Case Reports

A landowner who raised a legal action against the Scottish Ministers over what he claimed was a “natural right of drainage” has been granted declaratory that the M74 motorway interferes with that right. A judge in the Court of Session ruled that the defenders were interfering with the pursuer’

A collective redundancy does not always qualify as an “exceptional case” permitting the dismissal of a pregnant worker, according to Advocate General Sharpston. In the context of a collective redundancy, the dismissal of pregnant workers may only occur in exceptional cases not connected to the p

Individuals seeking to challenge an age assessment in court should do so by judicial review, a judge has ruled. Lord Woolman in the Court of Session held that while an action for declarator was also a competent remedy, there were “decisive advantages” to proceeding by way of judicial review.

A foster parent found guilty of sexually abusing two children in his care has had his conviction quashed after his lawyers failed to obtain and lead evidence that could have been used at the trial to “undermine” the prosecution case and provide “support” for his defence. The Appeal Court of

A man found guilty of raping his partner who claimed that he “reasonably believed” she was consenting has failed in an appeal against his conviction. The appellant argued that the trial judge “misdirected” the jury by advising them that they could use evidence of the complainer’s distress

A Nigerian national with a history of offending who complained about an order deporting him from the UK suffered no violation of his article 8 rights, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. Mr Ndidi, the applicant, arrived with his mother in the UK aged two. He had an escalating history of of

A man found guilty of domestic assault after a comment he made to police at the charge bar was used to corroborate his partner’s account of events has successfully appealed against his conviction. The Sheriff Appeal Court ruled that the appellant’s response to a question by a police sergeant aft

A man convicted of sexual offences who objected to the admission of social media messages to one of the complainers has failed in an appeal against his conviction. The appellant claimed that the Facebook messages were “irrelevant” to the proof of the alleged assaults, but the Appeal Court of the

Two men facing drugs trafficking charges who challenged the admissibility of evidence of the recovery of a car key obtained from a police search of a hotel room have had their appeal rejected. It was argued that since the search had been found to be “unlawful” the judge had been wrong to allow t

The family of a man who died in a road traffic accident after a car driven by his partner crashed into another vehicle are to be awarded damages. A judge in the Court of Session ruled that the driver failed to prove that the cause of the accident was something other than her negligence.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has dismissed actions brought by Slovakia and Hungary against the provisional mechanism for the mandatory relocation of asylum seekers. The mechanism, designed to help Italy and Greece deal with a massive inflow of people during the migration

A man found guilty of having sex with a child who claimed that a sheriff’s decision to refuse to allow him to cross-examine the complainer on medical records which suggested that she had several previous sexual partners has had an appeal against his conviction refused. The Appeal Court of the High

, as part of the group on one occasion, when there was no identification of the appellant being a member of the group on another occasion. Following from the submissions on sufficiency, it was said that the trial judge had misdirected the jury as the evidence did not show that the ATM crimes were co

A man whose electronic communications were monitored by his employer suffered a violation of his article 8 rights, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. The case of Bărbulescu v Romania concerned the decision of a private company to dismiss an employee after monitoring

The ex-wife of a man found guilty of murder and being concerned in the supply of cannabis is to be removed from her “family home” after a judge granted a proceeds of crime order for administrators to recover the property. Margaret Duncan, former wife of convicted killer and drug dealer James Dun