What you need to know
- New rules on the entry of appearances in judicial review proceedings in the High Court took effect on 8 May 2026.
- Any respondent or notice party who intends to appear on a judicial review application must now enter an appearance within 10 days of being put on notice of the proceedings.
- A respondent could be put “on notice” of proceedings at the leave stage, at which point an appearance will also be required within 10 days.
Introduction
Public bodies and their legal teams must now move quickly when put on notice of an application for judicial review. New rules on the entry of appearances in the High Court require respondents or notice parties to enter an appearance, and to do so within 10 days of being put on notice of the proceedings. The Court has a residual power to fix an alternative time for the entry of the appearance. The new rules represent a new procedural requirement, and one that needs tracking and compliance if a party intends to appear in the proceedings.
What has changed?
Judicial review proceedings are governed by Order 84 of the Rules of the Superior Courts (RSC). Previously, there was no formal obligation on a respondent or notice party to enter an appearance in these proceedings. SI No 157/2026 now amends Order 84 and Order 12 of the RSC and changes this. Any respondent or notice party who intends to appear on an application for judicial review must now enter an appearance within 10 days of being put on notice of the proceedings, or within such other time as may be fixed by the Court.
The inclusion of notice parties is particularly significant in planning and regulatory judicial reviews, where multiple notice parties are routinely joined to proceedings.
The obligation arises at the substantive judicial review stage, where the court has granted leave for the proceedings to be pursued and the proceedings have been served. It also arises where a leave application is made on notice, rather than ex parte, even where the court has not yet granted leave. As a result, respondents put on notice of a leave application must also enter an appearance within 10 days.
Judicial review activity is on the rise, as our Judicial review trends article sets out, meaning this procedural change will affect public bodies with increasing frequency.
The new rules say that they apply both to proceedings commenced before, and after, 8 May 2026. For proceedings commenced before 8 May 2026, and therefore before the new rules were commenced, it remains to be seen how the rules will be applied. The need to file an appearance for proceedings commenced pre-8 May 2026 should therefore be assessed on a case-by-case basis. However, it would seem clear, for example, that a respondent or notice party in proceedings commenced before 8 May 2026, but who has only been put on notice of the proceedings after 8 May 2026, will need to comply with the entry-of-appearance requirement.
Comment
The new appearance rules represent a tightening of the procedural obligations on respondents and notice parties in judicial review proceedings. Affected parties should ensure that they have systems in place that can process and track notices of judicial review proceedings within the 10-day time limit, particularly in light of the increase in judicial review activity seen in recent years, and then enter an appearance as required.
Further reform is also on the horizon. The General Scheme of the Civil Reform Bill 2025 proposes a comprehensive statutory framework for judicial review, including:
- Stricter time limits on applications
- A higher leave threshold, and
- Clear, stringent criteria for relief
For more information, contact a member of our Public, Regulatory & Investigations team.
People also ask
| What is Judicial Review? |
| Judicial review is a court procedure that allows individuals and organisations to challenge the decisions, actions or omissions of public bodies when those bodies exercise public law functions, such as in planning, licensing or regulatory decision-making. The procedure involves two stages: a leave application, at which the Court decides whether to permit the case to proceed, and, if leave is granted, a substantive hearing. For a full overview of the judicial review process, see our Judicial review meaning & definition article. |
The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.