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Plans to pilot a Restorative Justice Court in Northern Ireland have been shelved indefinitely as a result of budget constraints. The development of a pilot scheme for a court modelled on the Substance Misuse Court was raised in Northern Ireland's first adult restorative justice strategy when it was

The financial threshold for mandatory notification of mergers in Ireland should be increased, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has said amid a growing caseload. There were 90 mergers notified in 2025, up from 82 in 2024 and 68 in 2023, according to the CCPC's annual mergers

A Labour MP has launched an attack on Sir Keir Starmer’s proposed jury trial reforms, warning he could force a by-election unless the plans are abandoned, and revealed that his opposition is rooted in a personal experience of being falsely accused of a crime. Karl Turner, the former shadow sol

The UK's independent online safety watchdog, Ofcom, has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk's social media platform X amid concerns about AI-powered abuse of women and children. The regulator warned that some sexually-explicit images generated and shared by X users using the Grok AI chatbot

William Fry has welcomed 18 new associates following the completion of their traineeships with the firm.

A major international law firm is set to roll out a new scheme whereby junior lawyers can spend up to 20 per cent of their time on "hands-on AI exploration". Ropes & Gray piloted the AI programme in its US offices and is now set to bring it to London, according to The Times.

The Maples Group has set out plans to bring its legal and financial services businesses in Dublin together under one roof. Maples and Calder (Ireland) LLP and MaplesFS will both be based at 75 St Stephen's Green from 2028, following a planned renovation of the building.

Two prisoners have been convicted of running a sophisticated telephone scam from behind bars which netted nearly half a million dollars from dozens of victims. Joey Amour Jackson and Lance Riddle — also known as "Apeshit" and "C-Port" — masterminded the scheme while locked up in the US s

Thousands of Irish passports issued at the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 are invalid and need to be reissued, the government has admitted. Passports issued between 23 December 2025 and 6 January 2026 are missing the letters "IRL" and are therefore not compliant with international rules, acco

Google and AI startup Character.AI have reached settlements in a series of lawsuits brought by families who claim AI chatbots caused harm to children, including contributing to the suicide of a Florida teenager. The proposed settlements cover cases filed in Florida, Colorado, New York and Texas, alt

Ryanair has welcomed three German court rulings against online travel agent eDreams, which was found to have presented prices in a way which misled consumers. Hamburg Regional Court found that eDreams displayed airline seat and baggage prices without clearly disclosing its own additional fees, and t

The Law Society of Ireland has published a new combined Building ‎Agreement and Contract for Sale 2026 for use in residential estates.

The PSNI is set to publish mugshots of criminals who have been imprisoned for at least 12 months under a new policy. Many other UK police forces already release custody photos of people imprisoned for serious offences.

New technology has been deployed to help enforce a Chinese smoking ban by taking away the privacy of toilet users when smoke is detected. Two shopping centres in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen have installed new glass toilet cubicle doors, which are designed to turn from opaque to transparent

Our weekly round-up of human rights stories from around the world. Legal hurdles likely to stymie state charges in Minnesota ICE shooting case | The New York Times