Ms Karen Quinlivan Q.C. addresses solicitors and barristers at the Inns of the Court, Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast on developments in the law regarding Secret/Closed Evidence Hearings;
Harte Coyle Collins, Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates today obtained leave from the High Court in Belfast to challenge a decision made by the Chief Parole Commissioner to deny a client in custody at Maghaberry prison an oral hearing. The refusal by te Chief Parole Commissioner was made in circumstances where additional informaiton was available from the Probation Board which may have beneffited the prisoner. The Chief Parole Commissioner’s decision to deny the client an oral hearing before a 3 member panel of the Parole Commissioners interfered with the client’s liberty.
Barbara Muldoon, an Apprentice Solicitor specialising in Immigration Law, was acquitted today when a charge of participation in an unlawful parade was dismissed against her at Belfast Magistrates’ Court. Ms Muldoon was charged with participation in an unlawful parade alleged to have taken place on the 22nd October 2013 at Bedford Street when BNP leader Nick Griffin atended the BBC in Belfast. A number of similar anti-BNP protests took place in other locations in the UK including London on the same date objecting to the decison to invite Nick Griffin to the BBC.
Harte Coyle Collins, Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates represent trade unionist, socialist and immigration lawyer Barbara Muldoon. Ms Muldoon, an anti-racism campaigner, faces criminal charges for taking part in an ANR protest in 2009. Campaigners say the charges are an attack on the right to peaceful protest in Northern Ireland and urge the Director of Public Prosecution to drop them immediately. A range of groups and individuals, including well known human rights advocates, trade union leaders, academics and campaigners are calling on the Director of the Public Prosecution Service to withdraw a criminal charge against anti-racism campaigner Barbara Muldoon for her involvement at a protest which took place in Belfast on 22 October 2009.
The last man to receive the death penalty in the UK in 1973 had a conviction for murder quashed at the Northern Ireland Court of Criminal Appeal on the 21st June 2013. Liam Holden, originally from the Whiterock area of Belfast, was convicted of the murder of a British soldier in September 1972 after a jury trial in April 1973 during which the prosecution relied solely upon alleged confession evidence.
A young Strabane woman has today at the High Court in Belfast received a substantial six figure medical negligence settlement against the Western Heatlh and Social Care Trust following their admission that their faiure to have in place a policy to diagnose and treat a molar pregnancy led to her having an emergency hysterectomy.
Defence lawyer, Patricia Coyle of Harte Coyle Collins, Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates acting for Filipino national Jaybe Ofrasio who faces alleged Al-Qaeda offences under the Terrorism Act in 2004, confirmed today that her client will be formally acquitted of the charges at Belfast Crown Court on 7th November 2007.
Harte Coyle Collins, Solictors & Solicitor Advocates, acting on behalf of Jaybe Ofrasio today confirmed that the Director of the Public Prosecution Service had acceded to the defence request for trial by jury for Mr Ofrasio.
Harte Coyle Collins, Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates, acting on behalf of the family of a 33 year old single woman murdered in Belfast in 1976 have obtained funding to commission a review of the original post-mortem evidence.
Harte Coyle Collins, Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates, were today successful in a High Court action pursued to ensure access to all prisons in Northern Ireland for solicitors. The case concerned the refusal to allow a lawyer access to the Young Offenders Centre, Hydebank to consult with a client who wanted to make bail application. The lawyer requested that she would not have to pass by a drugs dog because she suffered from a severe phobia of dogs. The prison refused to acknowledge this phobia, but the High Court has accepted it as genuine. Instead she requested a visit with no physical contact with her client.
