Ireland’s first dedicated Commercial Court, now over seven years old, has proven to be an effective forum for dispute resolution. This specialised commercial division of the High Court deals with a full range of commercial disputes, generally involving claims exceeding €1,000,000. There is however specific provision for the Court to deal with Intellectual Property matters (regardless of value) and there have been several patent cases dealt with by the Court since its inception.

The Court’s impact was immediate – the average time from entry into the Commercial list and allocation of a trial date is five weeks and the average time from entry to judgment is twenty-two weeks. This is due to the rules governing the Commercial Court, which are designed to force litigating parties to agree as many issues as possible between them before the matter comes to trial, so that the hearing will focus only on relevant issues which remain in dispute.

Commercial Proceedings

An application to have an action entered in the Commercial List can be made at any time prior to the close of pleadings. Commercial Proceedings, therefore, can commence as usual in the High Court and may later be transferred to the Commercial List, although the Court favours early entry applications. It is the practice to make the application immediately after the Plenary Summons and Statement of Claim have been delivered and one would require good reason to do otherwise.

Initial Directions Hearing

At the initial hearing, the Judge can make very wide-ranging directions to facilitate advancing the proceedings. Failure to adhere to directions may result in a costs penalty against the offending party, a measure which the Court has not been slow to enforce.

Case Management

Cases admitted to the Commercial Court are subject to very close case management. This involves a conference, or series of conferences, of the parties chaired in open court by the Judge assigned to the case, to ensure that the proceedings are advanced in a just, expeditious and cost effective manner.

Pre-Trial Conference

A pre-trial conference is held before any commercial case can be listed for trial. At this conference, the Judge establishes what steps remain to be taken to prepare the case for hearing, whether any special technological arrangements may be required and the likely length of the hearing. Only when the Judge is satisfied that the proceedings are ready will he/she fix a trial date. The parties must lodge detailed papers with the Judge in advance of every application before the Commercial Court. This ensures not only that the parties are properly prepared for every procedural hearing but also that the Judge can become familiar with the issues beforehand.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

At any time the Judge considers it desirable that the proceedings, or any particular issues within them, be sent  for mediation, conciliation or arbitration, he/she may adjourn the proceedings for a limited period of time so that the parties can pursue one or more of such processes.

Costs

Apart from the facility of the Judge to make interim costs orders on interlocutory applications, parties have experienced a significant front-loading of their own legal costs because of the amount of pre-trial work required in any matter proceeding in the Commercial List. This, however, tends to expose speculative claims before they develop and forces parties to focus on the cost of pursuing litigation at an earlier stage than might previously have been the case.

Conclusion

The Commercial Court has undoubtedly provided a modern framework within which to conduct business related litigation. Proceedings are heard by Judges with established commercial backgrounds. The initial directions hearing, case management and the pre-trial conference mechanisms oblige the parties to reduce narrow down the issues in dispute from the outset and have led to shorter timeframes for exchange of pleadings and shorter trials. It was anticipated that its increasing popularity among businesspeople and lawyers might adversely affect this speed. However, active case management structures continue to maintain its ability to resolve commercial cases quickly.

Contributed by Barry Cahir and Carol Plunkett .