The applicant had sought judicial review of her refusal of asylum and of her deportation order. She then sought to amend her statement of grounds to include four further grounds. The applicant sought to explain the delay in seeking to amend the grounds by stating that there had been a change of counsel.
The Court stated that two of the amended grounds were essentially sought in the original notice of motion, while the remaining two were new causes of action. Accordingly, the Court was of the view that the latter two grounds were prima facie out of time under Section 5 of the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000 and that the Court would have to be satisfied that there were good and sufficient reasons for extending the periods in which such new claims could be made. Noting that there had been a change of counsel, the Court stated that a change of counsel explains delay only if it can be shown that there was a serious error made by the original counsel.
The Court held that in the instant case the applicant had not adequately explained the delay with regard the two grounds deemed out of time.
