Statement by Justice Minister on publication of court lists
Date published:
Justice Minister Naomi Long clarifies the process of publishing court lists.
Justice Minister Naomi Long said: “I wish to address some of the misconceptions and outright inaccuracies being purported by some on social media.
Firstly, there has been absolutely no data breach by my department. Publishing court lists is a routine process, and no data has been released in error.
It is well known that court details, other than those relating to family proceedings, are routinely listed publicly online.
The exception to this, is when a request for anonymity is made to a judge. That request would be made by a legal representative or parties to proceedings. It is only a judge that can grant that anonymity and it is only a legal representative that can make the request. Staff in the NI Courts and Tribunals Service have no authority or legal standing to make such a request, let alone a decision of that nature.
To suggest otherwise is misleading and completely false.
On the decision to remove the court list from the website, the Minister said: My department was alerted to the listing by one of the parties to the cases and it was decided at that point to temporarily suspend the list while it was refreshed. This was a precautionary measure and was not because an error had been made.
I hope this clarifies the situation and puts an end to online speculation and misreporting.
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