Northern Ireland

Stormont's Executive Office is under a legal obligation to fund a pension for people who suffered severe injuries in the Troubles, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The scheme opens for applications in March but it is not yet clear who will fund the payments, as Stormont and Westminster have been engag

An additional courtroom will become available for Crown Court trials in the Laganside Courts this week as the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS) tries to boost capacity in the face of a growing trials backlog. Two courtrooms in the complex are being modified to allow for trials to

Northern Ireland's police watchdog has launched an investigation after an "altercation" involving an arrest at a memorial marking the 29th anniversary of a mass shooting. Mark Sykes, one of the survivors of the deadly 1992 shooting at the Sean Graham bookmakers on Ormeau Road, was arrested on Friday

The law firms and barristers earning most from legal aid in Northern Ireland are set to be named again under plans put out to consultation today. The Legal Services Agency has not published details of payments made to solicitor firms and individual barristers for nearly five years.

Northern Ireland's county courts will gain jurisdiction over more personal injury and defamation cases under plans put out to consultation today. Justice Minister Naomi Long has launched a 12-week public consultation on increasing the general civil jurisdiction of the county courts.

A high-performance sports player who was injured while working for a construction company has won a five-figure settlement in a case which lawyers say could not have been won a decade ago. Personal injury lawyer Cieran Marshall of JMK Solicitors represented the Gaelic football and Hurling player, wh

An online summit bringing together justice agencies, politicians and judges to discuss domestic abuse has placed emphasis on the need for early intervention and rehabilitation. The seminar, hosted by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland, heard from speakers including Justice Minister Naomi Long

Belfast firm McKees has opened its 2021 trainee solicitor programme for applications. Throughout the course of the two-year training contract, trainees will gain experience across its corporate and commercial, banking and financial services, real estate and dispute resolution departments.

A long-delayed review into the care of vulnerable people in Northern Ireland's prisons is reportedly on track to be completed this summer. The review was first announced in 2016 after a series of deaths in custody and was subsequently passed in December 2018 to the Regulation and Quality Improvement

Human rights campaigners have welcomed the reinstatement of early abortion services by Northern Ireland’s South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust. Earlier this month, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) launched legal action against the government over its failure to commis

Solicitors Dame Glenys Stacey and Natalie Prosser have been appointed to leadership roles in the UK's new Office for Environmental Protection (OEP). Dame Glenys will chair the new statutory body, due to be created by the Environment Bill, from 1 February 2021 while Ms Prosser will be its interim chi

Commercial law firm Tughans has topped the Experian M&A and Real Estate Advisor League Table by deal count for a sixth year in a row. Of the 168 deals involving a Northern Ireland firm in 2020, Tughans advised on 49 of them – nearly a third.

Patrick Mullarkey, partner and joint head of healthcare at O’Reilly Stewart Solicitors, warns of a tsunami of medical negligence cases that could become one the many fallouts of the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been many vivid and disturbing images throughout the Covid-19 pandemic that have r

A border citizen in Northern Ireland has appealed to the Court of Appeal against a decision to refuse leave for a full hearing by way of judicial review before the High Court in Belfast. The applicant is appealing a decision by the senior judicial review judge not to adjudicate on whether the Prime

Belfast human rights lawyer Ciaran O'Hare discusses his work in the area of judicial review and public law in Northern Ireland in the latest instalment of the Activist Lawyer podcast. In the new episode, Mr O'Hare discusses some of his most important legal cases, from a challenge concerning the leng