News

Scottish forensics expert Professor Dame Sue Black has called for the creation of a national database of sex offenders' penises to help tackle sexual crimes. Professor Black said that suspects can be identified by their penises alone and that it is the practice among many to upload such ph

Hundreds of staff in prisons have been caught smuggling drugs, phones and weapons into jails, the Observer reports. A freedom of information request made by the newspaper found that 341 staff across England and Wales had been dismissed, excluded or even convicted or cautioned by police in the past s

An annual gathering of Catholic lawyers has become the subject of a row because of the church's handling of child abuse, The Times reports. Leading figures from Scotland's legal profession gather annually at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh for the Red Mass, which ushers in the new legal year.

A man has filed an $800,000 lawsuit against a construction firm which he claims fired him after he refused to attend weekly Bible study meetings. Ryan Coleman from Oregon was hired as a painter at Albany-based Dahled Up Construction in October 2017 and discovered on the job that he was required to a

A woman who was employed as a cleaning supervisor at a hospital in Limerick has had her claim for personal injuries remitted to the High Court for a determination on causation and damages, after the Court of Appeal found that her employer was negligent in failing to provide a safe place of work. All

Hundreds of barristers have taken advantage of a debt collection service launched by The Bar of Ireland in 2014, the Irish Independent reports. A company called LawServ was engaged by the regulatory body in October 2014 to help barristers chase solicitor firms for unpaid fees.

The Chief Justice of Ireland, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, and the High Court's designated arbitration judge, Mr Justice David Barniville, are set to launch the New York chapter of Arbitration Ireland next month. The event, designed to highlight the attractiveness of Ireland as a seat for arbitration an

A student who won a gold medal for badminton at the Irish Special Olympics has won compensation after he was refused funding for the final year of a catering skills programme. Adam Smyth, from Lisburn, who has a learning disability, received £2,000 compensation in a settlement made by the Depa

Dozens of prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor in Cloverhill Prison between April and June 2018, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has confirmed. Mr Flanagan said the prison, as the primary remand prison for the Leinster area, "has recently been affected more significantly in terms of the inc

Eimear Coughlan, solicitor at O'Flynn Exhams Solicitors in Cork, explores recent case law on leases and lender consent. It is settled law that a failure to obtain the bank’s consent to the creation of a lease over mortgaged property renders the lease voidable. A question which recently arose b

A new initiative to drive partnership working between legal professionals in the UK and Nigeria has been announced by Prime Minister Theresa May. The initiative is the latest stage of the Ministry of Justice’s ‘Legal Services are GREAT’ campaign, which aims to promote the UK&r

An anonymous litigant-in-person has been ordered to identify himself to avoid his proceedings against Google in the High Court in London being struck out, the Law Society Gazette reports. The claimant, known only as ABC, has managed to conceal his identity from court staff, the defendant and the jud

Iranian authorities have been condemned over their cruel treatment of jailed British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has suffered panic attacks in prison and collapsed this week. Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been experiencing the attacks since she was forced to return to Tehran’

The Mediators' Institute of Ireland (MII) held a moment of silence for the speaking clock at the meeting of their Council this week.

The Northern Ireland Prison Service has announced the death in custody of a 22-year-old prisoner at Maghaberry Prison. The prisoner died yesterday morning, Thursday 30 August. His next of kin have been informed.