We have already looked at how to reference cases from Scotland, as well as how to reference legislation from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We will now turn our attention to referencing legal cases from Northern Ireland and examine the court structure there. Knowing this will give you better background knowledge to improve your writing and means the referencing makes more sense!
Court System
Like Scotland, England and Wales, the Northern Ireland court system is split into two distinct parts – the civil courts and the criminal courts. Both of these types of court will have their own court system and hierarchy, as well as being governed by a different set of laws.
Civil Courts
Civil courts, as elsewhere, are concerned with relationships and disagreements between individuals and organisations. The party bringing the claim or dispute is called the applicant and the party answering is called the respondent. The standard of proof in civil cases is “on the balance of the probabilities”, so there is more than a 50% chance that the defendant is liable. Note that a defendant is found liable, rather than guilty, in a civil case.
The court of first instance for a civil claim will depend on the complexity and type of case at hand. The Magistrates’ Court can be a court of first instance for some civil cases, including family proceedings. Cases are heard by magistrates and appeals from here pass to the County Court.
The County Court also hears first instance civil cases, but ones that are worth more than £3,000 or are more complex in nature. It also hears appeals from the Magistrates’ Court, for example, on family proceedings.
The Small Claims Courts are part of the County Courts and are another example of a court of first instance. They are exactly what they sound like – they hear small claims! These will be consumer cases and minor civil ones with few or no complex issues to deal with, usually of less than £3,000. If the small claims track is used, the case will be heard by one judge.
The final court of first instance is the High Court, which hears complex and particularly important or significant civil cases. It also hears appeals from the County Court.
The High Court is divided into three different divisions, which all deal with different issues. The first of these is the Queen’s Bench Division, which hears cases involving topics such as personal injury, medical negligence and commercial claims.
The next is the Chancery Division, which in fact has four main areas; Probate, Bankruptcy, Companies and Chancery. It will deal with issues such as a Grant of Representation for a deceased person’s estate (Probate), administration of bankrupts’ estates (Bankruptcy), insolvent partnerships (Companies) and land and property (Chancery).
The final division of the High Court is the Family Division, which has two major areas. The first is the Matrimonial Office & the Office of Care and Protection (OCP) (Children’s Section) which deals with things like divorce proceedings and adoption. The other area is the Office of Care and Protection (OCP) (Patients Section) which includes the administration of the patient’s financial affairs where they are unable to do so for reasons of mental incapacity.
Criminal Courts
As in England and Wales, criminal cases have two levels of seriousness, with the more severe offences being tried on indictment and the less serious ones being tried summarily. Cases that are somewhere in the middle are called hybrid offences and can be tried either way.
The lowest court of first instance for criminal courts in Northern Ireland is the Magistrates’ Court, which hears and tries summary offences and may hold preliminary hearings for offences on indictment. It also hears trials involving juveniles.
The next court of first instance in the criminal division is the Crown Court. This hears more serious offences on indictment and some hybrid offences.
Appeal Courts
The highest civil and criminal court actually in Northern Ireland is the Court of Appeal, where cases will be heard by two or three judges. Occasionally there may be only one judge, where the case is an incidental one.
The highest court for Northern Ireland is the UK Supreme Court, as Northern Ireland is still part of the UK. Appeals may pass to this or even to the European Courts on particularly important points of law whilst the UK remains part of the European Union.
Referencing Cases
Now that we are familiar with the court structure in Northern Ireland, we will look at how to reference cases from there using OSCOLA. The basic format for a case from Northern Ireland is:
Case name | Neutral citation (if possible), | Year | Law Report
Like England and Wales (and Scotland), Northern Ireland now uses neutral citations to identify cases, which you should always use where they exist. For more information on neutral citations, see my blog about referencing cases from England and Wales or this one about referencing cases from Scotland. Neutral citations take different forms for different courts, as is shown in the table below.
| Court | Citation |
| Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland | [Year] NICA number |
| High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, Queen’s Bench Division | [Year] NIQB number |
| Crown Court for Northern Ireland | [Year] NICC number |
Each type of neutral citation contains an abbreviation of the court name (for example, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal is NICA), so they are fairly easy to remember.
Wilson v Commissioner of Valuation [2009] NICA 30, [2010] NI 4.
As you can see in this example, you will need a law report citation as well; here, it is [2010] NI 4. There is more about law report citations in my blog Law Report Hierarchy and Subsequent Citations.
For cases from Northern Ireland, you should use the Northern Ireland Law Reports with the abbreviation NI. These date from 1925; however, the Northern Ireland jurisdiction goes back to 1921, so you should use the Irish Reports or the Irish Times Reports for cases from this window.
Hylands v McClintock [1999] NI 28.
Finally
Hopefully, you now have a better idea of how to cite a case from Northern Ireland using OSCOLA, as well as the court structure in Northern Ireland. Don’t forget I also have blogs covering how to cite cases from England and Wales and Scotland. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!
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