Case Reports

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that an agreement by a third party to fund litigation in exchange for a percentage of damages recovered in the event of success constitutes a “damages-based agreement” for the purposes of statute. The issue arose in the context of applications to bring coll

Northern Ireland’s High Court has determined that service of an Unexplained Wealth Order was effective, despite the failure to comply with the strict requirements that the order be served at the defendants’ address south of the border, in Ireland. The court relied on an affidavit provide

The High Court has refused an application by a plaintiff to strike out certain aspects of a defendant’s affidavit on the grounds that it exhibited without prejudice correspondence. The parties had previously engaged with a view to resolving a contractual dispute in advance of litigation and th

The High Court has ruled that debtors seeking to dismiss a bankruptcy summons in advance of trial must take the appropriate steps within the prescribed 14-day period pursuant to section 8(5) of the Bankruptcy Acts 1988 to 2015. In so ruling, the court determined that there was no jurisdiction to ext

Northern Ireland’s High Court has dismissed an application for judicial review brought by a Chinese national living in Northern Ireland with her six-year-old son, finding that the best interests of the child had been considered. The court upheld a tribunal decision as rational, which rejected

Northern Ireland’s High Court has refused an application to appeal a Belfast County Court European Arrest Warrant order relating to extradition to the Czech Republic. The court found that the warrants in question were legal and valid, despite claims that the sentences involved were too short t

The High Court has ruled that successful plaintiffs in a circuit appeal were entitled to the full legal costs of the hearing and rejected taking an “overly meticulous approach” to legal costs. The defendants had argued that the plaintiffs were not entitled to their legal costs because th

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Jonathan Dowdall against the four-year sentence handed down to him for his involvement in the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel. The court held that the sentence was “very lenient” and was within the available range open to the Spec

The High Court has refused to place a stay on a costs order obtained against litigants who had brought proceedings alleging that the Covid vaccine was a plan by Bill Gates to depopulate the Earth. The State successfully opposed a motion brought by the litigants for a protective costs order on the ba

The Court of Appeal has held that a fund was entitled to argue in the course of well-charging proceedings that the debtor created an equitable charge over the property. The High Court had determined that the plaintiff could not raise this argument because the plaintiff was not able to rely on a lien

The UK Supreme Court has held that a high street bank did not have a duty not to carry out a customer’s instructions if it had reasonable grounds for believing that customer was defrauded after an appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal of England & Wales finding that such a duty

Northern Ireland’s High Court has found that several curfew provisions added to a probation order by a probation officer were unlawful. The court determined that such curfews could only be imposed by the court, and attempting to enforce them without a legislative basis or court order was unlaw

The High Court has placed MAC Interiors into examinership despite the fact that the company was registered in Northern Ireland and therefore outside the European Union. The company had claimed that a combination of factors including the pandemic, losses in a Liverpool development and global supply c

The family of a man who died of cardiac arrest who alleged that the NHS Scotland health board responsible for his treatment was vicariously liable for his death has lost an appeal to the UK Supreme Court challenging a decree of absolvitor granted to the board. Jennifer McCulloch, wife of the late Ne

The High Court has set aside judgment in default of defence obtained on foot of an unless order due to the very difficult personal circumstances experienced by counsel during the period in which a defence was to be delivered. The court held that special circumstances existed in the case to set aside