News

Ministers are examining whether legislation banning smoking in public places should be amended to permit the smoking of crack cocaine within supervised drug consumption facilities in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Health officials say there has been a shift in recent years away from injecting heroin towards

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has expressed her "deep hope" that victims of domestic abuse can see routes to a safer future after new figures showed a 19 percent rise in convictions. Ms Bain said her thoughts are with victims at what can be a difficult time of year. But she urged them to "take confi

The Scottish Arbitration Centre has launched a new mediation service to enhance its dispute resolution offering. Following the publication of its Mediation Rules in September, the centre has now launched the service. The service provides a new administered mediation scheme to support businesses and

A man who inflicted 48 separate injuries on a teenage girl during a violent rape at a music festival in Edinburgh has been jailed. James Leckie, of Musselburgh, attacked the 16-year-old shortly after meeting her at the event in Princes Street Gardens on 16 September 2023.

Karima Higgins has joined Inksters in its Glasgow office. Ms Higgins specialises in commercial legal work, commercial contracts, data protection, company secretarial work and corporate finance.

Accounts for Digby Brown show that the personal injury firm's turnover increased from £46.7 million in 2023/24 to £53.8m in 2024/25 – a rise of more than 15 per cent. And profits increased from £21.9m to £26.5m showing year-on-year growth of 21 per cent.

Aberdein Considine LLP has appointed leading contractual recoveries specialist Shilpi Jairath as operations director with its lender services practice group. Based in the growing firm’s Newcastle office and with over 22 years of experience in contractual recoveries across consumer and commerci

Our weekly round-up of human rights stories from around the world. ‘Law is the only weapon I have’: a Ukrainian lawyer’s campaign to rescue the children stolen by Russia

The justice sector is facing serious and complex challenges and without increased funding of £400 million (13 per cent) in next year’s budget, the sector faces unacceptable cuts to services, according to Holyrood's Criminal Justice Committee. The committee has been gathering evidence as

The Law Society of Scotland has announced two senior executive appointments as it prepares to support a "rapidly changing" Scottish solicitor profession. The Law Society has appointed a new executive director of member experience and a new executive director of operations, both of whom will take up

Former criminal judge Gilbert P. Self has been sentenced to decades in prison for stealing from the public. The former judge of Alabama's criminal courts used judicial bank accounts to fund personal holidays, including a ski trip to Montana and a cycling trip across Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

UK government plans to appoint the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as sole regulator for anti-money laundering (AML) across the UK have been criticised as a backward step in tackling economic crime by the Law Society of Scotland. In its response to an HM Treasury consultation, the Law Society has

Lithuania's parliament has voted to give a cat the power to sack the head of the country's national broadcaster. Opposition MPs succeeded in passing the so-called "cat amendment" this week in protest of controversial government-backed reforms.

Blackadders LLP is to donate £34,000 to Maggie’s Centres across Scotland after a year of fundraising for the cancer support network. The firm adopted Maggie’s as its charity of the year for 2025 and Blackadders’ teams from every office took part in a series of events and chal

The parents of a Scottish teenager who died after being targeted by an Instagram sextortion gang have launched a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta in the US. Murray Dowey, 16, died at his family home in Dunblane in December 2023 after being deceived into sharing intimate images with an Instagram a