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There needs to be a "fundamental change in approach to the funding of legal aid", solicitors in Glasgow have said in an open letter to the Scottish government.

Short term prison sentences of less than 12 months will be brought to an end this year, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has announced. New figures showed more than 1,000 people spent last Christmas in prison on such sentences.

Measures to help police and prosecutors to tackle domestic abuse will come into force on 1 April next year, ministers have announced. The Domestic Abuse Act 2018, passed by the Scottish Parliament last year, creates a new offence which explicitly covers psychological harm as well as physical harm, a

The number of people found guilty of drink driving has gone up for the first time in 10 years, official statistics show. The figures indicate that 3,646 people were convicted of driving while under the influence of alcohol in 2016-17, an increase of three per cent on 2015-16's figure of 3,537.

Aberdein Considine has appointed four newly qualified solicitors and hired seven new trainees. The new solicitors and trainees are spread across the firm’s offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Banchory, Stonehaven and Newcastle.

Ledingham Chalmers saw a rise in turnover and a six per cent uptick in profits in the year to the end of March last year, accounts lodged at Companies House show. Revenues at the firm rose from £11.5 million to £11.6m and partner profits increased from £3.4m to £3.6m.

The judiciary must become more diverse to address the perception that judges are “beings from another planet”, the president of the UK's highest court has said. Lady Hale said that there should be a more balanced female to male and white to non-white ratio in the Supreme Court in an inte

Blackadders saw profits rise last year to £3.26m in the year to March 31 – up from £3m in 2017. Results at Companies House show that the firm recorded revenues of £11.89m, a slight decrease on the previous year.

Scottish business could be left behind unless it builds stronger trade links with China as the superpower capitalises on its new status as the number one driver of global IP growth, a specialist has warned. China is now overwhelmingly driving growth in filings for patents, trademarks, industrial des

This year should bring hope for prospective first-time buyers in Edinburgh who have been at the sharp-end of rising prices and prohibitive premiums, according to property experts at Warners Solicitors & Estate Agents. The firm anticipates a continuation of recent trends that, since mid-2018, hav

Police are forced to attend Scottish courts dozens of times each month to deal with a range of 999 calls, new figures have shown. Between 2016 and 2018, the force received 2,228 emergency calls from sheriff courts across the country.

A think tank has called for a pilot scheme in Scottish prisons to offer each prisoner a landline phone in their cell. At present, Scottish prisoners can only access a telephone at certain times and often in communal settings. In England, conversely, a number of prisons have landline phones in c

A man has admitted stealing a dozen budgies from a woman's home before offering to help her look for the pets – while a couple of them sat on his shoulder. Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that Mohammed Rahman, 37, broke into accountant Anne Ferguson's flat with a hammer last April.

A pursuer’s offer cannot be lodged and given effect to in the Inner House of the Court of Session, appeal judges have ruled. The First Division held that, while the chapter 34A of the Rules of the Court of Session did not expressly exclude pursuers’ offers, the language of the rules