Author Archives: Edward McGarr
Personal Injury – Repetitive Strain Injury
REPETITIVE STRAIN INJURY See HERE for the Employer’s duties. At least 120 people of a staff of 340 in the Financial Times reported possible Repetitive Strain Injury symptoms Over a two and a half year period. The injury is one of the most common of those listed in the reports of the Health and Safety Authority . The UK experience confirms this too. The condition is also sometimes referred to as Occupation Overuse Syndrome. It involves inflammation of the muscles, […]
Personal Injury – Employers’ Duties
Occupational Health and Safety An employer owes duties to employees under Common Law and statute. The common law duties have been developed by the courts as they decide cases on accidents at work. The employer’s Common Law duties are: a) To provide a safe place of work b) To provide proper tools and equipment c) To provide a safe system of working d) To provide competent staff In addition an employer owes duties under statute to safeguard employees in the […]
Locus Standi
We are, only now, making attempts to overturn a vicious prejudice. The High Court has permitted the Irish Penal Reform Trust ((Irish Penal Reform Trust v The Minister for Justice (2005) High Court (unreported))) to bring civil proceedings on behalf of, or for the benefit of, all prisoners who are mentally ill. Solon of Athens, in 590 BC, established the same principle; that a third party could bring an action on behalf of a victim. What happened in the interval, […]
MDU – More revelations
We have written elsewhere about the Medical Defence Union and the cover it may or may not give to a member in the event of a judgment against the member for professional negligence. It appears in Australia, a professional is obliged to insure him or herself (ie, membership of something like MDU is not sufficient). Furthermore, MDU is in a postion to offer insurance. In such a case it will be unable to deny indemnity on the basis of the […]
Cross Examination
There is an exception to every rule. I have a general rule, that everybody else’s criminal law cases are boring, whereas mine are not. Here is the exception.
Digital Rights Ireland
THE HIGH COURT 2006 No. 3785P Between DIGITAL RIGHTS IRELAND LIMITED Plaintiff And THE MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS, MARINE AND NATURAL RESOURCES, THE MINISTER FOR JUSTICE, EQUALITY AND LAW REFORM, THE COMMISSIONER FOR THE GARDA SIOCHANA, IRELAND AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Defendants At the request of the Defendants the Plaintiff has agreed to strike out the Motion to dismiss for default in serving a Defence and to an Order extending the time for so doing by 4 weeks. […]
The Price of Coffee
The price of coffee has received some attention from economists but at the producers’ end it is not a question of economics; it is a political issue. (Perhaps all economics is political). At the consumers’ end it is too insignificant to be a political issue and is of interest to economists because it resembles a case study from a textbook (one of theirs). There are more interesting issues. Consider bribery. Here in Ireland it is a crime. ((on paper, but […]
Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum
The Bridewell, originally uploaded by Editor_Tupp. 1. The title phrase (Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum: “let justice be done, though the heavens fall”). is incised in the stone above the entrance to the Bridewell police station in Chancery Street, behind the Four Courts. This has the appearance of an error; the District Court adjoins the police station (they are connected by an underground passageway to securely transfer prisoners from one to the other) and the phrase, logically, belongs on the […]
An IQ of 170
Guilt and fascination were the immediate responses to “Child Genius”. ((Channel Four, 8th February 2007)). As one nine-year old boy, Dante, said, he did not want the TV crew to know too much about him. That was a case where the assertion of a right of privacy was fully warranted. ((Unlike here)) The children, after all, are not capable of giving full (any, actually) consent to the programme. His clear thinking was impressive, sometimes in the face of difficulties, including […]
Judicial Discretion
We know so little. The human mind is still a mystery. We construct hypotheses to carry us over these unknown terrains, the hypothesis being intended to carry the endorsement of the communal wisdom. Inevitably, it represents the conventional wisdom, but that may be the price we pay in setting up human institutions like a court. This presumed-to-be-correct âknowledgeâ? often appears in the exercise of judicial discretion. We expect the judge to apply those fine judgments for which no prescribed rules […]