News

Global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has promoted Belfast office head Lisa McLaughlin to partner. Ms McLaughlin heads the firm's dedicated Alternative Legal Services (ALT) office and has overseen its expansion from 19 fee earners in 2011 to over 240 lawyers, technologists and legal analysts today

A large crowd of people who attended the Four Courts yesterday for the beginning of a legal challenge against COVID-19 restrictions "endangered themselves, gardaí, court staff and court users", the Courts Service has said. In a statement issued after the High Court hearing, the service said i

New Garda powers under the emergency coronavirus law have been used 34 times since coming into effect earlier this month. Delivering an update on the use of the powers yesterday, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the "vast majority" of people are complying with public health guidelines.

Gardaí have arrested a woman in an ongoing operation to disrupt the supply of drugs and contraband to prisoners attending a court in Co Cork. Officers said they searched a number of people in the vicinity of Mallow Court House under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 yesterday morning.

Legislation to provide private renters with additional protections during the coronavirus pandemic will not be retrospective to avoid any possible legal challenge, ministers have said. The Private Tenancies (Coronavirus Modifications) Bill 2020, which yesterday cleared the second stage in the Northe

The UN's special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights has raised concerns with the Irish Government over the impact of the Public Services Card (PSC) on the rights of welfare recipients. In his 40-page letter, Professor Philip Alston, a respected scholar of human rights law, questioned "wh

Laura Banks, solicitor at Francis Hanna & Co, considers how human rights law can assist people experiencing a bereavement related to coronavirus. The COVID-19 pandemic has wide-reaching implications and it is therefore throwing up myriad issues in our society, some of them fundamental and going

Ireland's defamation laws pose "a significant threat to press freedom", Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said. The international NGO has ranked Ireland at 13 out of 180 countries in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, up from 15 in 2019.

Benjamin Bestgen discusses how moral judgements are affected by aesthetic perception in his latest jurispurdential primer. See also parts one, two and three. In March 2020, Singapore’s High Court dismissed a challenge to repeal s.377A, a colonial-era law that penalises homosexual acts between

TLT has expanded its role as one of BT’s key legal advisers following a review and consolidation of the telecoms giant’s UK legal panel. TLT has retained its position as a preferred supplier for litigation and investigations, and is now also a preferred supplier for employment.

Doctors may end a mentally incapacitated person's life where they have previously consented to assisted suicide, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands has ruled. The ruling represents a major development of case law in the Netherlands, where assisted suicide has been legal in certain limited circumst

A homeowner has won a planning battle started after a neighbour challenged her decision to paint her front door pink. The woman was forced to make a retrospective planning application after a neighbour complained to the local authority about the paint being "too bright".

Dublin solicitor Seán Gallagher has passed away after being hospitalised with coronavirus. Mr Gallagher qualified as a solicitor in 1975 and established his own practice in Merchant's Court in 1994, but stepped back from active practice last year.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed Ryanair’s appeal in a defamation action taken against three pilots. Following a 27-day trial, the jury found that while the words complained of were defamatory, they were published by the defendants without malice and since Mr Justice Bernard Barton had previo

Prominent Belfast solicitor Niall Murphy, who spent 16 days in an induced coma while battling coronavirus, has returned home after being treated for the illness. Mr Murphy, 43, is a partner at KRW LAW LLP and is known for his work as a criminal defence lawyer and in representing victims of state vio