Case Reports

A young woman has had her sentence for a single count of assault contrary to s.3 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act reduced, with the Court of Appeal finding that insufficient attention was given to the young age of the woman at the time of the offence. The offence, to which the woman

A managing director has been refused permission to represent his company in a dispute over an alleged breach of copyright. Pablo Star Media Limited, acting through its managing director Mr Haydn Price and not through a solicitor, had filed a claim with the District Court, seeking €3,000 damages fr

A man has lost his appeal against an order pursuant to section 32(1) of the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978, which requires him to obtain the consent of the High Court before instituting or continuing any legal proceedings in any court or tribunal. The order was made at the request of the Att

A former consultant surgeon has failed to obtain an order from the Court of Appeal restraining the prosecution of a number of indecent assault offences which allegedly took place between the 1960s and 1990s. The alleged offences were perpetrated primarily against teenage boys who had been admitted t

A man has lost an appeal against his conviction for murder after unsuccessfully arguing the trial judge had incorrectly advised the jury as to the standard of proof in relation to the defence of diminished responsibility. Joseph Heffernan appealed to the Court of Appeal against his conviction for th

The High Court has found that a family’s use of factory land in order to access their cottage does not constitute a legal right of way, as it arose out of the family’s connection to the factory, and subsequently out of a relationship of tolerance and reciprocity. The plaintiffs, known as Zopitar

The High Court has awarded a teenage boy €51,244.56 in damages, after a fire in his home caused by a Hotpoint dishwasher caused him trauma, anxiety and distress. The plaintiff was acknowledged by the court to have been diagnosed with mild intellectual disabilities, resulting in him requiring a spe

The High Court of Justice in the Northern Ireland Chancery Division has found that the Charity Tribunal incorrectly ruled that individual charity trustees did not have standing to seek review of decisions by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. The background to the case concerned a decision

The High Court has upheld a decision of the Labour Court in which it awarded €40,000 to a woman as a result of her dismissal from a school following her paralysis from the waist down. Ms Marie Daly, who had worked at Nano Nagle School as a Special Needs Assistant prior to the accident which left h

A man has failed in his attempt to avoid surrender to Sweden for criminal prosecution on a single count of rape. He had argued that Swedish pre-trial detention laws placed him at risk of a breach of his fundamental rights. W.B.’s surrender was sought under a European arrest warrant, following alle

A man, Mr Robert Mills, has had his appeal against his conviction for the possession of a controlled drug with the intent to supply dismissed by the Court of Appeal. Mr Mills had argued that evidence gathered during an undercover gardaí operation had been incorrectly deemed admissible at the trial

An appeal brought against the Pensions Ombudsman by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Department of Education, and the Higher Education Authority with regards to the pension benefits granted to Michael Gleeson, who was granted permission to retire at 60 with full pension, has fail

A man who sought legal aid for counsel in an appeal against a driving conviction has failed to have a non-statutory legal aid scheme declared ultra vires because he had not proven any need for it. Mr Martin Ward attempted to have the Non-statutory District Court (Counsel) Scheme declared ultra vires

The Court of Appeal has upheld a judgment which found two property transfers from Mr Michael Quigley to his wife to be void, due to them being fraudulent attempts to protect the properties from being used to satisfy any judgment that might result from the plaintiff Dana Doherty’s allegations of se

Following his full judgment on 30 November, Horner J of the Northern Ireland High Court of Justice has found that it is not possible to read Northern Ireland’s abortion law in a way that is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Judge had invited further submissions on the is