Access To Justice

A new all-party group on access to justice has been established in the Northern Ireland Assembly to provide an opportunity for the legal professions to engage with and inform MLAs on key issues. The Law Society of Northern Ireland and the Bar of Northern Ireland briefed MLAs at its inaugural meeting

Chief Justice Donal O'Donnell this morning opened a second two-day conference on access to justice, this time focusing on civil legal aid. We reproduce below the bulk of his opening address. Civil legal aid might indeed have been an obvious focus of the first conference of the Access to Justice Grou

Ireland is not immune from the same pressures that have led the United States to the point where some lawyers openly dispute whether the system delivers "justice" at all, the Chief Justice has warned. Chief Justice Donal O'Donnell made the remarks yesterday as he launched a major report on access to

There is no "single solution or silver bullet" to solve barriers to accessing justice in Ireland, the Chief Justice has said at the opening of a major two-day conference. Mr Justice Frank Clarke was joined by justice minister Heather Humphreys, representatives of the Courts Service and Legal Aid Boa

Chief Justice Frank Clarke has announced a two-day online conference to help guide a working group on improving access to justice in Ireland. The conference, which will take place on 1-2 October 2021, is being hosted by the Chief Justice's working group, which was established in January and includes

More than 5,000 local law firms and up to half of law centres in England and Wales could go bust as a result of the COVID-19 crisis if the UK government does not step in, MPs have warned. In a new report, Westminster's justice select committee has urged the Ministry of Justice to consider further gr

The justice sector has received a €24 million funding boost as part of the government's July stimulus package, which will support modernisation efforts and improvements to access to justice in Ireland. Announcing the funding last night, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said it would provide for i

A full recording of yesterday afternoon's Irish Legal News webinar on access to justice under the new government is now available online.

The new government's programme "falls short" on access to justice in a number of key areas, legal rights group FLAC has said. In its new 17-page response to the Programme for Government, FLAC has repeated its call for a "root-and-branch" review of the civil legal aid system.