Case Reports

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

The Supreme Court has allowed Gemma O’Doherty and John Waters leave to bring an appeal in their challenge to the emergency lockdown measures from March 2020. However, the court only decided to hear a very narrow point of law and will not hear an appeal on the merits of the claim. The court hel

The Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal brought by two plaintiffs in defamation proceedings which had been rejected by a jury. The plaintiffs argued that the jury’s decision was perverse and should be set aside. It was said that all the evidence clearly showed that the defendant had publish

The High Court has refused an Article 40.4 application brought by a man who was committed to prison after he failed to deliver up possession of a property in accordance with a 2019 court order. The court held that the applicant had been detained in accordance with law and that the more appropriate c

A tribunal has found against the Department of Finance for twice refusing to backdate an appellant’s Disabled Person's Allowance. The tribunal found that the Department's repeated and categorical refusal was an unfair misstatement of the law. The Northern Ireland Valuation Tribunal (NIVT) reli

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the offence of sexual exploitation of a child is a standalone offence and does not require proof that the child was trafficked. The question arose following the acquittal of two men accused of sexual exploitation, who had argued that the offence only applied in the

The High Court has dismissed a challenge to the constitutionality of the voting system for the Seanad by a graduate of the University of Limerick. The plaintiff claimed that it was unconstitutional that graduates from the University of Dublin (TCD) and the National University of Ireland (NUI) could

The High Court has dismissed a claim for indemnity and contribution made by defendants against Sligo County Council in a fatal road traffic case. The accident occurred after a HGV driver fell asleep behind the wheel and hit a highway maintenance crew at high speed, resulting in death and severe inju