Summons from Ireland to UK to appear in family law case?

I did a report two welfare reports for a family law hearing about 4 years ago. I had to go back twice as the parties are still warring. Last time, I was living in Ireland and the solicitor threatened to summons me if I didn't attend. Then she said the case wasn't going ahead. That was last January.

I now have gotten another letter saying I have to attend Court again in dates in March 2024 and bring all my files etc re the case with me. I moved permanently to the UK in March last year. I will have used all my holidays by the end of January for personal and family stuff, and my holiday year doesn't start again until April.

I actually don't have the reports any more as I deleted all copies of them when I moved to the UK as they were highly confidential. I feel like I will be part of this warring couples life until their children reach 18, which will be another 10 years!

Can they force me to attend from the UK? I presume they can't send out a warrant for me, or if they do it won't affect my Garda vetting, as I still work in the area of child protection, though not in Ireland. They don't have my address in the UK, just an email address for me. This was a hugely distressing and stressful case, and because of that I stopped doing this type of work.

LSince you work in the area it would make sense that your professional body would advise you properly. You can’t be the first person in this situation.

Masses of contradictions and confusion in the OP, not least that confidential information was downloaded to a personal device.

As a professional, why doesn't OP know their rights regarding summonses issued by a court in a different jurisdiction? As @Clamball pointed out, why doesn't OP contact their professional association for advice? That's what they pay membership fees for.

I'd like OP to post a much clearer and more informative picture.

I would have expected, when you left the position in which you did this work that all your files and caseload would have been assigned to a co-worker?

mathepac said:

not least that confidential information was downloaded to a personal device.

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Any device used by independent psychologists, therapists, consultants. etc., will be a personal device. They don't throw them away if the change country or retire, they delete sensitive information as the OP did.

mathepac said:

As a professional, why doesn't OP know their rights regarding summonses issued by a court in a different jurisdiction?

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I would have thought the majority of professionals wouldn't be expert in the law on such matters.

Thanks to all of you for the replies. My professional organisation didn't know what happened in relation to Court reports in terms of time that they have to be kept. It is 6 years for counselling notes. I was a lone practitioner so I kept the copy reports and the laptop with the reports in a safe in my house that was attached to the wall, with a coded lock. The laptop was only used for reports and nothing else. When I moved abroad I deleted the reports from the laptop and shredded the copy reports. I felt there was too much risk in carting them abroad with a removal company and easy for them to get mislaid in transit.

Leo said:

I would have thought the majority of professionals wouldn't be expert in the law on such matters.

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Exactly why they have professional organisations to advise/represent them. However, they must be well-versed in the laws that govern their activities.

Leo said:

Any device used by independent psychologists, therapists, consultants. etc., will be a personal device. They don't throw them away if the change country or retire, they delete sensitive information as the OP did.

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The usual modus operandi is to authorise their device to access the network/server storing the sensitive data for the duration of their employment, with restrictions on downloading data or printing outside of the work environment.

mathepac said:

Exactly why they have professional organisations to advise/represent them. However, they must be well-versed in the laws that govern their activities.

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So tell me what professional body for people working in the UK suggests to have such expertise in foreign law?

mathepac said:

The usual modus operandi is to authorise their device to access the network/server storing the sensitive data for the duration of their employment, with restrictions on downloading data or printing outside of the work environment.

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No, independents don't tend to have corporate networks with complex access governance and control systems in place.

If I am reading this correct, you had no business need to retain the files and no other legitimate need to do so, as a result you correctly deleted them to stay within GDPR?

In terms of attendance, I presume they can issue you with a court order if needed?

To answer the OP’s queries.

A Subpoena is effectively a court order to attend court and if the Solicitor is to issue one to compel you to attend, they will need your home address to get the subpoena to you and in order to demonstrate to the court that they have correctly served it on you.

In my day, subpoenas had to be served personally but this may have changed and depends on the rules governing the service of subpoenas in the particular court jurisdiction concerned. The High Court usually requires subpoenas to be served personally whereas the lower courts may allow them to be served by post. I’ve never heard of a provision which allows subpoenas or witness summonses to be served by email in the first instance.

The Solicitor can always apply to the court to have it served on you by email (“substituted service”) but would usually have to demonstrate to the court that they have tried to serve it on you in the usual manner per the court rules before they would be in a position to make an application for substituted service.

If you get served with a subpoena and don’t attend, in theory the judge could issue a bench warrant compelling your attendance but as you’re in the UK, I’m fairly certain the Gardai will never be in a position to enforce it owing to your absence from the jurisdiction.

In reality, the case will likely just proceed in your absence without a bench warrant being issued, should you not attend on foot of a subpoena. I’ve been involved in cases where witnesses were subpoenaed and didn’t show and the case went on without them. It depends on the value of your evidence.

If I were advising you, I would indicate to the Solicitor that you’re not in a position to attend for the reasons set out.

And then let them subpoena you, or try.

It seems to me that they’re facing major logistical obstacles in compelling your attendance.

If it does come to it and they manage to issue a Subpoena and you are minded to attend, seek confirmation that they will cover your reasonable costs of attendance and out of pocket expenses (flights, accommodation etc) in advance.

+1 Johnno75's post. Two additional observations if I may.

If a subpoena issues is there any chance of Mothergoose being pinged whenever he/she next enters Ireland if they have failed to answer a summons issued and served on them even though they were outside the jurisdiction at that time ?

Practically, what evidentiary value has Mothergoose if all his/her case papers have been effectively destroyed ?
Mothergoose might well have witness value if there are facts that they might be able to evidence from recollection.
If Mothergoose has no useful or probative evidence they should point that out to the solicitor now and get confirmation that they are not required.
Ultimately, the solicitor will probably be guided by what counsel says in the Advice on Proofs.

Have a read of this:


There’s always a risk that a judge will declare the subpoenaed witness in contempt and order the production of the OP as witness (which may entail an order to the Gardai to deliver them to the court).

I just can’t see this happening in a family law matter.

The Solicitor for the subpoenaing party would have to make an application on these lines. Plus the Solicitor would have to prove service of the original subpoena.

So, unless the Judge declares the witness in contempt, the likelihood of them being “pinged” at port of entry is nil.

If you inform the solicitor that you have destroyed all the files you owned due to change of country and in the knowledge that the case was not going ahead diligently complying with GDPR on high risk data, they may say they no longer need you to attend. Especially if you point out you would not be able to answer questions due to lack of recall. No notes and myriads of families you have been engaged with in the years since.