News

A review led by barrister Peter Coll QC has concluded that Belfast City Council was not pressurised into giving special treatment to the funeral of republican Bobby Storey. Mr Coll was appointed last September to review the council's handling of the funeral after it allowed up to 30 mourners into Ro

Legislation protecting private renters in Northern Ireland from eviction have been extended to the end of September 2021. The Private Tenancies (Coronavirus Modifications) Act requires landlords to give tenants a 12 week notice to quit period before seeking a court order to begin proceedings to evic

Actor Sam Heughan has become embroiled in a legal battle with a German distillery of the name of his whisky brand. Mr Heughan, the star of Outlander, launched his own whisky last year called The Sassenach, the name his character uses in the show for his love interest.

A senior state scientist known to his colleagues as the "sturgeon general" has been charged in connection with an alleged scheme to provide sturgeon eggs for processing into expensive caviar. Ryan Koenigs, the leading sturgeon expert in Wisconsin, has been accused of accepting jars of caviar worth $

The Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal against the appointment of a receiver over a substantial property on the Dublin Quays. The defendant, Dengrove DAC, had appointed a receiver to sell the property after the plaintiffs, Mr Pat Ryan and Mr Phil Monaghan, failed to uphold the terms of a settlem

FBD Insurance does not intend to appeal a landmark High Court ruling that four pub owners are entitled to be compensated for the disruption their businesses suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In a judgment earlier this month, Mr Justice Denis McDonald said that the proper interpretation of FBD's

A major legal row has developed following the destruction of recordings of testimony from around 550 survivors of mother and baby homes. The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Inquiry, which was established in 2015 and published its final report last month, said it had destroyed the files in advanc

Belfast barrister Adele O'Grady QC has been admitted to the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) as its newest Fellow, as well as its first-ever from Northern Ireland. The prestigious organisation is a worldwide association of practising lawyers recognised by their peers as the most experi

The PSNI's use of discretion and penalty notices to deal with low level offences has improved but more work remains to be done, the criminal justice watchdog has said. Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI) has published a follow-up review assessing progress in the implementation of reco

A long-awaited white paper setting out the government's plans to replace the widely-criticised direct provision system for asylum seekers will be published next week. Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman originally promised to publish the white paper by the end of 2020, but told a conference on Tue

Children's Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon has been reappointed for a further six-year term. The statutory ombudsman promotes the rights and welfare of children; examines and investigates complaints about services provided to children and young people; and provides advice regarding children's rights and

Australians can no longer access or share news on Facebook after the social media giant responded to proposed new legislation with sweeping restrictions on news content. Legislation which would establish a "mandatory code of conduct" for news media businesses and digital platforms was approved at th

Search giant Google has been fined €1.1 million by French authorities for displaying "misleading" star ratings for hotels and other tourist accommodations. The French competition watchdog, the DGCCRF, launched an investigation in 2019 following complaints from hoteliers who said star ratin

The imprisonment of Catalan rapper Pablo Hasél for tweets and song lyrics which prosecutors said glorified terrorism and insulted the Spanish monarchy has been met with international outrage. Amnesty International said Mr Hasél's imprisonment was "excessive and disproportionate", while

A railroad engineer who deliberately defecated on company property and said it was a "present" for his boss has kept his job. Matthew Lebsack was fired by US rail giant Union Pacific after the incident in November 2016, but a federal appeals court has reluctantly reinstated him.