High Court to consider whether orders can be made to prevent difficult family law applications

The High Court will consider whether an injunction could ever be made to prevent vexatious litigation in family law applications for access and maintenance of children.

The issue is being raised in an appeal filed by a father who is said to have been involved in more than a hundred court hearings, costing the family more than €300,000.

In July, the Court of Appeal issued a so-called ‘Isaac Wunder order’, which prohibited the man from filing a lawsuit or appealing against his ex-partner without prior permission from the president of the court.

The Court of Appeal amended the circuit court’s original order, saying it would be “unfair and oppressive” for it to give the man an unlimited right to continued legal proceedings against the mother of his child. sources.

The court said there had been a “consistent pattern of undeserved conduct” on the man’s part, including “constant breaches” of an access order to their son and continued applications by him to the court.

The woman claimed she has had to go to the county and district courts more than 100 times in the past 12 years for family law applications, which have cost the family more than €300,000.

The Court of Appeal had largely dismissed the man’s appeal, which sought to overturn a High Court decision to withdraw permission for him to bring a judicial review application arising from lengthy family law proceedings between the former couple.

The Supreme Court initially upheld his case, but later concluded that he had made false statements and failed to disclose relevant information. The court decided that his case should therefore be dismissed.

The Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision, apart from one “minor qualification”.

It found that the misstatements and non-disclosure were not material to the man’s challenge, namely a Circuit Court ‘Isaac Wunder’ order restraining him from pursuing further cases without the court’s permission.

The man stated that his procedure could not be described as “annoying”. The man only filed requests, or resisted the woman’s requests, to assert his rights as a father and maintain his son’s visitation rights.

He appealed the Court of Appeal’s ruling to the Supreme Court, which in a decision published on Tuesday gave him permission to appeal.

The Supreme Court will now consider whether an ‘Isaac Wunder’ order can ever be made in relation to applications for access and maintenance by parents in relation to a child, and if so, under what circumstances such an order can be made.

“These issues have never been addressed by this court and it is a matter of general public interest that the law in this area is clarified,” the three-judge court said in its decision.

The court will also consider whether the Court of Appeal erred in making the order and what powers a court can exercise more generally when faced with a ‘serious litigant’ or one who repeatedly prolongs or disrupts proceedings .