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Hastings Legal has recently expanded with several new staff members, including the appointment of director Tim Taylor.

The Scottish Sentencing Council has finalised its first ever offence guideline, covering the statutory offences of causing death by driving. The guideline aims to bring greater consistency in sentencing and assist public understanding of how these highly complex and sensitive cases are dealt with by

The final report of the Hearings System Working Group (HSWG) was published on 25th May. The report proposes a significant redesign of the existing children’s hearings system in Scotland. Dr Alyson Evans of the University of Strathclyde, an academic specialist in the children’s hearings s

China is "dismantling" the principle of 'one country, two systems' and eroding Hong Kong's autonomy, democratic principles and fundamental freedoms, the EU has said in a new report. The European Commission and the high representative have adopted the 25th annual report to the European Parliament and

Abertay University's LLB degree has been ranked first in Scotland and the UK for teaching satisfaction in a major survey. The National Student Survey (NSS) is the sector’s key measure on student satisfaction – Abertay ranked third among Scotland’s 18 universities in the 2023 result

A solicitor has labelled the delays in Scotland's criminal justice system as a "national crisis", highlighting an instance where a court sat for over 10 hours. Matthew McGovern, who shed light on his experience at Hamilton Sheriff Court on social media, said on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland 

Network Rail is facing court action over the Aberdeenshire train derailment in which three people lost their lives. Driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, tragically died when the train came off the tracks at Carmont, south of Stonehaven, o

Italian cheesemakers have developed a microchip as small as a grain of rice to be used in their battle against cheese counterfeiters. The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium (PRC) said microtransponders installed in over 120,000 parmesan rinds to date are among "new methods" being deployed to help custom

The annual Red Mass to mark the beginning of the new legal year in Scotland takes place on Sunday, 24 September 2023 at 12 noon. The mass will be celebrated in St Mary’s R.C. Cathedral, Broughton Street, Edinburgh and the principal celebrant will be the Most Reverend Leo Cushley, Archbishop of

The UK is "required by history and law" to pay trillions of pounds in reparations for transatlantic chattel slavery, a senior judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has said. Judge Patrick Robinson, who was president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Work to reduce the re-traumatisation of victims and witnesses of crime will help promote equality in Scotland’s justice system, according to a new report. Solicitor General Ruth Charteris KC, Chief Superintendent Hilary Sloan from Police Scotland and Jen Ang of the Scottish Women’s Right

In the recent case of Tilbury Douglas Construction Limited v Ove Arup & Partners Scotland Limited CA117/21 [2023] CSOH 53 the issue of prescription was revisited by Lord Harrower at a preliminary proof, writes Karen Cornwell. By way of background, the ongoing case involves the development of a f

Property listings for sale in Scotland have risen substantially across several cities, according to DJ Alexander. The most noteworthy increases from August 2022 to August 2023 were in Inverness with an 83 per cent rise, followed by Dundee at 81 per cent. Edinburgh saw a 45 per cent increase, Perth r

Almost half of the letters sent by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to complainants are riddled with errors, according to an official report. The CPS watchdog has told the service to “act urgently to get a grip of this situation” as it revealed that letters are full of misspellings or

An appeal hearing at a Moscow court yesterday which upheld the 13-year sentence imposed on Maksym Butkevych, a Ukrainian human rights defender, is a grave miscarriage of justice, Amnesty International said. The decision to imprison him for 13 years was taken by the so-called supreme court in Russian