Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland firm MKB Law has unveiled a new brand identity and website as part of its ongoing business development plans. The firm has grown to 35 staff members and offers services in all areas of law, with a particular focus on corporate, property, dispute resolution, debt recovery, employment

Justice Minister Naomi Long will next week meet with the family of an 18-year-old student killed by a drunk driver to discuss the initial findings of a major sentencing review. The family of Enda Dolan, who was killed in October 2014, have called for tougher sentences for drunk drivers ever since Da

Attorney General Brenda King has ordered a fresh inquest into the shooting of six Catholic men in the New Lodge area of north Belfast in February 1973. The British Army initially said all six men had been shot by soldiers, but later said it appeared that loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for

A growing backlog in Northern Ireland's employment tribunals is creating an access to justice crisis, lawyers have warned. Killymeal House, the home of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal, is currently "closed until further notice".

The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland has dismissed the appeal of a man who tried to exclude a child rape acquittal from his Enhanced Criminal Record Certificate. The man, known as KC, applied to take up positions as a childcare assistant in a school and as a volunteer in a community organisation,

There has been a 48 per cent rise in the number of people awaiting trial since the first lockdown last March, the Belfast Telegraph reports. The backlog includes 23 murder and 36 rape cases and has been described as “wholly unacceptable” by the chair of Stormont’s Justice Committee

Stormont's Executive Office is under a legal obligation to fund a pension for people who suffered severe injuries in the Troubles, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The scheme opens for applications in March but it is not yet clear who will fund the payments, as Stormont and Westminster have been engag

An additional courtroom will become available for Crown Court trials in the Laganside Courts this week as the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS) tries to boost capacity in the face of a growing trials backlog. Two courtrooms in the complex are being modified to allow for trials to

Northern Ireland's police watchdog has launched an investigation after an "altercation" involving an arrest at a memorial marking the 29th anniversary of a mass shooting. Mark Sykes, one of the survivors of the deadly 1992 shooting at the Sean Graham bookmakers on Ormeau Road, was arrested on Friday

The law firms and barristers earning most from legal aid in Northern Ireland are set to be named again under plans put out to consultation today. The Legal Services Agency has not published details of payments made to solicitor firms and individual barristers for nearly five years.

Northern Ireland's county courts will gain jurisdiction over more personal injury and defamation cases under plans put out to consultation today. Justice Minister Naomi Long has launched a 12-week public consultation on increasing the general civil jurisdiction of the county courts.

A high-performance sports player who was injured while working for a construction company has won a five-figure settlement in a case which lawyers say could not have been won a decade ago. Personal injury lawyer Cieran Marshall of JMK Solicitors represented the Gaelic football and Hurling player, wh

An online summit bringing together justice agencies, politicians and judges to discuss domestic abuse has placed emphasis on the need for early intervention and rehabilitation. The seminar, hosted by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland, heard from speakers including Justice Minister Naomi Long

Belfast firm McKees has opened its 2021 trainee solicitor programme for applications. Throughout the course of the two-year training contract, trainees will gain experience across its corporate and commercial, banking and financial services, real estate and dispute resolution departments.

A long-delayed review into the care of vulnerable people in Northern Ireland's prisons is reportedly on track to be completed this summer. The review was first announced in 2016 after a series of deaths in custody and was subsequently passed in December 2018 to the Regulation and Quality Improvement