Solicitors in Dublin-Dublin Solicitors and Free Legal Aid
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If you are looking for a solicitor in Dublin you may appreciate our look at various common legal problems that present themselves to Irish people. We will take a look at the
If you are looking for a solicitor in Dublin you may appreciate our look at various common legal problems that present themselves to Irish people. We will take a look at the
- criminal legal aid scheme for accused persons who do not have the resources to pay for their own defence,
- applying for maintenance orders in the District Court,
- the family law legal aid scheme,
- common employment law issues that crop up such as unfair dismissal,
- road traffic offences and driver disqualifications and the
- Civil Summons procedure
Free Legal Aid
The Criminal Legal Aid Scheme
The primary source of criminal legal aid in Ireland is the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act 1962 which was enacted in order to provide legal aid to those who could not afford it. There are a number of conditions to be met before you will be able to access legal aid from the scheme.Essentially two conditions must be present:
1. The accused person does not have the means to pay for a criminal defence lawyer themselves and
2. It is essential in the interests of justice, because of the seriousness of the charge or circumstances of the alleged crime, that the accused person be legally represented.
The first condition above is essentially a means test which the Judge will carry out in court by asking some questions of the accused such as "are you working" or "in receipt of social welfare"?
Different judges take slightly different attitudes to the granting of a legal aid certificate but generally if you are earning less than 400 euros per week you will have a good chance of being granted free legal aid.
The Judge may ask the Gardai about their view in this regard also before making a decision and if the Gardai advise the court that the accuse person appears to have plenty of property or other information of this nature then you may have some difficulty in getting a free legal aid certificate.
You may be asked to fill out a statement of means form where the Judge is sceptical of the accused person's answers or if the Gardai oppose the application for aid. Lying in this statement of means is an offence and is certainly not advisable.
Have you experienced the legal system in Ireland
What has been your experience?
If you have experienced the legal system in Ireland and had a good/bad experience please let us know below..
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Gloriousconfusion
Feb 14, 2012 @ 12:32 pm | delete
- Yes, I have instructed Irish solicitors to act as our agents in a case that covered UK and Ireland in a family law case. Amazing working long-distance like that - isn't technology a wonderful thing!
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solicitorsdublinhq
Feb 14, 2012 @ 12:54 pm | delete
- Thanks for your comment and advice (which I have taken now re email communication). If you want to give me any more advice I would appreciate it as you clearly know what you are doing on Squidoo,.
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Family Law in Ireland
Applying for a Maintenance Order
The Social Welfare act, 1993 obliges both spouses in a marriage to provide for each other and their children. Maintenance is also known as periodical payments orders after a divorce or judicial separation.
The Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) act 1976 governs the making of maintenance orders or periodical payments orders in Ireland.
Provision must be made for dependent children of the family and this includes children of both spouses or of either spouse. A dependent child is one who is under the age of 18 or 23 if in full time education.
The Status of Children Act 1987 obliges the maintenance of non marital children:
- To apply for a maintenance order under the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) act 1976 you must be a spouse and there is facility to apply for an interim maintenance order prior to the hearing of the application for a maintenance order.
- You will have to show that the other spouse has failed to provide proper maintenance in the circumstances and ultimately the Court will decide what is appropriate in each case.
The Family Law Legal Aid Scheme
District Court Family Law
Many people require subsidized legal aid for family law problems and there are two panels of solicitors maintained by the Civil Legal Aid board for family law matters.
One panel deals with divorce and separation cases and the other panel, the District Court panel of solicitor's scheme, deals with maintenance, domestic violence, custody, guardianship and access.
The District Court scheme requires that you make an application to your local family law centre to bring proceedings in the District Court under one of the headings of guardianship, access, domestic violence, maintenance and custody. If you are deemed to be eligible (income under 18,000 euros per annum and your case must have merit) then the family law centre will issue you with a legal aid certificate.
Once you are granted this legal aid certificate you will normally be given the list of solicitors on the family law District Court panel and asked to choose one to act for you.
You then give part III and part IV of the legal aid certificate to the solicitor and this will set out what legal action is authorised on your behalf. Your solicitor will then act on your behalf and institute the proceedings that he/she is authorised for.
Financial eligibility for civil legal aid
To qualify for civil legal aid your annual income must be less than %u20AC18,000 and your capital resources (such as property) must be less than 320,000 euros. You must make a contribution to the cost of this service and this will range from 10 euros for legal advice and 50 euros for legal aid.
Merit of your case
Your case must have merit also and this is a matter for the family law centre to decide.
Employment Law in Ireland
Sources of Employment Law
Employment law in Ireland affords significant rights to employees in the workplace. But many of those employment rights are under significant pressure and threat because of the difficult economic climate that employers find themselves in.Many employees are being put on short time/lay off, others find that their employers are seeking to amend their contract of employment by reducing wages and increasing the number of hours worked and some companies in receivership or liquidation are simply leaving their employees in the dark as to the employee's rights in such situations.
Irish employment law can be found in a huge range and body of legislation and can be difficult to understand or pin down.
For example the Organization of Working Time act of 1997 sets out many of your leave entitlements and rest period rights, the Payment of Wages Act 1991 covers how you are to be paid and your entitlements about deductions etc., the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 sets out the basic information that an employee is entitled to be given in writing about their contract of employment, the Unfair Dismissals act of 1993 covers what is considered to be an unfair dismissal, fair procedure and constructive dismissal and there is extensive legislation in place to enforce safety in the workplace and many other pieces of legislation brought about EU regulations and directives.
