News

Nearly a third of solicitor applications and nearly half of barrister applications to the legal aid agency's COVID-19 interim payment scheme have been rejected. The Legal Services Agency (LSA), which launched the scheme two weeks ago, has revealed it had received 818 requests by Friday 15 May.

A man has been arrested following an investigation into a suspected fake law firm, according to reports. David McHugh, 63, was arrested by officers from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) on Tuesday morning on suspicion of various deception offences, The Herald reports.

A new research project on familial imprisonment has been awarded funding from the Irish Research Council (IRC). Dr Fiona Donson and Dr Aisling Parkes of UCC School of Law are leading the project, which will be delivered in collaboration with the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT).

Over 120 staff members at Ronan Daly Jermyn have completed a run or walk of over 12,000 kilometres as part of a fitness initiative at the firm.

Proposals for the implementation of the Northern Ireland part of the Brexit deal have been published by the UK government. A new 25-page document sets out how the UK proposes to meet its obligations under the Northern Ireland Protocol, though Tánaiste Simon Coveney said parts of the document

A football team has been slapped with a record fine after placing sex dolls in its empty stadium seats during a recent match played behind closed doors. FC Seoul apologised this week after TV and online viewers noticed around two dozen sex dolls in the stadium during the team's match with Gwangju FC

Full court sittings will resume "as soon as tomorrow" with new safety measures, the Courts Service has indicated. Physical court sittings were yesterday limited to a maximum of two hours per day while clarification was sought on health advice given to the Oireachtas.

A criminal defence lawyer has sharply criticised safety measures at a specialist COVID-19 custody suite established by the PSNI in Belfast. The new "interview room with a perspex screen" at the Musgrave police station "is inadequate at best, and downright dangerous at worst", solicitor Joe Rice

Plans to launch an auto-enrolment pension scheme in Ireland by 2022 "may not survive the ongoing economic fall-out from the COVID-19 crisis", Mason Hayes & Curran (MHC) has said. The business law firm today published the results of a survey carried out in partnership with the Irish Institute of

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has apologised to locals for the way in which the Direct Provision centre at the Skellig Star hotel in Cahersiveen was opened. Nearly 70 people seeking international protection were moved to the centre on 18 and 19 March from a hotel in Dublin where another guest su

Senator Michael McDowell gives his view on the developing row between the German federal courts and the European Union. Over the last few weeks, a furore has been whipped up about the decision of the German federal constitutional court at Karlsruhe, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG for short), i

Complaints to the Ombudsman rose by nine per cent to reach a nine-year high last year, according to new figures. Ombudsman Peter Tyndall, who considers complaints from people who use public services, received 3,664 complaints in 2019.

Benjamin Bestgen considers judges and politics (click here to view his last jurisprudential primer). See also our review of Lord Sumption's book dealing with the same theme. In April 2020, Polish Supreme Court President Malgorzata Gersdorf retired. She noted that she had been unable to stop conteste

PhD student Jane Mulcahy has defended her thesis on post-release supervision of long-sentence male prisoners in UCC School of Law's first-ever "virtual viva". Ms Mulcahy had to defend her thesis, Connected Corrections and Corrected Connections: post-release supervision of long sentence male prisoner

People suspected of terrorism offences would face minimum jail terms of 14 years under proposed legislation. Under the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill, introduced to Parliament today, the standard of proof for terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpims) imposed on individuals who a