Case Reports

A man accused of sexually abusing his niece and nephew has been acquitted after a judge upheld a “no case to answer” submission. Lord Uist ruled that the “Moorov” doctrine could not be applied to corroborate the conduct libelled in the two charges.

A man who pled guilty to charge of common law public indecency after a woman performed a sex act on him on the back seat of a bus has failed in a challenge to a sheriff’s ruling to place him on the sex offenders register. Garry McNair, who was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment and made subj

A woman who was stopped and searched by police as she passed through a UK airport on returning from visiting her husband in Paris, a French national in custody on terrorism offences, has failed in a human rights challenge against her conviction for failing to answer questions which sought to establi

A solicitor has successfully sued his former firm for his share of “net profits” after a sheriff principal refused an appeal by his ex-partners following a dispute over the terms of the partnership agreement. John Tait raised an action of accounting and payment against RGM Solicitors, but the fi

The UK Supreme Court has refused an application by a budget airline to challenge a Court of Appeal ruling in a case relating to a dispute over its minority stake in a another carrier. The Competition and Markets Authority – previously the Competition Commission (CC) – had directed Ryanair to red

A part-time firefighter who was found guilty of wilful fire-raising but claimed that a “miscarriage of justice” had occurred has failed in an appeal against conviction. David Mackay argued that the sheriff “erred” in leaving it to a juror who knew one of the witnesses to hear the evidence an

A nurse who reached an out-of-court settlement after suing a health board following an accident at work has been granted a motion which means her former employers will bear the expenses for five expert witnesses who were instructed during her preparation of the action. A judge in the Court of Sessio

A man found guilty of stealing electricity has seen his conviction overturned because police officers failed to secure a warrant before searching his home. Charles McKenzie, 57 from Dundee, was arrested in September 2013 after police discovered he had illegitimately provided electricity to his 14th

A pensioner who was banned from driving for 10 years after he seriously injured two motorcyclists in a road traffic accident while driving himself to a hospital has failed in an appeal against his conviction. The Criminal Appeal Court ruled that the sheriff had correctly withdrawn the special defenc

of the expiration of her grant of leave to remain in July 2013 the petitioner made another application for permission to stay for longer than a year based on her article 8 rights, which she said were stronger because of her increased integration into her family life in Glasgow. She had recovered fr

A slot machine company has failed in its appeal to the UK Supreme Court against a decision of the Court of Appeal that the winnings from its machines were subject to taxation as they were deemed to be “gaming machines”. President of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, sitting with Lord Reed, Lord

A convicted rapist's petition to the nobile officium of the Court of Session has been dismissed as incompetent on various grounds including the fact the decision from which it stemmed was reviewable by neither the Court of Session nor the High Court of Justiciary and that thenobile officium is not d

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has unanimously ruled that banking data, irrespective of whether it contains sensitive information, is protected under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in a case in which San Marino judicial authorities seized the banking documents of four Ita

A father who was jailed for two years after being found guilty of abducting his 11-year-old son has failed in an appeal against conviction but had his sentence reduced to one of nine months’ imprisonment. The Criminal Appeal Court ruled that he had “no lawful authority” to remove the child fro

A legal challenge over the appointment of Susan O’Brien QC to chair an inquiry into historic child abuse in Scotland has been refused by a judge in the Court of Session. The Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and The Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul sought judicial review of