News

Lawyers at a major City firm will be able to buy electric cars through a new scheme designed to contribute to the fight against climate change. Stephenson Harwood, which employs over 1,100 people across eight global offices, will make the scheme available to all staff in London from next year.

A couple spent so much on lawyers in a bitter divorce battle that they destroyed their lifestyle in what a judge has called “nihilistic litigation”. Mr Justice Peel in the Family Division of the High Court said the visible assets” of Captain Paul Crowther, 55, and his wife Caroline

A desk-based soldier's weight was fair game in a performance review, a court in Italy has ruled. A regional court in Tuscany dismissed a complaint brought by a soldier working as an accountant for the logistics regiment of a paratroopers brigade in Pisa.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland has been awarded expenses in a series of unopposed petitions it raised against the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland for the disclosure of confidential material. It was argued by the respondent that as he was not permitted to disclose the mat

In-person hearings will resume at the Inner House of the Court of Session on November 15, lawyers have been told. Though not yet officially announced, Jonathan Mitchell QC noted the development on Twitter.

The Scottish government has been told to provide a Holyrood committee with an "urgent" update on the legal aid dispute as it continues its long-standing policy of refusing to adequately fund the legal aid system. Legal affairs minister Ash Regan last week wrote to key legal figures, expressing

Prosecutors have dropped a case against a woman who faced up to two years' imprisonment for alleged acts of homophobia and transphobia online. Marion Millar, 50, from Airdrie, was charged by police with offences under s.127 of the Communications Act 2003 over her social media activity in 2019 and 20

The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) has been successful in defending a number of leave to appeal cases in the Inner House of the Court of Session in recent months. These include five cases where the complainer sought leave to appeal against the SLCC’s decision that the complaint wa

Compass Chambers are delighted to announce that Gavin Anderson has been appointed to the role of Crown counsel by the Lord Advocate. Mr Anderson will commence his role on Monday. Compass practice manager Gavin Herd said: “We are very pleased for Gavin and congratulate him on his appointment as

Greenpeace has failed in its challenge to the grant of consent to drill at BP's Vorlich field, East of Aberdeen. The decision of the Inner House of the Court of Session earlier this month is the latest in a rapidly growing series of activist challenges to the approvals or permits for oil and gas, ma

Harper Macleod has announced the launch of Greener Actions, a project aimed primarily at reducing the environmental impact of dispute resolution in Scotland. With COP26 due to start in Glasgow on Sunday, Greener Actions aims to form the basis of a coordinated approach by the legal profession in

The Herald has published an obituary of James Walker, who passed away on September 19 at the age of 61. He was "a Scottish man of business who became one of the most prominent commercial lawyers in East Asia".

A new bill to pardon former miners convicted of certain offences related to strike action in the 1980s has been published. The Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill follows an independent review, led by John Scott QC, into the impact of policing on Scottish communities during the 1984-85 st

Malcolm Combe, lecturer in law at Strathclyde University and chair of the Land and Human Rights Advisory Forum, looks at the relevance of land and human rights now and what the work of the newly-established forum hopes to achieve.  This is a blog post about the new land and human rights forum,

The owner and landlord of a holiday cottage where a teenager died have been fined after failing to maintain the gas heaters. No annual checks were carried out on the cabinet heaters in Glenmark Cottage, which were also placed in small rooms without enough ventilation.