The High Court dismissed a judicial review application by Darren McEntaggart over a District Court judge’s refusal to consider his legal aid application. Mr Justice Binchy held that no charge had been brought before the District Court on the date in question, leaving the judge without jurisdiction to entertain the application.
Mr McEntaggart had been arrested on 9 July 2016 while a passenger in a car stopped by gardaí on Main Street, Kingscourt, Co Cavan. He was charged at Bailieborough Garda Station under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 and released on bail, with instructions to attend Virginia District Court on 26 July to answer the charge.
He attended with a solicitor. When the case was called, a superintendent asked the District Court to make no order because the sergeant who had charged Mr McEntaggart was unavailable to give evidence about the arrest, charge and caution, and a certificate on those matters was not available owing to an administrative error. The judge made no order. The solicitor then sought legal aid, but the judge said Mr McEntaggart was not properly before the court and that he had no jurisdiction to grant it.
In the judicial review, Mr McEntaggart argued that the judge should at least have considered his application. His solicitor said he had prepared for the hearing and that legal aid was often dealt with at the end of a case. The Director of Public Prosecutions argued that, because the charge had not been brought before the District Court, the statutory test for legal aid was not met.
Mr Justice Binchy considered section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act 1962, which provides for legal aid where a person is charged before the District Court and the statutory conditions are met. He said the bail recognisance and charge sheet contemplated that Mr McEntaggart would be charged in court, but that did not happen. The superintendent had instead sought no order because the prosecution could not proceed.
The judge concluded that a charge is brought before the District Court when a complaint is made to it or the charge sheet is presented. As neither had occurred, there were no charges before the court on 26 July 2016. The District Judge therefore had no jurisdiction to consider legal aid. The High Court dismissed the application, finding that this did not breach constitutional or Convention rights to legal aid, which arise once a person has been charged with a criminal offence.