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A watchdog has warned that restrictive practices in mental health facilities such as seclusion and restraint should be used only as a "last resort". The Mental Health Commission (MHC) has said there is no therapeutic benefit to the practices, which were used in 79 per cent of in-patient mental healt

The office of the Advocate General for Scotland is asking the Court of Session in Edinburgh for leave to appeal a decision of the Inner House made last month. In September, the court permitted a group of politicians to ask the Court of Justice of the European Union for a ruling on whether MPs can re

Name checks are to be undertaken when UK bank customers transfer money from next summer to deter rising bank fraud. Currently, if a person wants to send money they are asked for the recipient's account name, as well as number and sort code. However, the bank does not check if the name is correct.

Lawyers, NGOs, trade unions and public sector workers are exploring the public sector duty from a legal perspective for the first time at a conference in Dublin today. The one-day conference, hosted by FLAC, is the first of its kind and aims to enhance awareness and understanding of the public secto

Ireland's legal regulatory bodies co-hosted a panel discussion on fair civil trials yesterday in advance of European Lawyers' Day next week.

The number of homicides recorded by police in England and Wales rose to its highest level in a decade in the year leading up to June 2018, new figures reveal. When last year's London and Manchester terror attacks are excluded, the latest figures show a 14 per cent rise in the homicide rate from 630

Under Article 40.6.1(i) of the Constitution of Ireland, the ‘publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law’. Pursuant to this mandate, Section 31(1) of the Defamation Act 2009 states that ‘a per

A university has begun offering a course on the law and judicial system of Harry Potter. The module is entitled “An Interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special Focus on Rowling’s Potterverse” and students are only eligible to sit the course if they have read all t

A 21-year-old man who stabbed a victim in the eye at a New Year’s Eve party in 2014, and went on to assault another victim nine months later, has had his unduly lenient sentence increased in the Court of Appeal. Sending the man back to prison for a further twelve months, Mr Justice George Birm

In-house solicitor Grace Boland has launched a new law firm focused on providing plain English legal services to the SME market. Boland Law will provide SMEs in Dublin/Leinster with their own in-house legal function on a flexible part-time basis, in order to allow growing businesses to easily access

Belfast firm Cleaver Fulton Rankin has welcomed four new trainees on a two-year training programme with the firm. Hannah Bulmer, Jennifer Rankin, Shannon McClintock and Laura Toland will spend six months each in four different departments.

Law firms Ronan Daly Jermyn, Malpes and Calder and Sherwin O'Riordan Solicitors have advised on the management buy-out of specialist recruitment business Brightwater Recruitment. Ronan Daly Jermyn advised the sellers in the transaction, while Maples and Sherwin O'Riordan advised the new ownership gr

Legislation to help facilitate cross-party talks aimed at restoring the Northern Ireland Executive will be introduced in Parliament today. The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Bill will also address a landmark Court of Appeal ruling which found that a senior civil ser

Professor Colin Harvey, professor of human rights law at QUB School of Law, writes on the impact that Brexit could have on human rights in Northern Ireland. The impact of Brexit on human rights and equality in Northern Ireland is gaining increased attention. This is welcome. The public conversation