News

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

Belfast-based Mills Selig has been presented with the bronze diversity mark by Diversity Mark Northern Ireland in recognition of the law firm’s ongoing commitment to gender equality. The firm, whose board has a majority of women, received the award following an independent assessment process w

Thousands more people will be called for jury service in Northern Ireland this year in anticipation of a greater number of applications for excusal or deferral because of the pandemic. Some 40,300 people will be called for jury service this year, a 16 per cent increase on the 34,700 called last year

Irish lawyer David Berkery has joined US law firm Vinson & Elkins as a partner in its new aviation finance practice. Mr Berkery, who joins from A&L Goodbody, will remain based in Dublin while forming part of a new group based in the firm's New York office.

Magistrates in England and Wales are to have their sentencing powers increased in order to reduce pressure on the Crown Courts and "speed up justice", it was confirmed today. Under plans announced by Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, the maximum six-month prison sentence that can currently be handed o

Scotland's High Court of Justiciary has refused an appeal against extradition by an Irish citizen who claimed he was at risk of having to “slop out” the chamber pot of his prison cell if he were returned to Ireland to serve a custodial sentence. It was argued by Kevin McGourty that there

An Italian couple have won a nearly two-decade-long court battle over their neighbour's toilet flushing loudly in the night. The couple, from La Spezia, launched the case in 2003 shortly after their neighbours installed a new bathroom adjacent to the couple's bedroom.

Controversial UK government plans to restrict noisy and disruptive protests in England and Wales have suffered a setback following a series of government defeats in the House of Lords. An alliance of Labour, Liberal Democrat and independent peers voted to remove provisions of the Police, Crime, Sent

The High Court has determined that an anorexic woman should not be fed against her wishes by her treating doctors despite the risk of premature death. It was held that, in all the circumstances of the case, it was in the best interests of the woman for coercive feeding to end. In making the order so

A massive €225 million fine imposed on WhatsApp last year moved Ireland into second place for value of GDPR fines imposed since the regulations came into force in 2018, research by DLA Piper has found. Ireland has issued GDPR fines worth €226.05 million since 25 May 2018, now second only t

A new project aimed at reducing barriers to third-level education for people with convictions has been launched at Maynooth University. The Unlocking Potential project provides a fair admissions toolkit for higher education institutions (HEIs), which will help guide the reform or development of admi

EY Law Ireland, which opened its doors last October, has announced plans to increase its headcount from 15 to 50 by 2025. The legal division of the accountancy giant currently has 200 lawyers in the UK and Ireland, but told Law.com that this could rise to 1,000 in the coming years.

Academics have rallied around Professor Colin Harvey of Queen's University Belfast School of Law after he received online abuse linked to his work on Ireland's constitutional future. Professor Harvey said he received a wave of abuse in the wake of controversial comments by former Labour MP Baroness