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A consultation on proposals to place adult safeguarding on a statutory footing has been extended for a further four weeks. The proposed Adult Protection Bill aims to respond to the 2019 scandal around safeguarding failings, including allegations of abuse, at Muckamore Abbey Hospital and Dunmurry Man

Judges will be allowed to remain on the bench until the age of 75 in a move to address the recruitment crisis in the judiciary. Ministers are to raise the mandatory retirement age as concern grows over the refusenik trend at the bar and ebbing morale amongst judges. A recent survey found many were c

Retired Belfast solicitor Ted Jones has passed away, the Law Society of Northern Ireland has said. Mr Jones qualified as a solicitor in September 1973. He founded corporate law firm Jones & Company Solicitors in 1998 and served as its principal partner until his retirement in 2012.

The final court order in a judicial review brought by the Good Law Project has found that Prime Minister Boris Johnson misled MPs when he said all Covid-19 contracts were "on the record for everybody to see". The High Court in London ruled last month that Health Secretary Matt Hancock had acted unla

Law firm Carson McDowell and Belfast Chamber of Commerce have launched a new series of events aimed at starting a debate around the future growth and development of Belfast. The "Re-Energising Belfast" series of four virtual events will consider some of the key development challenges and opportuniti

The UK government has ordered a review of the exemption of domestic workers from minimum wage legislation following an Employment Tribunal ruling. A tribunal ruled in December that the exemption is discriminatory against women, who are far more likely to be employed as live-in domestic workers than

Farmworkers from Kenya are suing one of the world's biggest tea producers for damages in Scotland. The tea pickers allege they suffered severe health problems as a result of working on farms operated by James Finlay Kenya Ltd.

A convicted robber who absconded from prison was caught by police when he came out of hiding to buy the latest Call of Duty video game. Clint Butler, 36, fled HMP Spring Hill in south-east England last November while serving a 17-year extended sentence for crimes including robbery and firearms offen

The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court decision to refuse leave in judicial review proceedings which challenged the constitutionality of the Covid-19 lockdown in Ireland. The court was highly critical of the case made by the appellants, stating that the proceedings were “tendentious&rdquo

Dillon Eustace has announced the appointment of Colman O'Loghlen as a partner in the firm's asset management and investment funds team. Mr O'Loghlen originally trained with Dillon Eustace prior to qualifying as a solicitor in December 2011, but returns to the firm as a partner after spending just un

Lady Justice Rose will join the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on 13 April, it has been announced. Her Majesty The Queen made the appointment on the advice of the Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor, following the recommendations of an independent selection commission.

Human rights experts Professor Phil Scraton and Dr Maeve O'Rourke have been appointed as part of a three-person team to establish the terms of reference for a fully independent investigation into mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries in Northern Ireland. The "truth recovery design team" will

Guidelines for safe and legal protest during the Covid-19 pandemic should be drawn up and published to avoid a repeat of the violence at a far-right protest in Dublin on the weekend, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said. While condemning "all use of violence at protests", the civil

O’Mara Geraghty McCourt Solicitors announces appointment of Annie Egan as Partner and Lily Cantillon as Solicitor Solicitor Annie Egan has been appointed as a Partner in the Conveyancing, Commercial and Probate Department at O’Mara Geraghty McCourt Solicitors.

Northern Ireland's courts backlog has eased slightly since the height of the pandemic, with around 10,000 criminal cases outstanding at the start of February. Justice Minister Naomi Long said the 10,000 total was up on 8,100 cases in March 2020 but "down significantly" from a peak of 12,800 in Septe