Madam, - In his column in Monday's edition, your columnist John Waters suggests that the Courts Service's first report on family law, Family Law Matters, was based on the observations by Dr Carol Coulter of just one court, Dublin Circuit Court, and that the outcome of the cases there was skewed by her presence.
As the full text of the report, available at www.courts.ie, makes clear, the statistical analysis of the outcome of cases in Dublin Circuit Court was based on an examination of the written files. Dr Coulter was not present in this court at all in October, and therefore her presence could have had no influence on the outcome of the cases analysed or the conduct of the participants.
She did attend family law hearings in the High Court, the Dublin District Court, Cork Circuit Court, the Midland Circuit Court and the Northern Circuit Court, and carried reports of a number of sample cases from these courts in Family Law Matters. - Yours, etc,
GERRY CURRAN,
Media Relations Adviser,
The Courts Service,
Smithfield,
Dublin 7.