Two High Court judges have been assigned to deal exclusively with the Army deafness compensation cases and will begin hearing them next Tuesday.
The move has been made in an effort to eliminate delays in other personal injuries cases which were being blocked because of the numbers of cases being taken against the Department of Defence.
It is hoped that having the same two judges deal only with the Army cases will create a consistency and will also speed up the process.
From next Tuesday, there will be two separate lists dealing with personal injuries in the High Court. The first list will deal with all personal injuries cases except the Army cases and will be assigned to different judges as the cases are called. The second list will be devoted to the Army cases.
The judges who will hear the Army compensation cases are Mr Justice Johnson and Mr Justice Lavan. Mr Justice Johnson has dealt with the personal injuries list for a number of years.
The cases against the Department of Defence have predominated in the personal injuries lists and up to January 30th next, only two other cases were in the list. With the separation, it is expected that the other personal injuries cases will now be heard more quickly.
So far, 11,500 Army cases have been lodged and 600 new cases are coming in a month.
Personal injuries cases in the past have been the major cause for complaint about delays. However, a legal source said that inroads had been made and the delay had been reduced from an average of 36 months two years ago to about six months. With the Army cases, the delays were threatening to creep up again.
The appointment of new High Court judges has alleviated the delays in cases coming on for hearing and the number of High Court judges is now 22.
On the chancery and non-jury side, improvements have been made and cases are likely to be heard within the next term. For example, last December, cases were listed for this term and are likely to be heard at the end of March. However, long-running cases can hold up the list and a judge.
In the general lists, two judges go down to the country each term to hear cases and no more than four judges will be out of Dublin at a time. Three judges are assigned to other things. Miss Justice Carroll has been working on the Nursing Commission, Mr Justice Flood will preside at the planning tribunal and Mr Justice Moriarty will chair the payments to politicians tribunal.