Michael Hanna (judge)

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 heard personal injuries cases when he was on the bench of 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 judge 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]