Coronavirus

Far-right activists John Waters and Gemma O'Doherty have been ordered to pay costs for their failed legal challenge to the emergency coronavirus laws. High Court judge Mr Justice Charles Meenan last month ruled that the pair had "made no arguable case against the notice parties".

Law firms in Northern Ireland may be opening to visitors prematurely due to a lack of official guidance from the Northern Ireland Executive, a solicitor has warned. Philip Armstrong, managing director of Armstrong Solicitors, said he was "surprised to see public announcements of law firms reopening

Data protection experts have published a "principled framework" for the development of a contact tracing app to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Ireland. The document, produced by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) alongside Digital Rights Ireland and independent academics and experts,

Gardaí have launched an investigation into whether a Black Lives Matter protest attended by thousands of people in Dublin broke public health restrictions introduced to tackle COVID-19. Under section 5 of the Health Act 1947 (Section 31A -Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) Regulations 2020, i

Irish companies have been given until the end of October to file annual returns which would otherwise have been due by the end of June. The Registrar of Companies had previously announced in March that all annual returns due to be filed by any company between 18 March and 30 June 2020 would be deeme

Barrister Mark O'Connell reminds employers of their health and safety responsibilities to employees working from home. Without doubt – and even when the current disruption caused by COVID-19 abates – a much greater proportion of employees will be fulfilling more of their duties from home

The reopening of physical workplaces following the COVID-19 pandemic will raise complex data protection issues, DLA Piper Ireland has warned. As Ireland progresses over the coming months through the five phases of reopening the economy, data protection issues will arise in relation to issues includi

The number of applications to the legal aid agency's COVID-19 interim payment scheme has fallen sharply in its second full week of operation. The Legal Services Agency (LSA) received 444 requests in the week ending 22 May 2020, a 45 per cent decline from 818 in the previous week.

Lurgan solicitor Harry McCourt is pressing ahead with the establishment of his new firm, McCourt Solicitors, in spite of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to Irish Legal News, Mr McCourt, who has practised in Lurgan for the past four years, said the process "has been tricky to say

Gardaí should lose the power to arrest people for failing to comply with public health guidelines in less than two weeks, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said. The rights group has called for the policing powers introduced under the Health Act 1947 (Section 31a – Tempor

A team at Mason Hayes & Curran has developed a new online platform designed to support businesses who are adapting their operations to meet the urgent market needs created by COVID-19. The new "Co Deploy" portal was created by the business law firm as its submission to the Financial Times Innova

Most offenders in youth diversion programmes are complying with restrictions introduced to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study. Researchers at University of Limerick are examining how young people participating in Garda Youth Diversion Projects (GYDP) are responding to the COVI

A prosecutor has resigned after visiting the home of a journalist in Tokyo to play mahjong during Japan's lockdown. Hiromu Kurokawa, 63, head of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office, gambled with the reporters, according to weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun, in violation of the state-of-emergency m

Anyone attending court will have their name and contact details recorded for contact tracing purposes under new measures introduced to allow full physical court sittings to resume. Physical court sittings were limited on Wednesday to a maximum of two hours per day after an Oireachtas committee was t

Solicitors are being forced to break public health guidelines in order to advise clients in Garda custody, according to a damning new report. Whereas solicitors in Northern Ireland have been allowed since mid-April to advise clients during police interviews via video link, no such facility has been