The Courts Service may have to ask the Government to change the law relating to the in camera rule in family law cases. This rule prevents any reporting of family law cases in the media, and has been extended to prevent reporting such proceedings to other interested parties, including professional bodies.
This possibility of change arises from legal difficulties the Courts Service has run into with its planned limited reporting of family law cases.
The Sixth Report of the Working Group on a Courts Commission, chaired by Ms Justice Denham and which led to the setting up of the Courts Service, recommended that a specialist reporter be appointed to report on family law cases.
The recommendation was accepted, and the Courts Service appointed a barrister to do this work.
She was appointed earlier this year to work on a pilot family law recording service in the Dublin family law courts. However, The Irish Times has learned that she has been unable, to date, to be present at a single family law case.
It is understood that the Courts Service has legal advice that the legislation in this area does not permit any relaxation of the absolute rule that all family law hearings must be in private.
The absolute nature of this rule has led, in the past, to a prohibition on the bringing of the conduct of family law proceedings to the Professional Practices Committee of the Bar Council, and to child psychiatrists who prepare reports for family law proceedings being unable to reveal their contents elsewhere, even when this was in the interests of the children.
In a statement issued to The Irish Times the Courts Service said: "Difficulties regarding reports ... have recently arisen and have been considered by the Courts Service Family Law Courts Development Committee, and will be considered very shortly by the full board of the service. At this stage a further statement will be issued."
The Courts Service is run by a board made up mainly of senior members of the judiciary. According to experts in the area, if they are unable to find a way to implement fully the pilot scheme within the framework of the legislation, they will have no alternative but to ask the Minister to change it.