News

A committee of the House of Lords has called for the creation of a revitalised, better-functioning and less rancorous United Kingdom in a new report. In Respect and Co-operation: Building a Stronger Union for the 21st century, published today, the Constitution Committee details a series of reforms t

A woman who travelled from London to the Isle of Mull to take the UK's easiest driving test has admitted she still failed. Constance Kampfner wrote in The Times this week of her mission to take an easier test after failing the first time in London.

A dyslexic judge in England has won a disability discrimination case against the Ministry of Justice over its failure to provide her with voice recognition software and training. Zorina Nadine Clarkson Palomares, a part-time judge working on immigration and social security cases, made complaints to

Belfast solicitor Ruaidhrí Austin has been elected as chair of the Northern Ireland Young Solicitors Association (NIYSA) at its AGM yesterday. Mr Austin, of specialist insurance law firm Lacey Solicitors, succeeds William Nugent of Thompson Crooks, who remains on the committee.

Irish lawyer Úna Butler has been appointed as a member of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). Ms Butler has served as director of legal services and general counsel at the CCPC since 2014, establishing the CCPC's legal services division and overseeing legal advice acros

Peers in the House of Lords have voted in favour of an amendment to the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill to scrap the Vagrancy Act across England and Wales. Already repealed in Scotland, the 1824 legislation is still continually used to criminalise people for rough sleeping or beg

Ministers have announced plans for a one-off public holiday in March 2022 and a new annual public holiday in February from next year. Friday 18 March 2022 will become a public holiday "in recognition of the efforts of the general public, volunteers and all workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, and i

Northern Ireland's labour market is showing "signs of continued improvement" with fears of mass unemployment seemingly averted, an employment law expert at DWF has said. The latest monthly labour market report was published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) yesterday.

Human rights law firm KOD Lyons has announced a new legal partnership with Irish autism charity AsIAm. The partnership will allow the charity to launch a new in-house legal advice clinic, with services provided by solicitors at KOD Lyons.

Pro-Palestinian lawyers will next week host an online event to help lawyers and law students navigate apartheid-related issues in the UK courts, including in asylum, defamation and discrimination cases. Mira Hammad, a barrister in England and Wales, and Rania Muhareb, a PhD scholar at the Irish Cent

To mark the Day of the Endangered Lawyer, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) is co-hosting a webinar next Monday on the United Nations Guidelines for Lawyers in support of peaceful assemblies. Organised by the IBAHRI, the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP), th

The denial of domiciliary care allowance (DCA) to the parents of a severely disabled child, who needs continual care, because of the time the child has spent in hospital is discriminatory, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has said. The rights watchdog is appearing as amicus curiae in a

Happy couples have been banned from laughing at their weddings by authorities in the south of Russia. A new decree in the Rostov region dictates that there should be no laughter, loud conversations or exclamations during civil marriage ceremonies.

Nearly two-thirds of Irish employers believe they should have access to the vaccine status of their employees, a new survey by McCann FitzGerald LLP and Mazars has found. A majority (56 per cent) of organisations responding to the annual GDPR survey said the inability to process employees' vaccine s

A high-profile US lawyer who represented Guantanamo Bay detainees and NSA whistleblower Chelsea Manning will argue for the abolition of Ireland's Special Criminal Court at an online event next week. Nancy Hollander will be joined on a panel by Osgur Breatnach, who was wrongly convicted in the Specia