The High Court has held that eight people detained after unrepresented District Court bail hearings were entitled to immediate release because their hearings fell fundamentally short of constitutional requirements.
Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty examined applications brought amid a dispute over changes to criminal legal aid payments, after nominated solicitors declined new assignments under the scheme. The court stressed that it was not deciding whether the new regulations were lawful or whether the solicitors' actions were reasonable.
Instead, the issue was whether individual bail hearings had been so unfair that the resulting detention was not "in accordance with the law" under Article 40.4.2 of the Constitution.
The court reviewed transcripts relating to Ceiligh McCormack, Conor Fox, Jake Fitzgerald, Richard Ryan, Keith Brennan, Patryk Markowski, Conor O'Neill and Peter Leech. It found combinations of deficiencies including no advance notice of bail objections, inability to test Garda evidence, lack of understanding about giving evidence or cross-examination, and difficulty making informed submissions on possible bail conditions.
In several cases, the court noted that District Court judges had made significant efforts to assist unrepresented accused people. Ms Justice Gearty said the problem was generally not judicial fault but the difficulty of providing a fair adversarial hearing where a person facing loss of liberty had no reasonable access to legal representation.
The judge rejected the State's argument that a fresh High Court bail application should normally displace the constitutional remedy. While habeas corpus remains exceptional, she held that it is available where a bail hearing amounts to a fundamental denial of justice.
Two other named applicants, Glen Guerin and Richard Daly, had since been granted District Court bail and their remaining issue was costs. Another original applicant had withdrawn.
The court's preliminary view was that the successful applicants should receive their legal costs, but that issue had not yet been finally determined.