Case Reports

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has determined that the appropriate sentence for a violent repeat rapist was 18 years, with an additional five-year extended custodial sentence. In reaching this decision, the court was conscious of the violence of the attack, the appellant’s attempts t

The UK Supreme Court has determined that HM Revenue and Customs has the power to refuse to accept a taxable person’s self-assessment claim and decide at a later date to pay a lower amount than was claimed after an appeal by a Scottish optician business. DCM Optical Holdings Ltd, which trades a

The High Court has approved a personal insolvency arrangement for a couple despite objections from a creditor that the PIA was unsustainable. It was argued that the debtors’ total income under the arrangement would not be sufficient to maintain a reasonable standard of living for themselves an

The High Court has dismissed an appeal from an insurance provider against a decision of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) that it acted unreasonably by declining to cover losses to a business arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. Hiscox SA had brought a statutory appeal claiming tha

Northern Ireland’s High Court has ruled that the state breached a pub shooting survivor’s ECHR article 2 and 3 rights. The judge noted that there was no independent investigation conducted following the discovery of new evidence highlighted in a 2017 documentary.  On 19 November 199

The High Court has ruled that a plaintiff company must provide security for costs in proceedings which were estimated to cost the defendants €3 million. The court held that there were no special circumstances which existed to justify refusing the application for security for costs and that each

Northern Ireland’s High Court has denied an appeal to appoint the daughter of a 77-year-old patient as the controller of her financial affairs. The court noted that a professional controller was more appropriate in these circumstances, where there was an impending case against the daughter for

The High Court has ruled that the Dublin Circuit Court was wrong to refuse to hear a divorce application on the basis that the husband, a solicitor, did not carry on his profession in the county. The couple lived outside Dublin and the husband was based in the south-west of the State. As such, the m

The High Court has ruled that the provisions of the Children First Act 2015 require HSE counsellors to report child abuse claims made by adult service users to Tusla. A 2019 policy published by the HSE required certain “mandated persons” to pass on information to Tusla where there were r

The High Court has refused an application for well-charging relief by a company seeking to rely on a registered lien as security for loans advanced after 31 December 2009. In so ruling, the court held that the present case was “indistinguishable” from the judgment in Promontoria (Oyster)

The High Court has awarded €75,000 in damages to a man who was injured by a bull at a cattle market. The man was an experienced farmer who had been asked to assist in driving cattle into the auction area when he was attacked by a startled cow. Delivering judgment in the case, Mr Justice Cian Fe

Northern Ireland’s High Court has found that the decision not to expel a student who intentionally attacked a fellow classmate was rational. The judge found that it was “not for the courts to micro-manage discipline within schools”. The applicant, a girl commencing her Year 11 educ

The High Court has determined that data protection activist Max Schrems is entitled to 80 percent of the legal costs of a challenge to the Data Protection Commission’s handling of a complaint from 2013. The complaint related to the transfer of data by Facebook Ireland Limited from the EU to th

The High Court has ruled that a child must be returned to Poland after she was taken to Ireland by her mother in August 2021. The father had made an application under the Child Abduction Regulations, claiming that he had no knowledge that his child had been removed from Poland. Delivering judgment i

The UK's decision to deport a Nigerian man following a criminal conviction, despite him having been granted indefinite leave to remain more than a decade prior, did not violate his human rights, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled. In the case of Otite v the United Kingdom, the ECtH