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A middle-aged Liverpudlian spent three nights in a maximum-security jail after being mistaken for one of Italy's most-wanted mafia bosses. Prosecutors apologised to the 54-year-old, named only as Mark, after he was arrested at gunpoint at a restaurant in the Hague and taken blindfolded to jail, Dutc

Over €4.2 million was returned to the Exchequer by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) during 2020, according to its latest annual reports. In spite of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the CAB brought 31 new applications to the High Court under proceeds of crime legislation in 2020, matching t

Family lawyers have been urged to complete surveys related to legal aid fees before they close later this month. Solicitors who worked on proceedings in relation to Article 8 or Article 50 applications under the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 in the Family Proceedings Court (FPC) between Apr

The Oireachtas justice committee will turn its attention to courts and courthouses on its return from the summer recess. The justice committee has outlined its work programme for autumn 2021, which includes pre-legislative scrutiny on new hate crime and policing reform bills.

William Fry LLP has announced the launch of two new business service lines to address the changing needs of businesses and lawyers. The new service models, dubbed PeopleBridge by William Fry and William Fry Connect, bring a business model increasingly common in the UK to a major Irish law firm for t

Ireland's semi-state climate solutions company Bord na Móna has announced the appointment of Sonya Mallon as company secretary and general counsel. Ms Mallon, a solicitor with 16 years' post-qualification experience in both in-house and private practice, joined Bord na Móna over a deca

More than 70 solicitors from across Kerry gained expert advice on protecting their practices from cyberattacks at an online conference organised by Law Society Finuas Skillnet in association with the Kerry Law Society. The Essential General Practice Update Kerry 2021, the fifth in a series of online

The Supreme Court has ruled that an expert witness retained by a plaintiff in competition proceedings should be excluded from the case on the basis that he had previously provided advise to the defendant in separate proceedings. The court held that the expert would have received confidential and pri

A disabled child in Northern Ireland, represented by the Children's Law Centre, has been successful in a High Court challenge of the decision to repurpose temporary respite care facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The child, now aged 12, was adversely affected by the decision to repurpose a fac

William Fry partners Colette Brady and Laura Scott examine when the Unified Patent Court (UPC) could become a reality. The creation of a single European patent with unitary effect across participating EU member states (Unified Patent/UP) and a new court system to enforce and defend such patents (Uni

Applications for short stay entry visas will open on Monday for the first time since March 2020. The move will benefit travellers from all countries which require a visa to enter Ireland, such as China, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.

A round-up of human rights stories from around the world. Biden tells Xi US and China must not ‘veer into conflict’ in first call for months | China | The Guardian

Police conduct rules in Utah have been revised to explicitly ban sexting or masturbation while on duty. The gap in the rulebook was discovered by the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council in a number of recent cases of officer discipline, FOX13 reports.

Matheson has been named Irish tax firm of the year and Irish transfer pricing firm of the year by the International Tax Review (ITR) for the second year in a row. The firm won the accolades at the ITR EMEA Tax Awards 2021, widely recognised as one of the benchmarks for excellence in the field of int

The UK government has unveiled its first-ever "super courtroom", which will allow up to a dozen defendants to face trial at the same time. The first super courtroom has been created at Manchester Crown Court, which has been revamped to create a space which is three times the size of a normal courtro