Next steps after receiving leave to Appeal
- Where leave to appeal has been granted, the appellant files a Notice of Intention to Proceed with Appeal. This must be done within 7 days of the date of the determination. The appellant is the person to whom leave to appeal has been granted
- The appellant must then prepare and file written submissions within 2 weeks of the date of filing of the notice of intention to proceed
- The respondent must prepare and file written submissions within 2 weeks of the date of filing of the appellants submissions
- After the written submissions are filed, a case management hearing is arranged.
- No later than 4 days before the case management hearing the parties file a joint document, setting out matters of agreement and disagreement
Preparation for your case management hearing
A case management booklet must be filed by the appellant no later than 4 days before the first case management hearing date. 3 copies are required. You can also file your application by post or use the drop-box in the Court Office.
You must also send a soft copy of the booklet by email to supremecourt@courts.ie
Case Management Booklet
The booklet must be tabbed have an index, page numbers and include:
- The order being appealed
- The judgement being appealed
- Any other relevant judgements or orders from the lower courts
- The notice of application for leave to appeal
- The notice of appeal, including any cross‑appeal by a respondent relating to the same judgement or order
- Any respondent’s notice that has been filed
- The approved determination of the Court granting leave to appeal
- The notice of intention to proceed
- The appellant’s written submissions
- The respondent’s written submissions
- The joint document the parties must file before the case‑management hearing (as mentioned in Practice Direction SC19 paragraph 19(d)
- The booklet must also leave enough space to add any extra documents the case‑management judge may require later, such as a statement of facts or a list of issues
What happens at your case management hearing
At your case management hearing, the judge will:
- Check that the submissions stay within the scope of the appeal. Please see paragraph (g) (i) of Practice direction SC19
- Amend the grounds of appeal if needed. Please see paragraph (g) (ii) of Practice direction SC19
- Give directions about documents. Please see paragraph (g) (iii) of Practice direction SC19
- Fix a date for your appeal hearing
- Agree the duration of the appeal hearing and the allocation of time for oral submissions between the parties
- Decide if further case‑management hearings are necessary
Documents to be filed after the hearing
The appellant must file booklets of appeal, 14 days before the hearing of the appeal in hard copy and soft copy unless otherwise directed by the judge. You can file your hard copies of the appeal books by post or use the dropbox in the Court Office. You must file a soft copy of your appeal books; to arrange this please email supremecourt@courts.ie
Number of booklets to be filed
Unless otherwise directed by the case management judge the number of copies of booklets of appeal required are:
- In a case to be heard by a Court of 3 judges, 5 books
- In a case to be heard by a Court of 5 judges, 8 books
- In a case to be heard by a Court of 7 judges, 10 books
All booklets must be tabbed, have an index and page numbers and the spine of each booklet should also be labelled.
What should be included in booklets of appeal
1. The core book of appeal (the case management booklet together with the statement of case and any replies)
Please see our Preparation for your hearing and case management page for further information. The booklet must be tabbed, have an index and page numbers.
2. The booklet of pleadings
- This should include only documents still relevant to the issues which arise on the appeal. Please see section (i)(i) of Practice Direction SC19.
3. The booklet of trial documents
in civil proceedings contain:
(I) where the appeal is against an order made in proceedings heard on oral evidence, only those extracts from the transcript and exhibits relevant to the issues which remain in dispute on the appeal;
(II) where the appeal is against an order made in proceedings heard on affidavit, only those affidavits and exhibits which contain evidence relevant to the issues which remain in dispute on the appeal;
in criminal proceedings contain:
(I) a copy of the indictment;
(II) the transcript of the opening speech of counsel for the prosecution;
(III) where an appeal concerns a particular issue raised in the trial, the transcript of the evidence, submissions and ruling relevant to that issue;
(IV) a copy of any relevant exhibit;
(V) the transcript of the closing speeches of counsel for the prosecution and defence; and
(VI) the transcript of the judge’s charge to the jury insofar as it relates to the issue or, where the duration of the trial was three days or less, the entire transcript.
Please see section (i)(ii) of Practice Direction SC19. for more information.
4. Booklets of Authorities
If the authorities cannot be contained within 1 booklet, then a core booklet should also be prepared.
The core booklet contains those authorities and materials considered to be central to the case and likely to be referred to most often in the case.
Any remaining material should be in supplemental books of authorities.
Please see section 23 of Practice Direction SC19
The booklets should be set out in the following order:
- Any relevant provisions from the Constitution
- Any relevant statutory provisions
- Irish authorities set out in chronological order
- Any international authorities relied on
- Relevant extracts from text books, learned journals, and reports
You should know that requirements for the book of authorities will change depending on the case and on any directions of the case management judge.
Where a case has been reported in the official reports, this is the only report of the case to be included.
5. Transcripts
If necessary, a list of transcript references or a booklet of transcripts may need to be provided. Please see section 24 of Practice Direction SC19.
6. Any other booklet or document directed to be filed by the case management judge.
Time and date and of the appeal hearing
The time and date of your appeal will have been allocated at your case management hearing. You can find all details of upcoming hearings in the legal diary.
About your hearing
At the oral hearing, each side is given a set amount of time to present their arguments. Usually this is based on the allocation of time agreed between the parties at case management.
Throughout the hearing, the Judges may direct questions to both parties.
The Supreme Court typically reserves its judgment, upon hearing both parties' arguments. This means that the Courts' decision is typically issued at a later date.
Next steps after hearing
If the judgment is reserved for longer than 2 months the matter is listed for statutory mention (Section 46 of the Courts and Court Officers Act 2002 as amended).This is in the form of a remote listing.
Delivery of Judgement
A decision of the Supreme Court once reached is made available to the parties in a formal document known as a judgement.
The judgment explains the reasons why the appeal has been allowed or refused and explains the reasons for its decision.
The Court meets again and delivers the judgment in open court. After that, the Court deals with any remaining issues, such as who must pay the legal costs.
If required, there may be another court date to address the issue of costs.
The written judgment is handed out to the parties by hard copy and published on the Court’s website.
This is only a helpful summary, it is not an official legal interpretation of the judgement.
The Court also publishes a short information note that explains the main issues and the outcome.
Decisions of the Supreme Court can be accessed here.
