
Burns Nowlan LLP – How Can We Help You?
A great many people often react to events which arise in their everyday lives – you have just put a deposit on your new home you then look to find a Solicitor or you are involved in an accident you look around to see which firm is best placed to help you. However have you

Mothers and babies: ‘The day I arrived in Bessborough, I landed in the bowels of hell’
Award-winning BBC journalist and producer Deirdre Finnerty kept a picture beside her desk while writing her first book. It was a photograph of Bessborough House, the grand country mansion with a red door on the outskirts of Cork city which operated as one of Ireland’s first and largest mother and baby institutions. READ ARTICLE HERE

BUYING OR SELLING A BUSINESS
Buying or selling a business is a complex and exacting transaction which should only be undertaken by you in collaboration with your Solicitor and financial advisers. The initial discussions and agreement as to the purchase price and time line for completion will eventually give way to a detailed forensic examination of the business you intend

PERSONAL INJURY CLAIMS UPDATE 2022
A press release on the 9th February 2022 from the Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment referred to the drafting of the new Personal Injuries Resolution Board Bill 2022 which will provide for the following : The parties will be asked to consent to Mediation which will operate in conjunction but separate to the current

Edited Extracts from the annual Report of the Special Rapporteur for Children 2022
[ Pages 69 129 ] In summary, all of the themes considered in this Chapter disclose substantial evidence cited in the Commission Report that is indicative of violations of provisions of the ECHR [ i.e European Convention on Human Rights ]. The Commission Report provided an abundance of evidence of each of these factors in

Social Justice Law and Human Rights
When people think of lawyers and court cases, they often think only in terms of personal injury claims and family law issues. In addition, when the term human rights is used it is often thought that this only applies to countries which are not democratic or where the Governments are oppressive towards its citizens. However,

CLANN
The purpose of Clann is to help establish the truth of what happened to unmarried mothers and their children in 20th century Ireland. “Gathering the Data” is a joint initiative of Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) and Magdalenes Research (JFMR). ARA, JFMR and the global law firm, Hogan Lovells, published the Clann Project’s final Report which drew

Employee successfully sues Insurance Company for work related injury
Employee successfully sues Insurance Company for work related injury In a landmark judgement in the USA delivered in February 2022 an employee who suffered from exposure to asbestos was held to be entitled to recover damages from MCC, an Insurance Company, and now part of the Zurich Insurance Group. It was outlined to the Court

WHAT AGE IS “RETIREMENT AGE”
Until recently for most employees approaching 65 years of age the spectre of retirement loomed whether it was welcomed or not. However in recent years and for many reasons, including enduring physical and mental vitality and indeed continuing financial obligations, the concept of retirement and particularly compulsory retirement has come under the spotlight in employment

Defects in Apartments & Duplexes: 2022
Members of the public have been urged to take part in a survey on housing defects relating to fire safety, structural safety and water ingress in apartments and duplexes. The online questionnaire, which is designed for homeowners, landlords, directors of owners’ management companies and property management agents, will be open until March 14th. The survey

Mother & Bay Home Redress Scheme: 2022
The long awaited Bill to give survivors of mother and baby homes redress payments is to go to Cabinet in April 2022. However it now appears that interim payments, particularly to the elderly, have been effectively ruled out. The design of the scheme is predicated on a single payment based on evidence of residency. The

Mother and baby home redress scheme to go to Cabinet next week
Scheme will open next year with a projected cost of some €800 million. View Article Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Social Media Will – Protecting your Social Media Legacy
In this social media age you should leave clear instructions about what should happen to your social media accounts after your death. If you think about the number of photographs alone that are stored on line this will give you some idea of the importance of ensuring, if you so wish, that a partner, family

V.W. Emissions Scandal : More Developments in Europe
EU Consumer Commissioner Didier Reynders recently criticised the German carmaker’s unwillingness to act across the continent and said Volkswagen should set a compensation rule for all EU customers based on the average they had already awarded in previous cases. “The Commission and EU consumer authorities [are] calling upon Volkswagen to compensate all EU consumers, also

Mother & Baby Homes Redress Scheme: Access Widened
In a welcome development on the Mother & Baby Homes scandal the Minister for Children has now advised that whereas the Redress Scheme will take account of the recommendations of the Commission of Investigations it will not be limited to them. Women who spent less than six months in the homes and those resident after

Sexual Harassment in the U.K. and U.S. Armed Forces
United Kingdom : Following on from a 2015 Sexual Harassment Survey, the British army repeated the survey in 2018 to assess improvements in army culture and behaviour. Although the results showed that there had been an improvement in behaviours since the 2015 survey, it also reported that unwanted sexualised behaviours remain a common experience for

Auto Credit Agreements – right to revoke agreement and return your vehicle
European Court of Justice [ the “ECJ” ] rulings previously established that a consumer’s right to withdraw from a credit agreement is only limited to the 14 days following conclusion of the agreement if the consumers were given “clear and concise” information on when and how they could withdraw, and that the applicability of the

The Irish State – Investigations, Reports and Redress Schemes – Book Review
“Between 1922 and 1996, over 10,000 girls and women were imprisoned in Magdalene Laundries, including those considered ‘promiscuous’, a burden to their families or the state, those who had been sexually abused or raised in the care of the Church and State, and unmarried mothers. These girls and women were subjected to forced labour as

Will this be Opportunity Lost 2.0?
State must ‘learn from mistakes’ of past redress schemes. Click the link to view article on The Journal

Retirement and Age Discrimination
The Workplace Relations Commission [ “WRC” ] in a recent 2021 decision has once again held that the enforceability of compulsory retirement clauses in contracts of employment and the concept of employees retiring at 65 or indeed any other age is now fast becoming a thing of the past. In 2020 the WRC determined that