DUBLIN CIRCUIT COURT As per the Order of the President of the Circuit Court dated 6th of April 2020, where cases are settled and require to be struck out or other consent orders need to be ruled, during the current restrictions, these will continue to be dealt with by email requests from both parties and will be ruled by the County Registrar without the necessity of parties being present in court. The following dedicated mailbox has been set up to deal with such consent applications only by the County Registrar for Dublin. Dublin Circuit Family Law: email: dublincircuitfamilyconsents@courts.ie
Dublin Circuit Court Civil: email: dublincircuitcivilconsents@courts.ie To apply for a ruling/order on consent, one single email ONLY from the moving party must contain all of the following: (a) the correct details of the case and correct record number; (b) the exact terms of the order sought to be made/ruled on consent; (c) the written consent of the solicitor for the other party to the making of the consent order; (d) a copy of the relevant Notice of Motion/ Notice of Trial;
(e) where necessary the relevant exhibits ONLY; (f) the date the matter is listed before the Court or confirmation nothing is listed for hearing. (g) if a matter is urgent this must be highlighted by the Applicant in the subject line of the email. All such applications should be accompanied by a sworn affidavit. If this is not followed the email will not be acted upon and will not be replied to. Other emails sent incorrectly to the consent email address will not be replied to.
NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES AIB MESSAGE FROM THE DSBA PRACTICE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE Attention is drawn to introduction by banks and in particular AIB’s imposition of negative interest. AIB have indicated by way of a 65-day notice that negative interest will be imposed on solicitors’ accounts on the expiry of 65 days from the date of notice. On the expiry date known as the “application date” if the Solicitors’ accounts are cumulatively in excess of €1 million, interest will be applied at a rate of .5% (one half of one percent) per annum on the balance on that date and each daily closing
balance on the solicitor’s accounts for a period of months from the application date. Practitioners should check with their bank, to make sure that any set off arrangements between overdraft on office accounts are not affected by any charge of negative interest. If the practice balance is in excess of €1 million on the application date all balances and not balances in excess of €1 million will be charged negative interest. Negative interest rates on or after the
application date will subsist for two months and will be reviewed by AIB. There is no guarantee at this stage that: a. After the two month period negative interest rates will be discontinued; b. That the €1 million may be reduced to another figure say €500,000 and the regime continues as above. Practitioners are advised to contact their own bank for clarification of the effect of the negative interest rates on their practice. Clearly, solicitors will have to pass on the negative interest rate charged by AIB. Further, there will be an extra burden on solicitors’ practices to compute: 1. How much negative interest has to be deducted from each client; 2. A fee structure together with VAT in computing such negative interest; 3. Communication of these charges i.e. interest, professional fee for calculating the negative interest to clients. It is further noted that AIB can charge negative interest on combined balances held by solicitors on behalf of clients in excess of €1 million when that balance is: a. Variable on a monthly basis; b. The interest rate currently at .5% is also variable on a monthly basis. Practitioners should communicate with their clients to: 1. Make clients aware of the existence of negative interest rates; 2. Explain how the interest rate will affect the client in relation to the rate itself and the legal fee and VAT chargeable as set out above. Ruadhan Killeen on behalf of the DSBA Practice Management Committee
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