the relevant documentation is to be admitted.”

AND

“However, parties should exercise care to ensure that only documents which are properly before the court are included. It should not be assumed that a party has a right to bring documents to the court’s attention where there is at least an argument as to whether the document is properly before the court. Simply sending documents to the Court Registrar for the attention of the judge, without reaching agreement with the other side, is, in those circumstances not, in my view, proper practice.”