Case Reports

The Court of Appeal has increased the sentence for a Romanian national who repeatedly raped a young woman in 2018. The man was previously sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment by the Central Criminal Court, with the final three-and-a-half years suspended due to the accused not speaking English and not

The High Court has awarded €63,000 to a bus driver who was injured in an assault by an unidentified assailant during the course of his employment. The driver brought personal injuries proceedings against Bus Éireann claiming that the bus company failed to provide him with a safe place of

The High Court has determined that Merck Sharp & Dohme was entitled to an interlocutory injunction preventing a competitor from selling a generic version of a patented drug prior to the expiry of an SPC in April 2023. The competitor, Mylan Ireland Limited, had claimed that the SPC was invalid an

Northern Ireland’s High Court has dismissed an application for judicial review where an applicant who had exhausted his asylum appeals was denied a government-issued card which included identifying details. The applicant, a 29-year-old man originally from Somalia, had been seeking asylum in th

The Supreme Court has held that the victims of crime may not generally influence the sentence imposed by a trial judge on a convicted criminal, but stated that a court may take into account a plea for leniency when making a final determination on the appropriate sentence. The decision arose from an

The Court of Appeal has held that the sentence for a man who impeded the investigation and apprehension of the murderer of Thomas Farnan was too lenient. The sentence was initially set by the trial judge at four years with the final 18 months suspended but the Court of Appeal held that the appropria

The High Court has determined that a defendant was entitled to discovery of a plaintiff’s post-accident medical records in a personal injuries case. It was held that post-accident records were clearly relevant to the proceedings and there was no reason why they should not be discovered. Delive

The High Court has determined that a mother had wrongfully removed her two children to Ireland and ordered that they should be returned to Sweden under the Hague Convention. The eldest child claimed that she would self-harm if she was returned to Sweden but the court held that there were not strong

Northern Ireland’s High Court has rejected applications for judicial review into the length of patient wait lists in the jurisdiction. The court found that although this issue was of public concern, the nature of the situation required political leadership, not court involvement.

The High Court has dismissed a personal injury claim brought by a university student who fell from a bucking horse at an equestrian centre. The plaintiff suffered a significant back injury in the fall and brought proceedings against the equestrian centre and the university which organised the horse-

The High Court has refused an application by a plaintiff for well-charging relief against a deceased’s estate on the basis that the monies had become payable in September 2008. It was held that the plaintiff’s claim was statute-barred as no proceedings had issued within two years of the

Northern Ireland’s High Court has determined that it is in the best interests of a child to be relocated to Poland, where he has family ties and where his mother’s new husband is based. The court noted the emotional impact that refusing the application could have on the mother and, in tu

The High Court has quashed a sentence for burglary on the basis that the trial judge erred by refusing to allow counsel an opportunity to take instructions from their client. The defendant had pleaded guilty to stealing €5,000 from a house in at a hearing in 2021. Delivering judgment in the cas

James Milliken of Carson McDowell reports that we are beginning to see artificial intelligence take on complex tasks such as assisting lawyers with drafting contracts. Artificial intelligence (AI) plays an ever-increasing role in our everyday lives. It is used in Face ID and other image recognition

The Court of Appeal has held that a mandatory disqualification from holding a driving licence due to careless driving only applies if the accused had two previous convictions for careless driving in a three-year period prior to the offence. The decision provides clarity on the issue of mandatory dis