Case Reports

The High Court has rejected a statutory appeal brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions, which sought to prevent the disclosure of certain documents to a journalist. The requested documents concerned discussions relating to lawyer’s fees with the Department of Public Expenditure and Refo

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) decision in 2014 to terminate an investigation into allegations of torture against the “Hooded Men” was unlawful. The PSNI brought the case to the UK’s highest court, having been unsuccessful in the Cou

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Minister for Justice and Equality failed to establish that she was entitled to postpone the surrender of a man to Lithuania due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The man was due to be surrendered in February 2021 on foot of a European Arrest Warrant and fl

The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal to reduce a general damages award from €155,000 to €95,000 on the basis that the trial judge did not properly assess general damages under the Book of Quantum. Further, the court held that the plaintiff was liable in contributory negligence for his

A Christian boy's school in Newry discriminated against applicants by prioritising applications for "legacy students" whose fathers had been past pupils, Northern Ireland's High Court has ruled.

The High Court has struck out motions issued by a litigant in person on the basis that he failed to serve the defendant properly. In so ruling, the court noted that the plaintiff appeared to be assisted by a man who “crops up reasonably regularly in the chancery list” and that “he

The High Court has awarded €33,000 to a plaintiff for psychiatric damage arising out of witnessing a murder at work. The plaintiff argued that her employer had failed to provide her with a mobile panic alarm pursuant to their policy and that this aggravated the plaintiff’s nervous shock r

Northern Ireland's High Court has rejected an application for judicial review alleging bias where such bias was not established by the applicant. This decision is one of many regarding planning permission for the proposal to commence gold mining operations in the Sperrin Mountains in County Tyrone.

The High Court has refused an application by a hospital worker to quash a decision that prevented her from working from home. The applicant claimed that she was at high risk from Covid-19 due to her health history and that the hospital failed to comply with HSE requirements in making the decision. D

The High Court has dismissed a claim brought by Foot Locker Retail Ireland Limited for declarations that it was entitled to not pay rent to its landlord between March and June 2020 when its store was closed by law. The company argued that the lease was partially frustrated by the Covid-19 restrictio

The Supreme Court has held that the Labour Court erred in concluding that a worker who complained about pain while working did not make a protected disclosure to his employer. It was held that the Labour Court did not properly set out the findings of fact relating to the worker’s complaint to

The High Court has struck out part of a defamation claim which was brought by a plaintiff against the Irish Daily Star and centred on the Hutch/Kinahan gang feud. The plaintiff alleged that the Star had defamed her by reporting that she was asked to help the Kinahan gang kill her partner or face bei

A former tennis player who claimed a newspaper had defamed him in a story that mentioned his tax affairs has failed in his Article 8 appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The court found that as the newspaper article had been a mixture of value judgment and supported factual statements, it h

The High Court has ruled that the HSE cannot charge hospital users as private patients until they clearly consent to such treatment. As such, the HSE is only able to apply certain charges to private patients after they had consented and cannot automatically treat the user as a private patient for th

The High Court has ruled that an applicant was out of time to challenge the Teaching Council’s refusal to register her as a teacher. The applicant had applied to work as a post-primary teacher but was refused on the basis that all her relevant qualifications were for teaching adults. Deliverin