News

Major internal reforms to the Department of Justice are on track to be completed by October 2019, according to a new report. The Effectiveness and Renewal Group (ERG) in the Department has published its third report, documenting progress in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The total value of debt judgments in the Northern Ireland courts fell by 40 per cent last year, according to new figures from the Registry Trust. There were only 54 judgments worth £4.5 million in the High Court in 2018, a 51 per cent drop in number, a 73 per cent drop in total value, and a 44

Eight lobbyists were threatened with court action by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) last year, the Irish Examiner reports. Prosecution proceedings were launched against registered lobbyists for failing to comply with reporting obligations under the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015.

A legal assistant who sued Irish Rail for defamation after being challenged on her use of an invalid train ticket has lost her case, the Irish Examiner reports. Nicola Dowd, based in Dublin, alleged that ticket inspectors had defamed, embarrassed, intimidated and shamed her in front of other passeng

A judge warned a teenager from Co Clare that he would be sent to Oberstown for so long that he would return home with a Dublin accent if he breached his bail conditions again, the Irish Examiner reports. The 17-year-old boy, who is alleged to have committed a number of thefts last year, appeared bef

A decision to prosecute a trainee solicitor for fraud even though she blew the whistle on her colleagues has been defended by officials. Emily Scott was struck from the roll by a disciplinary tribunal despite it acknowledging that she had exposed malpractice at the firm in north Lincolnshire and tha

The case against the UK government’s bulk surveillance powers will be heard by the highest chamber of Europe’s human rights court. The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will hear a case previously decided by a lower Chamber and brought by Liberty, Privacy Intern

Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon has won £30,000 in damages from a tabloid newspaper that claimed he had performed with a band which "delights in Nazi symbols". Mr Burgon, MP for Leeds East, launched the unusual libel proceedings against The Sun in connection with a story published in m

Technology in the 21st Century is providing us with the means to communicate our thoughts and ideas across the planet in a way that would have been unthinkable, even 10 years ago. However good the technology is, it cannot pick up the subtleties of a language, the culture that underpins it, or even t

A man has admitted that he tried to rob a bank because he wanted to be sent to a prison rumoured to have the best food. William Gallagher, 68, appeared in court in Wisconsin less than a year after leaving prison in New Jersey.

The Royal College of Surgeons has successfully appealed the Court of Appeal’s decision to quash its refusal to grant CPD accreditation for a live plastic surgery event. Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke held that it was open to RCSI to reject the private clinic’s application for CPD

Judge Gerard Haughton has been appointed to conduct a scoping exercise into the circumstances leading to a cyclist's death over seven years ago. Shane O'Farrell, 23, was killed in a hit-and-run near his home in Co Monaghan in August 2011. The driver of the car, Zigimantas Gridziuska, had dozens of p

New research into the experiences of people in Ireland with minor convictions highlights the need for an expanded rehabilitation law, penal reform campaigners have said. The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has published the findings of a new survey it conducted to coincide with the launch of the Cri

A specialist employment law firm has offered pro bono legal assistance to workers in the horse-racing industry who it says have suffered from a new change in the law. Richard Grogan, principal solicitor at Richard Grogan & Associates, told Irish Legal News that S.I. 576 of 2018, signed last Dece

A man who sought to undermine the credibility of a schoolgirl he sexually abused by introducing text messages she exchanged with a 13-year-old boy as evidence has lost an appeal against his conviction. The 54-year-old Tipperary man, whose details cannot be published to protect the victim's identity,