News

The non-jury Special Criminal Court may have to stop hearing cases by July if a new government is not formed in time, experts have said. Under section 18 of the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998, the Oireachtas is required to pass resolutions resolving that the provisions relating to n

Legislation providing for the introduction of a points-based UK immigration system after Brexit has passed second reading in the House of Commons. The Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill 2020, supported by the Democratic Unionist Party, was passed by 351-252.

Lisa Bryson, partner and head of employment at Eversheds Sutherland in Belfast, explores what the re-opening of workplaces in Northern Ireland could look like. Every day brings something new for us all to consider and today’s business leaders will need to consider a number of different issues

A new book presents an in-depth comparative study of sentencing practice for rape in six common law jurisdictions: England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.

The Limerick Solicitors' Bar Association (LSBA) has supported seven local charities with donations worth €21,000 in response to the coronavirus crisis. The association has donated €3,000 each to charities Pieta House, ADAPT, Friends of the Elderly, St Munchins Community Centre, Novas, Barn

Belfast firm Phoenix Law has embarked on an ambitious year of fundraising for addiction charity Davina's Ark. The human rights practice is aiming to raise enough money for the Newry and Mourne-based charity to employ an additional counsellor.

Criminals who commit "alcohol-fuelled crime" can be banned from drinking and made to wear "sobriety tags" under new legislation now in force in England and Wales. The ankle tags, which have been successfully piloted, sample the wearer's sweat every 30 minutes to determine whether alcohol has been co

A renowned expert on serial killers who delivered training to police and judges has admitted that he faked most of his life's work. Stéphane Bourgoin, 67, falsely claimed that he had been trained by the FBI and that his own wife had fallen victim to a serial killer.

Tusla has been fined a total of €75,000 for breaching GDPR rules in the first fines of their kind in Ireland. The fines were handed down by the Data Protection Commissioner following three investigations into issues notified by Tusla in November 2018, October 2019 and November 2019.

More than three-quarters of sexual crimes detected in 2018 involved a male suspect and a female victim, according to new statistics. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has for the first time published a breakdown by age and gender of both victims and suspected offenders of serious crimes reported t

Barrister Conall Patton, who was born in Derry and practices in England and Wales, has been appointed as Queen's Counsel. At 38 years old, Mr Patton of One Essex Court is the youngest person to be named a QC in the 2019 competition.

Armagh solicitor Hilary Singleton has been appointed as a non-executive member of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS). Ms Singleton, who spent two decades as a solicitor specialising in employment law before stepping back from private practice, already holds two other public appoint

Lawyers have experienced an increase in queries from employees who have been asked to return to work despite no change in public health guidance in Northern Ireland. Law Centre NI said recent statements by Prime Minister Boris Johnson had led to confusion in Northern Ireland, where advice for worker

Wendy Hederman, partner at Mason Hayes & Curran, considers the status of "smart contracts" in Irish law. As technology develops, smart contracts are becoming technically feasible in areas such as IoT, share transfers, insurance and financial services transactions. But are “smart contracts&

The number of domestic abuse crimes recorded by police in Northern Ireland have reached a 15-year high. There were 18,640 domestic abuse crimes recorded by the PSNI between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, an increase of 15 per cent on the previous year and the highest figure recorded since the start