Irish employment law and employment rights in Ireland will also be determined by your contract of employment which is in the first instance a contract between you and your employer.
Road Traffic Offences in Ireland
Driver Disqualifications
Most road traffic offences in Ireland are set out in the Road Traffic Acts 1961-2006, particularly the Road Traffic Act 1961.Before taking a look at the most common road traffic offences lets take a look at driver disqualifications which is an area of concern and worry to many drivers who are brought before the Courts on road traffic summonses or charge sheets dealing with road traffic offences.
Driver disqualifications
There are three types of driver disqualifications:
1. Ancillary disqualification
This is the disqualification from driving which is within the discretion of a Judge under the Road Traffic Act 1961. This disqualification can be imposed for any offence under the Road Traffic Acts.
2. Special disqualification
A special disqualification can be imposed where the Gardai or a licencing authority applies to court on the grounds that you are an unfit person to drive a motor vehicle because of incompetence, disability or other grounds.
3. Consequential disqualification
Consequential disqualification arises as a matter of course if you are convicted of certain road traffic offences such as drink driving and driving without insurance. The court does not have discretion in relation to convictions in this category.
If you are disqualified from driving you can appeal the decision within 14 days of the decision; your disqualification will then be suspended until the outcome of your appeal.
Any disqualification from driving will lead to an endorsement on your licence by the motor tax office for a period of 3 years commencing on the expiration of your disqualification period.
Unfair Dismissals in Ireland
Employment Law Issues
Unfair dismissal in Ireland is governed by the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and two points need to be made about this legislation at the outset-1. an employer must have substantial grounds for dismissing an employee
2. in doing so the employer must apply fair procedures to the process.
The Unfair Dismissals Act covers people who have been in employment for at least 52 weeks continuous service. Employees who are not covered include FAS trainees, members of the Defence Forces and Gardai and civil servants.
It may seem blindingly obvious but only employees may use the legislation in respect of a termination of employment-sub contractors for example would not be covered.
Constructive Dismissal
An employee may succeed in a claim for constructive dismissal in circumstances where the employee resigns the employment as a result of the employer's conduct towards the employee.
Circumstances giving rise to this situation include a reduction in pay, a deterioration in the working environment, change of job roles, unwarranted warnings, change of location of the job and many others. Not all of these situations will always give rise to a successful claim for constructive dismissal but these are the kinds of things that employers must be very careful about if they don't want to end up in the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
However employees on probation up to a period of one year are excluded from the protection of the legislation.
Unfair Dismissals
There are a number of categories of dismissals which the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 deem to be automatically unfair. They are
1. trade union membership
2. the colour, race or sexual orientation of the employee
3. the employee's religious or political opinions
4. where the employee is involved in legal action against the employer
5. the employee's age
6. the fact that the employee is a member of the traveling community
7. the employee becoming pregnant
8. the employee taking part in industrial action.
These are the main grounds which the legislation deems to give rise to an unfair dismissal claim and are deemed by the law to be automatically unfair.
Small Debt Collection in Ireland
The Civil Summons Procedure
The Civil Summons procedure is the method of issuing legal proceedings in the District Court. The District Court deals with claims with a value up to 6,348.69 euros (IR£5,000) and many people in Ireland will have been served with, or served, a Civil Summons in the last 18 months to pursue a debt.If you want to pursue a debt for less than 6,348.69 euros you can issue and serve a Civil Summons in your District Court area or in the District Court area of your debtor. Issuing a Civil summons in Dublin is slightly different than outside of Dublin.
To issue a Civil Summons in Dublin you simply bring your Summons along to the District Court office in the Four Courts. You will need two copies and one will need to be stamped with stamp duty of 20 euros.
The District Court office will stamp your summons with a date. This date is called the return date which simply means that you appear in court on that date and will be given a date for the hearing of your claim.
It is necessary though to firstly serve the Summons on your Debtor and you do this by serving a copy of the Civil Summons on them.
Service of any summons or legal document is determined by the rules of the various courts. Generally if you are suing a company you serve on the registered office of the company by ordinary post.
Service on an individual can be carried out by registered post or by personal service.
All of the rules in relation to service of legal papers and precedents for drafting your legal papers, such as your Civil Summons, can be found on the courts website at http://www.courts.ie
Once you have served your summons the debtor must file a Notice of Intention to Defend the proceedings in the office of the District Court. Once they do this your case will appear in the Court's list on the return date and will be given a hearing or trial date.
If no Notice of Intention to Defend is filed by your debtor then you will be free to obtain a judgment against your debtor without any further court appearance.
If this is the case then one you get your Judgment or Summary Decree you send it to the Sheriff of the District court area for him/her to try to recover the value of your Summons.
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Other Solicitors Near Dublin
If you need a solicitor near Dublin, for example to attend Naas Court in Kildare, we recommend this firm..
- Solicitors Naas
- This solicitors firm attends Naas and Kilcock District Courts in Kildare and we recommend it strongly.
Solicitors Dublin Contact Details
Call Terry now on
- 01/610 3687 or
- 086/81 21 797 or
- simply email terry@solicitorsdublinhq.com
by solicitorsdublinhq
Welcome to the lenses of solicitors Dublin lens. My name is Terry Gorry and I am a solicitor in Dublin,Ireland. Please check out my other lenses.. more »
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