News

Legislation providing for an additional three weeks of paid parents' leave and benefit has cleared the final stage in the Oireachtas. Once the Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2021 is enacted, working parents will be entitled to an additional three weeks of paid leave for each parent,

Northern Ireland will not follow New Zealand in providing parental bereavement leave and pay for couples following a miscarriage. MPs in New Zealand this week approved legislation which will make the country one of only two in the world to provide paid leave in the event of miscarriages and stillbir

Midnight tonight marks the final deadline for submitting case notes to the Hibernian Law Journal for its Case Note Competition 2021. Case notes of 2,000 to 4,000 words are sought by the Journal on any recent seminal judgment of the Irish courts, the EU courts or the European Court of Human Rights.

Thousands of Asda shop floor workers, represented by law firm Leigh Day, have won a significant victory at the UK Supreme Court in their fight for equal pay. The Supreme Court unanimously held in a 26-page judgment that the claimants, who work in the retail business, can use the terms of conditions

Divorcing couples are set to receive a £500 tax-free voucher for mediation in a UK government bid to ease pressure on the courts following the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme is intended to allow couples to agree on custody and maintenance arrangements, as well as divisions of assets, without th

An employer has been branded childish after paying a departing employee his final wages in pennies – and calling him a "weenie". Andreas Flaten, who lives in the US state of Georgia, told WGCL-TV that he received his final $915 in the form of 90,000 coins.

The Supreme Court has outlined the proper approach to appeals in cases where a party claims to have received incompetent legal representation. The court determined the appropriate procedural stages to an analysis by an appellate court in assessing substandard representation. Further, the court made

The president of the High Court has called for the appointment of 15 to 20 additional High Court judges in anticipation of a post-pandemic deluge of litigation. Ms Justice Mary Irvine told a webinar hosted by The Bar of Ireland that the current bench of 37 judges was not enough to handle the coming

Belfast firm Millar McCall Wylie has welcomed two new trainee solicitors, bringing its total to eight within the last two years.

The Department of Justice must develop a strategy to address the threat posed by corruption in the criminal justice sector, the Garda Inspectorate has urged. Its inspection report makes 34 recommendations to prevent corruption in An Garda Síochána and other agencies, and highlights the

The Gambling Regulator is on track to come into operation in early 2023 following "good progress" within the Department of Justice. James Browne, minister of state for law reform, yesterday briefed ministers on the work to establish the long-promised new authority.

The government's revised climate legislation still lacks the ambition needed to address wider issues of inequality, Community Law & Mediation (CLM) has said. Ministers this week approved the final text of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021, which will now be intr

The UK government has threatened to go to the Supreme Court to overturn two pieces of Scottish legislation which were unanimously backed by MSPs. MSPs last week voted unanimously for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill to become law, making Scotla

Proposals to introduce a statutory duty of candour in the healthcare system will go out to consultation next month. Health Minister Robin Swann yesterday told MLAs that a 16-week public consultation would open on Monday 12 April 2021.

The Scottish government has lost a high-profile court challenge against its Covid-19 regulations closing all churches for congregational worship and private prayer. Representatives of several churches argued before the Court of Session in Edinburgh that the regulations represented disproportionate i