About 3,000 criminal prosecutions have been thrown into a legal limbo following a High Court decision which invalidated new court procedures.
Judge Catherine Murphy yesterday made "no order" in about 30 cases due to be heard in Dublin District Court 45. This followed a similar ruling in Kilmainham District Court on Wednesday.
Legal sources say remand cases, which involve serious crime as well as petty offences, would have to be re-entered by the State. Doubt exists about judgments already made under the certification system. This system, introduced on a pilot basis in Dublin courts following the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions Act) 1997, allowed evidence of arrest, charge and caution to be given by certificate instead of requiring the prosecuting garda to attend court.
The Act stipulated that certificate evidence was allowed where the arrest was made by gardai, not for arrests under warrants issued by the courts, which are usually in cases where defendants fail to appear.
However, Mr Justice McCracken, in a judgment on Tuesday, ruled that certificate evidence given in court up until that date was invalid.
He upheld a submission made originally by a solicitor, Mr Dara Robinson, last September in which he argued that the under the Act the court needed to hear evidence that the arrest was "otherwise than under warrant".
The certification system was introduced on a pilot basis by the President of the District Court, Judge Peter Smithwick, last September for cases involving the Store Street Garda district.
Last February it was extended to the Kilmainham District Court, with evidence of arrest being given in all cases by certificate through designated Garda sergeants acting as court presenters.
The system was designed to ease overcrowding in courts as large numbers of gardai waited to give brief evidence of arrest. A senior legal source said last night: "The certification system is now dead unless it is amended by legislation or a successful appeal." He added: "The DPP was put on notice last September and should have foreseen difficulties arising." This is the second time a judgment by Mr Justice McCracken has thrown the legal system into turmoil. Last year he ruled that the State's 185 court registrars were illegally appointed and thousands of summonses were struck out or adjourned until the Minister for Justice had all the registrars reappointed and successfully appealed to the Supreme Court.