News

Soaring immigration fees have led to accusations of profiteering against the Home Office, which made £500 million last year. Analysis by The Times shows that fees charged to hundreds of thousands of people for British residency and citizenship have increased sharply over the past five years, w

A teenager who broke into an airport and took two planes for a ride has been invited to train there as a pilot. The 13-year-old sneaked into the local airport and gave the planes a whirl, crashing the first into a guardrail and abandoning the other after taking it round in circles on the runway.

A man who suffered an injury to his knee requiring surgery after he slipped on the stone staircase at the National Museum of Ireland has been awarded €67,000 in the High Court. Criticising the Museum for its failure to provide the court with CCTV evidence of the fall, or present witnesses who h

A former garda who was dismissed in 1982 has received formal acknowledgement that he was sacked because of his "alleged homosexual activity". In a letter, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris told the man, who is using the pseudonym "Liam", that the Department of Justice had located a document confirming

Former solicitor and judge Greg McCourt has been appointed to scrutinise reports of searches and seizures carried out across the UK without judicial approval. Mr McCourt spent over three decades in private practice in Bangor prior to spending over a decade as a district judge in Northern Ireland.

The High Court will hear a judicial review over conditions at Portlaoise Prison next month. Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington yesterday granted permission to Frederick 'Freddie' Thompson, 39, to bring the challenge, which she made returnable to a date in September, The Irish Times reports.

Campaigners have urged gardaí to revise their policies following new analysis which shows that over 150 sex workers have been prosecuted for brothel-keeping in the last decade. Brothel-keeping is a criminal offence in Ireland under section 11 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993, an

Lawyers for Irish businessman Jim Mansfield jnr have issued defamation proceedings against RTÉ in connection with an episode of Prime Time. Belfast solicitor Kevin Winters, partner at KRW Law, said the decision to litigate was "emboldened" by a prosecution recently brought against Mr Mansfiel

Suzanne Rice, president of the Law Society of Northern Ireland, has addressed an American Bar Association (ABA) conference in Oxford on the themes of good government and the rule of law.

A 92-year-old former Nazi is to go on trial in October over charges he helped kill hundreds of people at the Stutthof death camp near the end of the war. Bruno D is accused of being an SS guard at the camp near Gdansk and of having been involved in the killing of 5,230 prisoners between August 1944

The Department of Justice has announced a £200,000 capital funding package for voluntary search and rescue groups in Northern Ireland. The funding is in addition to the revenue funding provided by the Department on an annual basis, which totals £86,000 this year.

...continued from last week's Irish Legal Heritage: On 1 October 1827, Daniel, Laurence, and Timothy Mara were working on the building of the police barracks in Rathcannon alongside a Mason’s Apprentice. On their way home, eight armed men pursued them, and all but Daniel Mara escaped.

Proposals to hike meat taxes in Germany – adding around 30 cents to the price of bratwurst – have been met with public outcry. Earlier this week, MPs from the Green Party and Social Democratic Party proposed raising the seven per cent rate of VAT on meat to 19 per cent.

A garda who was involved in a "traumatic" road traffic collision in Mullingar, in which large pieces of wood entered through the body of the car while his young children were in the back seat,  has been awarded €90,000 in the High Court. Accepting that the man continued to suffer problems

Barrister Nicole Lappin has been appointed as the chief commissioner to the Board of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Mrs Lappin, who is qualified to practise north and south of the border, will hold the post for a five-year term ending 31 July 2024.