Case Reports

The High Court has awarded £125,000 to Arlene Foster arising out of a defamation action taken against celebrity doctor Christian Jessen. Giving judgment in the case, Mr Justice Gerry McAlinden stated that it was an “outrageously bad libel” which caused significant upset to the Firs

The High Court has considered that there is a jurisdiction to direct the disclosure of the identity of potential third parties against concurrent defendants. In the process, the Court substantially elaborated on the application in Ireland and boundaries of the House of Lords’ decision in Norwi

The High Court has determined that the requirement for an applicant under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to prove they are suffering from a medical “disorder” was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The court held that a diagnosis of a disorder was an antiquated n

The High Court has set aside the renewal of a personal injuries summons on the grounds that there were no special circumstances to justify the renewal. The principal issue in the case was whether the bringing of the renewal application prior to the expiry of the Statute of Limitations could amount t

The High Court has approved a personal insolvency arrangement which would allow a woman to repay her mortgage until the age of 90. The decision came following an appeal from the Circuit Court, in which the judge was concerned that the PIA would leave the debtor in a precarious position at the end of

The High Court has rejected judicial review proceedings brought by Facebook Ireland Limited seeking to quash a preliminary draft decision of the Data Protection Commissioner regarding EU-US data transfers. In the case, Facebook made a number of complaints about the procedure which the DPC had adopte

The High Court has granted an injunction restraining the Director of Public Prosecutions from prosecuting assault charges against a child due to delay. The applicant was 17 years old at the time of the offending but was only charged 15 months after the incident. The court was satisfied that there ha

The Court of Appeal has made a differential costs order against a plaintiff in personal injuries proceedings after her award was substantially reduced on appeal. Further, the court ordered the plaintiff to pay the defendants’ costs of the appeal as well. The plaintiff had previously received &

The High Court has refused to extradite a man to Poland in circumstances where the authorities had failed to effect his surrender for more than seven years. The man had previously been surrendered to the Irish authorities for extradition in 2012 but was released after the Irish/Polish authorities fa

The High Court has imposed a costs order for judicial review proceedings against Cork City Council, the notice party, on the basis that it “actively invoked, exploited and endorsed an unlawful system of taxation of costs” drawn up by the Cork County Registrar. The applicant had challenge

The High Court has acceded to an application brought by a defendant to have a case heard in Hong Kong pursuant to an exclusive jurisdiction clause. The court determined that a sea waybill produced by the defendant was “excellent evidence of contractual terms” and that no proper controver

The Crown Court has determined that interview evidence gathered by the Historical Enquiries Team cannot be used against two paratroopers charged with the murder of Joe McCann in 1972. The ruling led to the collapse of the murder trial for Soldier A and Soldier C because the interview evidence was th

The Supreme Court has upheld the admissibility of certain surveillance evidence which was used to convict members and associates of the IRA. In so ruling, the court determined that section 10 of the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009 did not require the Minister for Justice to individually aut

The High Court has quashed a decision by the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) which refused protection for two Albanian nationals claiming to be the victims of political violence. The court held that the IPAT decision was flawed for several reasons, including that certain findings re

The High Court has quashed the refusal of an international protection application brought by a woman who claimed that she would be subjected to female genital mutilation if returned to Sierra Leone. The court determined that the International Protections Appeal Tribunal did not provide adequate reas