The women of Galway seem to be far more proactive then men in seeking a judicial separation or divorce, the Court Service Annual Report for 2007 has revealed.
The report released last Thursday shows that the Galway Circuit Court received a total of 160 applications for judicial separation, 124 of which were initiated by women, with 62 of the applications being granted; only nine of the 36 applications initiated by men were granted.
When it comes to divorce women were certainly not shy about their intentions either, as out of the total of 231 applications received 142 of these were by women; 73 of these were granted. Men did slightly better, or not as the case may be, with their 89 divorce applications as 50 of these were granted.
As some were taking court action to get out of their marriages there were many under 18-year-olds who just couldn’t wait to get hitched. There were 47 applications, under Section 33 of the Family Law Act, received by the Galway Court Service, the third highest amount in the country. However, only eight of these were actually granted. Section 33 allows the court to dispense of the necessity to give three months notice of intention to marry and/or allow people under the age of 18 to marry.
The annual report also showed that there were 67 personal injury cases where awards were granted by the Galway Circuit Court. Failing to do up a will and get affairs in order was high in Galway with the local registry dealing with 281 intestacies. Outside of Dublin, Galway had the third highest figure after Limerick and Cork. However, there were also 754 probates, in which there were valid wills, dealt with.
Figures for criminal law cases show that there were 75 criminal cases and 244 District Court appeals disposed of at the Galway Circuit Criminal Court in 2007.
In Galway District Court there were 774 public order/assault cases, 161 drugs cases, 609 larceny cases, three sexual cases, and a staggering 4,585 road traffic matters.
