The Circuit Court Rules on family law are the subject of a new book by solicitor Keith Walsh.

Divorce and Judicial Separation Proceedings in the Circuit Court – A Guide to Order 59, published by Bloomsbury Professional, was launched at the Law Society, Blackhall Place last night by Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan.

Minister Madigan said she respected Keith Walsh enormously for giving so much back to the profession and his colleagues as well as for his authorship of this new book.

“I wouldn’t have actually left the campaign trail for anyone else!” she said.

Networker

“Keith is a consummate networker and professional who is able to mix with everybody – even the Bar Council!” she joked.

The minister praised his work with the Law Society, as a member of its Family Law Committee, and with the Dublin Solicitors’ Bar Association.

She said that Keith Walsh’s book was clear, concise, easy and digestible, as a law book should be, and would be of major assistance to practitioners.

The minister also thanked Keith for his extensive help with last May’s divorce referendum.

Building blocks

Dublin county registrar Rita Considine said that the rules of court were the building blocks for getting an application into court.

In 2001, there were 68 Circuit Court Rules but now there were 104 different orders in the rules, and it was easy to miss these changes.

User-friendly

As a member of the Circuit Court Rules committee, Keith Walsh was the perfect practitioner to write this guide, she said.

Through his work, Keith Walsh was partly responsible for shaping the current workable and user-friendly Order 59, Rita Considine said.