Case Reports

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has reduced an award made by an Industrial Tribunal in a sexual harassment claim by nearly £20,000. The court found that the award was excessive given the short nature of the employment, the lack of evidence relied on by the tribunal, and examples of &l

The Supreme Court has held that the Minister for Justice and Equality was entitled to refuse a visa extension for a Canadian woman whose husband was studying in university in Ireland. The husband’s degree course lasted four years but the woman only had permission to remain in the State for two

The High Court has quashed a decision by the Chief Superintendent of the Cork West Division to refuse an application for a firearm certificate on the narrow basis that he failed to give adequate reasons. The applicant had applied for a new firearm certificate under current “grandfathering&rdqu

The Court of Appeal has determined that a company which engages in litigation to promote and protect the Irish environment was not entitled to legal aid from the State in order to pursue its cases. The court held that the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 did not extend legal aid to corporate bodies. Deliver

The High Court has refused an application by Enoch Burke to stay the case management of High Court proceedings pending the determination of his appeals to the Court of Appeal. In October 2022, the court decided that it would case manage the High Court proceedings and made directions for the delivery

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has dismissed all grounds of appeal against a 24-year murder sentence. The court found that this sentence was neither excessive nor unlawful and a three-year reduction following a late-stage guilty plea was sufficient, if not “generous”.

The High Court has held that a solicitor acted in a “grossly negligent fashion” in a fraudulent property transaction perpetrated by a daughter against her parents’ home. Although the home had been valued at €250,000, the daughter procured the transfer of the property to her fo

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by the DPP against a sentence of three years and three months' imprisonment for a young woman convicted of gross negligence manslaughter of her infant child. The final three years of the sentence were suspended by the trial judge and the DPP argued that th

The Circuit Court has granted a stay on a plaintiff’s proceedings against Fastway Couriers for damages arising from a GDPR breach until the determination of preliminary references by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The defendants brought the application claiming that the pre

Northern Ireland’s High Court has dismissed an application for judicial review where a public procurement for construction with the Education Authority was limited to teams with architects, excluding other qualified construction specialists. The court found that this criterion narrowed the poo

The High Court has ruled that Enoch Burke will be fined €700 per day if he continues to defy a court order requiring him to stay away from his former school. Mr Burke had been released from prison for contempt of court in December 2022 but began attending his former place of work in January onc

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