How can we help?
Judicial Review is a way for the High Court to supervise the lower Courts, Tribunals and other administrative bodies to ensure that their decisions are properly made. Any person who feels that a decision of a public authority, such as a government minister, the District or Circuit Court, a semi-state body, the local council or a statutory tribunal has violated his or her rights, may apply to the High Court for judicial review of the decision.
At Sheridan Quinn LLP we have a highly specialised team of solicitors with extensive experience in acting for clients seeking to bring Judicial Review Proceedings in the High Court.
In a Judicial Review, generally the Court is not concerned with the merits of the decision but rather with the lawfulness of the decision-making process that is, how the decision was made and the fairness of it.
Some examples of public decisions include:
- Decisions of the District and Circuit Courts
- Inquest verdicts
- Decisions of tribunals
- Deductions from army pensions
- Discharge of a member of the defence forces
- Decisions of An Bord Pleanala relating to planning permission
- Decisions of Government bodies that require an Environmental Impact Assessment and/or an Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) licence.
- Decisions of the Legal AidBoard and the Law Society.
Important Time Limits
The Judicial Review procedure provides for a timely manner of reviewing the decisions of administrative bodies. Order 84, Rule 21(1) of the Rules of the Superior Courts 1986 lays down the requirements in relation to time limits in conventional judicial review proceedings. It provides that an application asking the court for permission (termed “leave”) to challenge the relevant decision must be made “promptly and within three months from the date when grounds for the application first arose, or six months if the relief sought is certiorari (to have the decision quashed.), unless the court considers that there is good reason for extending the period within which the application shall be made”.
With over 40 years’ experience working in the area of Judicial Review, our experienced solicitors offer a professional and accessible service for its clients.