A recent survey by the Law Society of Northern Ireland found that 66 per cent of 480 respondents had been subjected to some form of threat or abuse in their work. The Society, which represents solicitors in Northern Ireland, issued the survey to its members in February 2026 in response to increasing reports of attacks on solicitors while carrying out their duties. President of the society Mark Borland, said: โIntimidation directed at solicitors and their staff is on the increase, and the impact of this on their health and wellbeing is concerning.”
The Society says that the impact of the threats and attacks on solicitors has been significant, with 58pc of respondents highlighting that it had a negative impact on their wellbeing, with many reporting stress and anxiety.
The Society has set up a Solicitor Safety Group, and has engaged with the NI Justice Minister Naomi Long, requesting legislative reform to recognise solicitors as front line workers and making attacks against them a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing.ย The Society has sought a statutory presumption against the use of suspended sentences in cases where an officer of the court is the victim of an attack.
The Society has engaged with justice stakeholders, which has led to the creation of a Lawyer Safety Liaison Group consisting of representatives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PPS, NICTS (Northern Irelandย Courts & Tribunals Service) and others. The Society has launched a Solicitor Safety Toolkit,ย as a guide to managing personal safety risks at work, home and in other locations. The Toolkit outlines how to identify risks, respond to threats and access support if incidents occur. It is designed for use by firms, individual solicitors, and support staff.
Courts
In her annual press conference earlier this month, the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill described ‘security events and occasions’ as a low light of the previous year. She raised ‘grave security concerns if there are going to be judge-alone trials’, as proposed by the Labour Government’s Courts and Tribunals Bill to reduce the backlogs in court cases. She spoke of a new package of judicial training, ‘stuff that judges can do to look after themselves, both in and out of court’. She called it ‘a change of culture almost as to how judges’ approach. We don’t really think about our own security, historically …. and that is changing, it has had to change’. She said: “We’ve not only seen HMCTS [Courts & Tribunals Service] really improve the physical condition of security arrangements, we have got just much better engagement with the police. We’ve got better response rates, we’ve got better understandings around England and Wales about the importance of judicial security. We have individual measures that are being taken for individual judges when appropriate.”
Photo by Mark Rowe: Nottingham Justice Centre.
