Case Reports

Northern Ireland's High Court has found that the Attorney General had applied the wrong test in assessing whether a fresh inquest should be granted into the British Army killing of Thomas Aquinas Burns. Leave to judicially review his decision was granted where it was found that the Attorney General

The Court of Appeal has upheld a costs order for an injunction despite claims by the defendant that the proceedings were prematurely issued by the plaintiff. The High Court had ordered costs in the cause of the action but the defendant sought for costs to be awarded in its favour. Delivering judgmen

Northern Ireland's High Court has awarded costs against the Home Office where their unexplained delay in issuing a visa forced the applicant to bring proceedings. The court found that the applicant was justified in issuing the proceedings, despite the fact that her visa arrived five days after threa

The Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal brought by a father seeking the return of his three children to England after they had moved to the Ireland during the pandemic. The court determined that the children had obtained habitual residence in the state following their move in June 2020. Deliverin

The High Court has struck out a plaintiff's medical negligence proceedings for inordinate and inexcusable delay arising from a failure to progress the proceedings from their inception. The court held that the proceedings had not progressed from a “protective writ” issued in 2016. Althoug

Northern Ireland's High Court has found that it still had jurisdiction to hear an application for a care order in respect of an eight-month-old child who was sent to live with his maternal grandfather south of the border. The child was sent away by his mother after she became aware that a social car

The High Court has ruled that an assignee of a defendant’s loans did not need to provide notice of the assignment prior to making a demand for repayment. The court held that the plaintiff’s demand letter contained adequate information about the assignment of the loan to comply with the p

Antrim Crown Court was not swayed that an 18-year-old attacker who had 10 previous convictions had been unable to exercise self-control due to his diagnosis of ADHD and alcohol dependency. On 26 June 2020, the defendant, Jordan McClintock, arrived at a small gathering on the Ballykeel Estate in Ball

The High Court has held that the HSE failed to properly assess potentially disabled children in accordance with the Disability Act 2005. It was said that the HSE was obliged to diagnose every child with a disability for the purposes of establishing the nature of extent of a child’s disability.

The High Court has refused an application by Gerry Adams to strike out a portion of the BBC’s defence in defamation proceedings. Mr Adams claimed that a defence of fair and reasonable publication should be struck out because the BBC did not alert readers that an article was the subject of defa

The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal against a refusal by a trial judge in family proceedings to provide access to records of the judge’s meeting with the couple’s children. The trial judge held that the meetings were private and should not be disclosed to the parents. Delivering ju

A non-EU national living in Northern Ireland should not have been refused benefits on the basis that she did not have "comprehensive sickness insurance" as she had access to the NHS, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled. In yesterday's judgment, the Fifth Chamber provided insi

The Court of Appeal has increased the sentence for a woman convicted of making a false statement to gardaí about a sexual assault. The woman was initially sentenced to two years' imprisonment which was fully suspended. However, the Court of Appeal held that the offending was so serious that i

The High Court has granted an interlocutory injunction against a couple for trespassing on their former home within 90 minutes of being dispossessed by Start Mortagages DAC. An order for possession had previously been granted in the Circuit Court and affirmed in the High Court. In granting the order

Northern Ireland’s High Court has upheld an anonymity order where there were allegations that the shield was being used to advance Sinn Féin's political aims. The court found that the possible threat of violence to the applicant, should his name be revealed, was sufficient to surmount t