Nichola Harte

Partner, Member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers

Nichola Harte is from Belfast and graduated with an LLB (Hons) in law from Queen’s University Belfast, and  attended the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queen’s University qualifying as a solicitor in Northern Ireland in 1991.

She is a member of the Personal Injury Lawyers Association and the Belfast Solicitors Association. She is the Partner in charge of the Harte Coyle Collins Litigation and Judicial Review Departments.

Nichola is a skilled personal injury lawyer who has wide ranging experience in pursuing personal injury claims for clients who have been injured or suffered other losses at the fault of another party. These claims include actions against employers, companies, the police and prison service. She is an expert in road traffic accidents and provides immediate, specialist and efficient advice for claimants.

Nichola also has extensive experience in administrative law, judicially reviewing decisions made by Government and other state subsidized bodies. She has pursued these judicial review challenges in the High Court , the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland, the House of Lords/Supreme Court in London and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Judicial reviews, Court of Appeal and House of Lords/Supreme Court challenges she has dealt with include;

• challenges against the Northern Ireland Prison Service for refusal to release prisoners on compassionate grounds;

• a successful challenge against the PSNI for covert surveillance of legal advisors and medical experts for persons in custody up to House of Lords stage (2008);

• challenge to PSNI against the legal basis for taking and retaining biometric samples including DNA, finrgerprints and photographs (2016);

• a successful challenge against a negative decision by the Public Prosecution Service not to prosecute a rape charge which resulted in a prosecution and trial  (2018);

• a challenge by a border citizen against the introductionof  Brexit (2021);

• a challenge against the Legacy Command Paper for 2 legacy clients (2022);

• a successful judicial review challenge against a negative decision by the Attorney General for a fresh inquest into a fatal shooting by the army in 1972 – this resulted in a fresh inquest (2022);

• a successful challenge against the PSNI for a failure to properly investigate the murder of Rosaleen O Kane who was killed in her home at Cliftonville Park Avenue in North Belfast on 17th September 1976.  As a result the PSNI murder investigation is now reopened and ongong (2023);

• a challenge against the Department of Education and Minister for Education against discrimination in the allocation of funds from the cross border RAISE programme (2026 – decision from Court of Appeal pending);

Nichola also has expertise in medical negligence claims having had responsibility for a number of high profile cases and settlements, providing invaluable advice on the merits and procedures involved  including the issues surrounding diagnosis and treatment by doctors and other heatlhcare professionals.

She has widespread criminal defence experience, advising clients who have been arrested under PACE and the Terrorism legislation and representing clients during high profile criminal trials.

Nichola is expert in representing clients before inquests and public inquiries in Northern Ireland.  She represented the next of kin of those killed on Bloody Sunday in Derry in January 1972 before the Saville inquiry from 2000 to 2003.  More recently she represented the next of kin of Mr Finbar McGrillen in the inquest into his death before the Coroner’s Court in Belfast in September 2022. which identified police failings in releasing Sean Hegarty from custody which contributed to the double murders of Mr McGrillen and Ms Smyth.  She also represented one of those wounded at the recent Springhill massacre on 9th July 1972.