Ireland
Prior to 1924, the County Court was the main civil court in Ireland, having jurisdiction over most civil matters, except for the larger actions which were heard by the High Court of Justice in Ireland or the Assizes. Its jurisidction was similar to that of the County Court in England and Wales. However, it differed from that court in its procedures. Claims were initiated by way of civil bill. Most matters were tried by a County Court Judge, and where necessary, a jury. The main administrative officer of the County Court in earch county was the Clerk of the Crown and Peace.
The Courts of Justice Act 1924 abolished the County Court in the Irish Free State and transferred its jurisdiction (together with that of Quarter Sessions) to the Circuit Court. The Circuit Court is still based on the organisational structure established for the County Court and the main administrative officer of each Circuit Court is now called the County Registrar.
The County Court continues to exist in Northern Ireland. Civil bills are still used as the initiation document for Circuit Court/County Court claims in both Irish jurisdictions, unlike in England and Wales.
Read more about this topic: County Court
Famous quotes containing the word ireland:
“They call them the haunted shores, these stretches of Devonshire and Cornwall and Ireland which rear up against the westward ocean. Mists gather here, and sea fog, and eerie stories. That’s not because there are more ghosts here than in other places, mind you. It’s just that people who live hereabouts are strangely aware of them.”
—Dodie Smith, and Lewis Allen. Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland)
“Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.... They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
—Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916)
“The tragedy of Northern Ireland is that it is now a society in which the dead console the living.”
—Jack Holland (b. 1947)