Lay Litigants

A new charter has been launched to assist with court cases in Northern Ireland where one party is a litigant in person (LIP). The Law Society of Northern Ireland, Ulster University and the Litigant in Person Reference Group collaborated to create the new charter, which is designed to assist lawyers,

"Quack lawyers" are causing delays in the Irish courts on a daily basis, a High Court judge has said in a blistering judgment. Mr Justice Michael Twomey said cases were being "delayed as court sittings are being taken up dealing with nonsensical applications which are being pursued on the pseudo leg

The High Court has struck out proceedings brought in respect of an order for possession over a Wexford property because they were res judicata and an abuse of process, echoing Ms Justice Eileen Roberts’ concerns about the ‘services’ provided by the second plaintiff. Delivering judg

Northern Ireland’s High Court has refused to appoint a McKenzie friend in family law proceedings on the basis that she attempted to inappropriately influence the court and lacked a basic understanding of practice and procedure. Delivering judgment for the High Court, Mr Justice David McFarland

Northern Ireland’s High Court has struck out an action as being doomed to fail and frivolous where the lay litigant plaintiff was seeking a combined £300 million for alleged failures by his legal representatives and the police to enforce a court order. The court also rejected his claim t

The High Court has refused a last-minute adjournment application from a litigant-in-person who claimed that she had been tricked into attending court in the past and that “wild horses wouldn’t drag me to Dublin tomorrow” for the hearing. The litigant claimed that the plaintiff&rsqu

A judge has issued a stern warning about the "real and growing risk of expensive, time-wasting and wholly unmeritorious cases" coming before Northern Ireland's Court of Appeal as he dismissed a "hopeless and utterly groundless appeal" brought by a personal litigant. Lord Justice Treacy said it was "

The High Court has quashed a decision of the Circuit Court to dismiss an appeal brought by a lay litigant after the trial judge failed to let the man make submissions. The applicant had appealed a decision of the District Court which increased maintenance payments for his child from €60 to &eur

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 Court of Appeal has ruled that a lay litigant is entitled to his appeal costs, despite the fact that his appeal was not "entirely successful". The man was successful in his appeal, the principal judgment of which was delivered earlier this year, and the Court of Appeal recently heard submissions