News

Human rights commissions on both sides of the Irish border have called for a new UK-Ireland treaty to protect the smooth operation of the Common Travel Area (CTA) after Brexit. The joint committee of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has

Critical questions around decision-making in Northern Ireland in the absence of a functioning Northern Ireland Executive will be examined at an event hosted by The Bar of Northern Ireland later this month. The first event in The Bar's new Leaders in Legal Excellence Series will bring together Peter

The UK government has been criticised for launching another appeal in the Article 50 legal case. The Court of Session in Edinburgh has made a referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union on the question whether the UK Parliament can revoke Article 50 TEU with the permission of the EU's oth

The PSNI has a backlog of nearly 300 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests which have not been answered within the statutory time limit, The Irish News reports. The backlog currently totals 273 requests, more than a fifth of the 1,270 requests received by the service this year so far.

A policy allowing the Home Office to request patient data from the NHS to target people for deportation has been abolished following a legal challenge. The agreement gave the Home Office access to confidential patient information to aid immigration enforcement.

Cork lawyer Danielle McLaughlin has launched a new anthology of prose and poetry by fellow legal professionals to raise money for charity. Counterparts: A Synergy of Law and Literature contains 22 "pairings" of writing by contemporary Irish lawyer-writers, paired with extracts from a judgment of the

A convicted fraudster escaped jail - for a while - by booking a flying lesson and asking the instructor to let him off in France. Jamie Colwell, 51, hatched the scheme to flee the UK after he and his father, Brian, were convicted of a £1 million VAT scam.

A man who left school at the age of 15 to work on the family farm, and who was promised a 90 acre plot by both his father and mother before their deaths, has successfully challenged his mother's will in which he was left just three acres after a family rift involving his in-laws. Finding that the ma

Cork solicitor Patrick Dorgan, a partner at Ronan Daly Jermyn, has taken office as president of the Law Society of Ireland for 2018/19. The property lawyer has served on the Council of the Law Society for nearly two decades and has served on most of its committees.

Lawyers at Belfast firm Davidson McDonnell have celebrated a period of expansion for the firm with an office warming party at its new headquarters.

A government minister has said a constitutional amendment may be brought forward by Cabinet to allow the Oireachtas to legislate on compensation claims. Last week, the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) published figures showing it awarded over €20,000 on average in whiplash cases in the

The Law Reform Commission (LRC) will launch a review of Irish divorce laws later this year, the Sunday Independent reports. It will consider "whether further guidance would be possible as to what amounts to ‘proper provision’ on divorce and how this might assist couples to avoid adversar

A solicitor has alleged that she was subjected to discriminatory remarks in tribunal proceedings because she is "a woman and a black African". Ashimedua Okonkwo, who was admitted to practice as a solicitor in Ireland in 2013 and holds a master's degree from TCD School of Law, told the High Court tha

An inquest into the 1971 Ballymurphy massacre has opened before presiding coroner Ms Justice Siobhan Keegan in Belfast. The next two weeks of hearings will hear evidence regarding the killing of nine men and one woman over three days in August 1971.

Elaine Motion, executive chairman at Scottish law firm Balfour+Manson, writes on the significance of language in the Article 50 case currently before the Scottish courts. Language is critical in politics and the law, not least in the unfolding political and legal machinations of the Brexit process.