Coronavirus

A judge has complained that she is struggling to hear through thick screens installed in the Four Courts in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Perspex screens, around half-an-inch in thickness, have been installed in front of the bench in some courtrooms to protect public health.

Over a quarter of applications to the interim payment scheme set up by the legal aid agency in response to the coronavirus pandemic have been rejected. As of Monday night, the Legal Services Agency (LSA) had processed 264 requests under the COVID-19 interim payments scheme which came into operation

Attorney General John Larkin QC will appear before MLAs tomorrow to provide evidence on legal issues relating to the emergency coronavirus laws. Mr Larkin will appear for over an hour and a half as a witness before the Stormont justice committee, which is meeting tomorrow at 11am in the Senate Chamb

The Bar of Ireland has failed in a bid to secure a rent suspension for its use of two floors in the Criminal Courts of Justice. The representative body for barristers wrote to the Courts Service to request a suspension from March 2020 because its income has been "adversely affected" by the COVID-19

Concerns have been raised that contact tracing apps designed to track the spread of coronavirus will not work north and south of the Irish border. Amnesty International has written to the entire Northern Ireland Executive to clarify its plans for a COVID-19 tracking app, with the UK government promo

A coroner has held a preliminary hearing by conference call in a Northern Ireland first. According to the Belfast Telegraph, the hearing marks the first time that legal proceedings in Northern Ireland have been conducted by phone rather than video-conferencing.

A new service to support solicitor practices during the coronavirus crisis has been launched by the Law Society of Ireland. The new Crisis Practice Support service has been designed to deliver relevant, practical supports to help solicitors remain operational to ensure they can continue providing es

In-house lawyers and HR professionals are optimistic about the re-opening of workplaces by September 2020, according to a new survey conducted by Mason Hayes & Curran (MHC). The business law firm surveyed around 300 participants in a recent webinar on the employment law and health and safety iss

Two jury trials will resume at the Old Bailey this week as Crown Court cases restart, the Law Gazette reports. The criminal bar has warned, however, that normal service "remains weeks off".

Hearings on breach of access and breach of maintenance for separated parents are expected to be treated as urgent matters by the District Court. Judge Colin Daly, president of the District Court, will make an announcement on the matter within the next day, according to RTÉ.

The Bar of Ireland has pushed back against reports that it is considering proposals to expand the use of non-jury trials during the COVID-19 crisis. A report in The Irish Times, citing an anonymous barrister said to be involved in the process, said the Bar Council is currently "researching the idea"

Eversheds Sutherland partner Matthew Howse and principal associate Damian McElholm consider the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. As each day passes, the economic challenges presented by COVID-19 are further illuminated. With the jobs retention scheme portal now open for applications,

More remote hearings should take place in the High Court as "a way of tiding us over until we get back to physical hearings", a senior judge has said. Mr Justice David Barniville, a High Court judge and president of the Association of Judges of Ireland (AJI), told The Irish Times that the technology

There will not be "catastrophic" delays in the Court of Appeal due to the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Justice George Birmingham has said. The president of the court told The Irish Times that the court is "trying to ... keep the slippage to a minimum", in part by working on reserved judgments.

The requirement to hold a public event as part of the pre-application process for major planning applications has been temporarily removed for five months. The changes, which came into effect via legislation on Friday 1 May, have been made to allow the planning system to continue functioning during