Michael Hanna (judge)

Hanna originates from Belfast and was educated at St MacNissi's College. His father was Frank Hanna, a Northern Ireland Labour Party MP.[1] He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the King's Inns.[2] He is a former auditor of the College Historical Society.[3]

He became a barrister in 1976 and a senior counsel in 1996.[2] Hanna's practice was focused on the Dublin and South-Eastern circuits, where he specialised in personal injury cases and the law of tort.[2] Criminal cases also formed part of his practice.[4]

Hanna was appointed to the High Court in 2004.[5][6] He was appointed following recommendation by the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.[7] He presided over a planning law case involving Van Morrison and his wife Michelle Rocca in 2010.[8] He was the judge in a 2011 case taken by Ryanair against a German ticket sale website, in which he held that ticket scraping was a breach of Ryanair's website terms. This was considered to be the first Irish case involving the enforceability of online terms of service.[9] He often acted as judge at the Court of Criminal Appeal, prior to its disbandment following the establishment of the Court of Appeal.[10]

He frequently hears personal injuries cases in the High Court. He applied a test of "ordinary common sense" to assess evidence in a personal injuries case involving a woman who had slipped in a car park.[11] This test was endorsed in a judgment of Mary Irvine in the Court of Appeal.[12]

His final sitting as a juhge was on 13 July 2023.[13][14]

He became ill while in Spain in 2014 and was in an induced coma. He was unable to hear cases for a period of time following.[10] Hanna is a singer of opera.[15]