Coronavirus

The practising certificate renewal process will be moved entirely online for 2021, the Law Society of Ireland has announced. The move was "necessitated by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the need to ensure a timely and efficient PC renewal process", solicitors were told in the latest president's b

Legal rights group FLAC has reiterated its call for a retrospectively imposed tax liability on claims for the Covid Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) to be dropped. A legal opinion published by FLAC last month warned that the retrospective provisions of section 3 of the Finance Bill 2020 could be

Ireland's top law firms reduced salaries and took advantage of the wage subsidy scheme in response to the Covid-19 pandemic but continued to recruit, a new report has found. Accountancy and professional services firm Smith & Williamson has published its ninth annual survey of law firms in Irelan

Dr Michael J Ryan, the Irish leader of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, yesterday received the The Bar of Ireland’s annual human rights award.

Courts and tribunals in Northern Ireland will continue to operate during the second two-week "circuit breaker" lockdown, Justice Minister Naomi Long has said. In a statement issued before the start of increased restrictions tomorrow, Mrs Long reiterated that courts and tribunals staff, the judiciary

An Irish man leading the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global response to the Covid-19 pandemic is to receive The Bar of Ireland's annual human rights award. Dr Michael J Ryan, WHO executive director, has been nominated for the award in recognition of his tireless work and leadership in the fiel

A ban on children's outdoor sport in Northern Ireland during the Covid-19 pandemic is a "clear violation" of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a Magherafelt lawyer has said. Stephen Atherton, director at John J McNally & Co Solicitors, has announced his intention to bring a judicial

The suspension of laws allowing employees to demand redundancy after a certain length of temporary lay-off has been extended until the end of March 2021. The move is intended to help avoid further permanent job losses at a time when some 350,000 people are in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Pay

The vast majority of legal aid lawyers in England and Wales are suffering from stress and most have trouble sleeping, MPs have been told. Evidence collected by the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) from over 400 lawyers and submitted to the Commons justice select committee's inquiry into the futu

Staff at Belfast and Newry firm JMK Solicitors have been working remotely from across Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic. Izabella Andrzejewska, a member of the JMK graduate programme, has availed of the opportunity to work full-time from her home in Poland, around 1,500 miles away from Belfast.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee has relaunched a major national awareness campaign on sexual harassment and sexual violence which was paused at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The three-year "No Excuses" campaign was paused in March but will now resume through a new TV ad, reinforced by outdoor a

Thousands of elderly Spaniards are seeking to disinherit their children if they have neglected them during the lockdown. Spanish support networks for the elderly have reported a fivefold increase in calls from old people asking how to cut their children from their will.

Two of Ireland's largest prisons are facing suspected outbreaks of Covid-19. A firearms trial at the Special Criminal Court was postponed this morning due to a suspected outbreak at Mountjoy Prison, according to reports.

Protests will no longer be exempted from Covid-19 restrictions in England under new lockdown rules taking effect from tomorrow. The new regulations do not explicitly ban protests, but do not include the explicit exemption found in earlier regulations, according to media reports.

State papers from 1990 which would have been released this year under the 30-year rule will not be transferred to the National Archives until 2021. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht said it will not be able to unseal papers this year due to Covid-19 restrictions, The Irish Times