subject: The Courts Support Service & ADVIC or Advocates for Victims of Homicide - Ireland [print this page] The Courts Support Service & ADVIC or Advocates for Victims of Homicide - Ireland
The Courts Support Service and ADVIC or Advocates for Victims of Homicide are two such voluntary services established to work alongside the criminal justice system in recent years. The Court Support Service, a voluntary organisation was set up in 2005 for victims of crime, to help them through the trial process from start to finish. The Director of Public Prosecutions and the gardai refer victims on to this organisation. It applies for funding every year from the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime, which was set up in 2005 and will be referred to later in the essay. Volunteers within the court support service are trained to deal with prosecution witnesses and their families as well as victims of families of victims.
They show them around the courtroom and court building to ensure they're familiar with their surroundings ahead of the trial, they also provide emotional and practical support throughout the trial, as basic as ensuring that they have a seat in the courtroom and they will have an assigned court support room within the court building. Breda Hammond, one of the volunteers with the court support services, says more signs should be erected in the courts within the new Criminal Courts Complex in Parkgate Street to ensure that the public, the friends and families of the defendants and others do not sit in the seats designated to the victims, victims families and the media.
Ms Hammond says more referrals are being made now to the service. She says members of the service have a good relationship with the media based in the courts which she maintains is vital because the victims or families of victims do not want to be misrepresented. But she stresses that unlike other jurisdictions such as the UK and the US there is no designated room for press conferences following High Profile cases where victims or families of victims wish to react or make a statement. (Hammond; 2010). Advic was founded in 2005 for people who are bereaved by homicide. It's a non-profit organisation that again is partly government funded. The group acknowledges the trauma encountered by families and friends and its objective is to at least provide
The group has published a directory, which provides information about their rights and entitlements offers advice on dealing with the media and outlines the voluntary support services available. It also outlines the rights as outlined in the 1999 Victims Charter, their entitlements to reserved seating in courts, to make a victim impact statement following conviction, the group advises victims in relation to making a submission to the Parole Board and it gives them information about their entitlement to apply for compensation before the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal.
In the US court services for victims were set up in the 1970s to encourage greater cooperation, in the UK however those services were considered late in arriving with support groups helping victims around the time of the offence as opposed to during the trial process. Support services for witnesses in court were not put in place in the UK courts until the mid 1990s, this involved police and court officials engaging with Victim Support personnel in a bid to ensure victims were informed as to the workings of the courts.
Meanwhile ADVIC's counterpart in England and Wales, SAMM or Support After Murder and Manslaughter is focussing on a more rights based approach for their members such as exists in the US where victims' rights are enshrined in law, in Ireland and the UK these rights as set out are not legally binding compared to the US where a range of such rights are set out as statutory legal instruments.
