Ten-month wait for criminal trials at Galway Circuit Court

The average waiting time for criminal trials to be heard in the Circuit Court in Galway has increased to between eight and ten months, according to new figures from the Courts Service.

According to the services annual report for 2017, waiting times for trials in the Circuit Court average eight to ten months – that’s up from seven to nine months in 2016.

The wait for sentence hearings was three months (from the trial date when a guilty plea was entered), unchanged from the previous year, while appeals took two months to be heard, also unchanged.

Civil cases were being heard at the next sitting of the court, the same as the previous year. Family law cases were also being heard at the next court sitting in 2017, unchanged from 2016.

Meanwhile, in district courts in Galway, domestic violence barring order and protection order applications took four weeks, unchanged from 2016.

However, urgent applications relating to domestic violence in Galway are heard on the next day the district court sits.

The average wait for criminal summonses to be heard in district courts here is 16 weeks, while charge sheets are heard on the next day the court sits, unchanged from 2016.

In 2017, civil cases took an average of 16 weeks to come before the District Court, unchanged from the previous year.

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