Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland and sits in a separate legal jurisdiction from England, Wales and Scotland. That matters. Limitation, court procedure, legal-profession regulation and health-service structure all differ - and a claim brought under the wrong framework fails. The Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 governs the three-year limitation period for personal injury claims in the province, the Royal Victoria Hospital is Northern Ireland's only adult Major Trauma Centre, and solicitors here are regulated by the Law Society of Northern Ireland (not the SRA). Belfast itself is a city of around 345,000 in a metropolitan area pushing 650,000, with a strong regeneration trajectory across Titanic Quarter, the Harbour Estate, Cathedral Quarter and the city centre.
Casibus connects injured people across Belfast and Northern Ireland with regulated personal injury specialists. Every case runs on a no win, no fee basis.
Who we help across Belfast and Northern Ireland
- Belfast city - Cathedral Quarter, Titanic Quarter, Queen's Quarter, Stranmillis, Ormeau, Lisburn Road, Shankill, Falls, East Belfast, North Belfast.
The types of Belfast / Northern Ireland personal injury claim we handle
Road traffic accidents across Belfast
M1, M2, M22, A12 (Westlink), A1 Belfast-to-Dublin corridor, and the Belfast city road network. RTA liability in Northern Ireland follows common-law negligence supplemented by the Motor Insurers' Bureau Northern Ireland equivalent arrangements. Coverage across car accident claims, cycle accident claims, motorcycle accident claims, pedestrian accident claims, and whiplash claims. Note: the Civil Liability Act 2018 whiplash-tariff reforms (and the Official Injury Claim portal) do not apply in Northern Ireland - NI whiplash claims are assessed on traditional damages principles, typically by the Judicial Studies Board (Northern Ireland) Guidelines rather than the English Judicial College Guidelines.
Translink - buses and rail
Translink operates NI Railways, Metro (Belfast buses), Goldline and Ulsterbus. Glider BRT runs east-west across Belfast. Passenger claims against operators follow the common-carrier duty. See bus and coach accident claims.
Maritime and shipyard heritage - Harland & Wolff and asbestos
Belfast's shipyard history - Harland & Wolff, built Titanic - left a severe asbestos legacy. Shipyard workers, and their families from secondary exposure, continue to present with mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung disease decades on. Time limits run from date of knowledge, which for mesothelioma is typically the date of diagnosis - meaning cases can and do proceed many years after the exposure. See asbestos claims.
Construction and regeneration
Titanic Quarter remains under continuous development - Belfast Harbour, offices, residential. City-centre regeneration at Tribeca Belfast, Ulster University's new Belfast campus, and Belfast Grand Central transport hub. See construction site accident claims. Northern Ireland applies the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 - the NI equivalent of CDM 2015.
Office and professional sectors
Belfast has a significant professional-services and tech footprint - global law firms (Herbert Smith Freehills, Baker McKenzie, Allen & Overy Belfast hubs), PwC / Deloitte / KPMG, Citi, Allstate NI. Manual-handling, slip-trip, and RSI claims. See office accident claims.
Medical negligence in Belfast - HSC, not NHS
Northern Ireland operates Health and Social Care (HSC) - a single integrated health and social services structure run through five HSC Trusts. Belfast Trust is the relevant defendant for most Belfast hospital claims: Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast City Hospital, Mater Hospital, Musgrave Park Hospital, and the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. Clinical-negligence principles (Bolam / Bolitho / Montgomery) apply in Northern Ireland as they do in the rest of the UK, but claims are issued in the NI courts. See medical negligence.
Public liability across Belfast
Slips at Victoria Square, CastleCourt, Belfast city-centre pavements; trips against Belfast City Council; hotel and restaurant chain claims; venue injuries at SSE Arena, The Ulster Hall, The Waterfront. See slips, trips and falls, pavement accident claims. Occupiers' Liability in Northern Ireland is governed by the Occupiers' Liability Act (Northern Ireland) 1957 - equivalent in substance to the 1957 Act in England and Wales, but a separate statute.
Industrial disease - shipyard and manufacturing legacy
Beyond the Harland & Wolff asbestos story, Belfast has a legacy of heavy engineering, linen milling, tobacco processing (Gallaher's), aerospace (Short Brothers, now Spirit AeroSystems), and manufacturing. Noise-induced hearing loss, HAVS, occupational asthma, and occupational dermatitis claims continue. See industrial disease and asbestos claims.
Where your claim could end up - Northern Ireland courts
- County Court for lower-value claims.
Royal Victoria Hospital - Northern Ireland's only Major Trauma Centre
Since 2018, Royal Victoria Hospital (Belfast HSC Trust) has been the designated adult Major Trauma Centre for the whole of Northern Ireland. A new Critical Care building with a rooftop helipad supports direct air-ambulance transfers. RVH's trauma team includes emergency medicine, orthopaedics, anaesthetics and general surgery on immediate call. Major-trauma patients from across Northern Ireland - from Derry, Enniskillen, Omagh, Newry - route to RVH for consultant-led resuscitation and definitive care. Paediatric trauma is delivered at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, on the same campus. Air transfers come via the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service charity (Air Ambulance NI).
Funding - no win, no fee (Northern Ireland)
Most Casibus NI cases run on a Conditional Fee Agreement. The English LASPO 2012 regime (recoverability and 25% success fee cap on general damages and past losses) does not apply identically in Northern Ireland - the NI CFA framework is similar in structure but has its own rules and practice. Your NI solicitor will explain the specific CFA and ATE terms before you sign anything. If the claim fails, you pay nothing, subject to CFA and ATE terms. See no win no fee explained.
