Fearghal leads the Public and Administrative Law Department at Madden & Finucane, with expertise in judicial review challenges against most Northern Ireland public authorities, at all court levels, including High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of the UK, and its predecessor, the House of Lords.
Fearghal also has made successful applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission on behalf of former political prisoners, having unsafe convictions referred to the Court of Appeal. In May 2020, he secured the acquittal of a defendant who was convicted in 1983 of the murder of the deputy Prison Governor of the Maze Prison in 1978. He has secured substantial six figure awards of compensation for proven victims of miscarriage of justice.
Fearghal’s special interest however lies in representing families bereaved by State violence at controversial inquests, inquiries, investigations, and associated litigation. He has spearheaded complex challenges before the House of Lords and Supreme Court which have defined the obligations on the State in terms of the scope of Coroner’s inquests following the use of lethal force by the RUC and British Army, and the extent of the obligations on the Chief Constable of the Police Service to provide full and complete disclosure to Coroners inquiring into controversial deaths.
Fearghal was the lead solicitor at the first Inquests in which members of the British Army and RUC directly responsible for the use of lethal force were compelled to attend to give oral evidence, and in high profile legal proceedings challenging decisions by Coroners arising from those inquest proceedings at all levels up to the Supreme Court of the UK. He has secured findings of violations of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights by the British Government in several cases where the UK has failed to satisfactorily investigate deaths of its own citizens.
Fearghal successfully pioneered the use of applications to the Attorney General for Northern Ireland to establish new inquests into the deaths of civilians at the hands of the RUC, British Army and loyalist paramilitary organisations. He has secured unlawful killing verdicts at the inquests into the deaths of unarmed civilians killed by the British Army, and was one of the lead solicitors to successfully challenge the lawfulness of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy & Reconciliation) Act 2023 in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
Fearghal closely assisted Peter Madden in the 35 year long legal fight to secure a full independent and judicial public inquiry into the murder of our founding partner, Pat Finucane, on 12 February 1989.