Case Reports

The High Court in Belfast declined jurisdiction in the case of a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Inspector who brought an application for judicial review, finding that the matter was not to be treated as one of public law. The inspector, Ms Pamela Colville, brought an application for judic

A gym owner has avoided a prison sentence for beating his girlfriend and breaking her teeth after she questioned him about being out late. Kevin Loughnan (28) brought €10,000 to court as compensation for his now former partner. Judge Melanie Greally ordered that this be paid over.

A man who began sexually abusing the younger sister of his wife when she was six, and continued to do so until she was 18, has been unsuccessful in challenging the safety of his conviction in the Court of Appeal. The man sought to challenge, inter alia, the admissibility of evidence from several wit

A man who attempted to claim Irish citizenship on the contention that he was born in a house in Dublin in 1940, and was brought back to Russia before being registered at that time, has had his application rejected in the Court of Appeal. Reversing the decision of the High Court, Mr Justice Gerard Ho

A High Court judge has strongly criticised "shadowy advisers" who he said are giving flawed legal advice to those challenging repossession orders. The comments were made by Mr Justice Seamus Noonan when giving judgment on an application by Mark Flynn and Mairead Flynn from Derry Shercock, Co Cavan w

of the member states.

A man who was systematically abused by a former Marist Brother while at National School has been awarded €75,000 by a five-judge Supreme Court. The current Provincial of the Marist Order Brother Patrick McGowan appealed a High Court judgment which awarded the man €315,000 after assessing the Ord

of further offers from other interested parties. The Court heard that in the end, Mr Mellon did not actually submit a tender – Justice Humphreys said that it was likely that this was because he did not in fact have the funds immediately available. Thus, Justice Humphreys stated that “it was rea

Comparative advertising based on prices as between shops having different formats and sizes is unlawful in certain circumstances and is also liable to be misleading if the consumer is not informed clearly in the advertising itself of the difference in format and size of the shops in respect of which

The mother of a pupil attending an all-girls school in north Belfast has been unsuccessful in challenging the Department of Education decision to amalgamate her daughter’s school with an adjacent all-boys school. In the High Court in Belfast, the woman brought an application for judicial review ar

A 35-year-old man convicted of murdering a 21-year old man for “coming on to him” has been unsuccessful in appealing his conviction based on the defence of the defence of diminished responsibility created by s.6(2) of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006. In the Supreme Court, the man argued tha

A cohabitee who was refused a survivor’s pension after a local government body claimed her deceased partner did not nominate her has succeeded in an appeal and will be entitled to a pension under the scheme after Justices in the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the nomination requirement be

The Sunday World has been unsuccessful in its appeal to overturn the €85,000 award made to former English Premier League footballer, David Speedie, in defamation proceedings. In April 2011, the newspaper published two articles about the footballer’s alleged contact with known criminals, one of w

A man who served five years for possession of heroin with intent to supply, has been unsuccessful in his appeal to the Supreme Court in which he claimed that the solicitors representing him at his criminal trial were liable for worry and stress in the week running up to his trial in 1999. The man cl

A woman who suffered severe lacerations to her leg while attending a masquerade ball in Belle Isle Castle has lost her £100,000 claim against the company owning the popular Fermanagh venue. In the High Court in Belfast, Mr Justice Ben Stephens found that the company was not liable for Ms Brown’s