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Mortgage approvals fell by nearly ten per cent over the year to March 2020, according to new figures. However, the impact of COVID-19 on the mortgage market won't be clear until the figures for April are released, the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) warned.

Hayes solicitors partner Jeremy Erwin and associate solicitor Cian Clinch highlight a recent High Court decision which provides welcome guidance on applications for summary judgment. On 29 November 2019, the Supreme Court, in Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank v O'Malley [2019] IESC, overturned a decisio

Eversheds Sutherland partner Matthew Howse and principal associate Damian McElholm consider the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. As each day passes, the economic challenges presented by COVID-19 are further illuminated. With the jobs retention scheme portal now open for applications,

Human rights advocate Mary Lawlor has taken up her post as UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. Ms Lawlor has decades of experience in human rights, having helped to grow Irish-based NGOs as a previous director of Amnesty International in Ireland and a founder of Front L

A new crime novel from Northern Ireland lawyer-turned-author Steve Cavanagh is set to be released later this year. Fifty-Fifty, to be released in September, follows the case of two sisters suspected of murder who accuse each other of the crime.

The establishment of an independent Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) outside of the PSNI risks turning Northern Ireland into a "police state", two senior lawyers have claimed. Writing in the News Letter, Belfast solicitor Neil Faris and Peter Smith CBE QC, who served on the Patten Commission, sa

A cache of illegal weapons including crossbows, tasers and guns designed to fire teargas canisters have been seized from self-styled "zombie hunters". The illegal weapons were recovered by Swedish border guards from a German couple who arrived in a car marked "Zombie Response Team".

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of a minor who argued that he should be entitled to be considered for enhanced remission in the same way as adult prisoners are under the Prison Rules. Background

More remote hearings should take place in the High Court as "a way of tiding us over until we get back to physical hearings", a senior judge has said. Mr Justice David Barniville, a High Court judge and president of the Association of Judges of Ireland (AJI), told The Irish Times that the technology

Same-sex female couples will be recognised as the co-parents of children born through donor-assisted human reproduction under a legal framework finally brought into force. Health Minister Simon Harris yesterday confirmed that Part 2 and 3 of the related regulations in the Children and Family Relatio

Criminal defence solicitors have been invited to complete a survey on their experiences in Garda stations during the COVID-19 crisis. The online survey has been created by Shalom Binchy & Co. Solicitors to inform an evidence-based submission to the Law Society of Ireland and An Garda Síoc

Waterford firm Nolan Farrell and Goff has celebrated 45 years in business at their premises in Newtown Lodge. One of the largest provincial solicitors' practices in Ireland, the firm was formally established in 1975 but can trace its history even further back to 1914.

Proposals to scrap the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) have been met with opposition from 60 children and youth organisations. An internal Fianna Fáil paper seen by the Business Post reportedly proposes the abolition of the DCYA to make way for a new Department of Higher Educa

The State is required by law to provide single or household occupancy accommodation to ensure social distancing and to limit the spread of COVID-19, according to legal advice obtained by the Irish Refugee Council (IRC). The legal opinion by Michael Lynn SC and Cillian Bracken BL states that positive

Strangulation is a substantial, separate and distinct aggravating feature to be taken into account in sentencing for domestic violence, appeal judges in Belfast have emphasised while dismissing an appeal against sentence. The Court of Appeal this morning upheld the 12-month prison sentence handed do