News

A petition for judicial review of the legislative competence of parts of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 brought by a private company has been rejected by a judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session. For Women Scotland Ltd contended that parts of the 2018 Act we

A Full Bench of the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary has determined that a nobile officium petition made by a complainer in a rape case after she was not notified of an application by the accused to lead evidence of their sexual history is competent under the doctrine.  The petition

Scotland's lowest-paid prosecutors could receive an £8,000 increase to their salary next year as part of a £5.6 million pay offer aimed at averting a strike in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). The three-year pay offer follows a ballot for industrial action launched

The resilience fund set up to support legal practitioners during the Covid-19 pandemic is failing to deliver, Glasgow Bar Association (GBA) has warned. The association wrote to Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf and Community Safety Secretary Ash Denham yesterday to echo criticisms from the Edinburgh Ba

The Scottish government has lost a high-profile court challenge against its Covid-19 regulations closing all churches for congregational worship and private prayer. Representatives of several churches argued before the Court of Session that the regulations represented disproportionate interference w

Planning lawyers Sarah Stewart, Kendra Richardson and George Sismey-Durrant have joined Brodies LLP. Ms Stewart joins Brodies as a senior associate and will be based in Aberdeen. With more than 14 years' experience, she specialises in planning issues for the housebuilding sector.

The Law Society of Scotland should regain its regulatory function for solicitors from the "grossly inefficient" Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC), the Scottish Law Agents' Society (SLAS) has said. The SLCC, which is funded through a levy on practising lawyers, has proved controversial sinc

Two new part-time commissioners have been appointed to the Scottish Human Rights Commission, bringing with them experience and expertise in public health, inequalities, access to justice and human rights. Dr Anna Black and Dr Jacqueline Kinghan have been appointed for six-year terms, starting on 1 M

Terra Firma Chambers will host an Employment Law Webinar, live via Zoom at 11am on Thursday, 8th April. This event, the latest in TFC’s 2021 webinar series, will be chaired by Terra Firma Director David Logan who will speak about Post-Covid Economic Realities for Employers. Peter Grant-Hutchis

Asylum seekers who enter the UK illegally will find it harder to stay under significant new plans announced by Home Secretary Priti Patel. Ms Patel will later set out her plans for the "biggest overhaul of the UK's asylum system in decades", which has already come under sharp criticism from human ri

Trade unionists who were imprisoned for their role in the 1972 builders' strike have been exonerated by the Court of Appeal in London nearly half a century later. The "Shrewsbury 24" were arrested five months after the strike and charged with over 200 offences including unlawful assembly, intimidati

A barrister whose application to become Queen's Counsel was opposed by two judges faced apparent bias in the appointments process, an investigation has concluded. Marc Beaumont unsuccessfully applied to the Queen's Counsel appointments panel in 2016 and again in 2018.

A purported haul of MDMA worth nearly £900,000 was actually strawberry-flavoured sweets, police have admitted. Paris police boasted on Twitter of their massive bust at an alleged "narcotics packaging workshop feeding underground parties".

A property development firm has failed to establish that it was entitled to a reconveyance of a tram line route sold to its predecessors in title that was subsequently re-acquired by the local authority that originally sold it under a compulsory purchase order. Granton Central Developments Ltd, who

Legal aid fees have increased by five per cent across the board from today, the biggest increase in more than a decade – but the Law Society of Scotland has warned that more must be done to address a "generation of underfunding". The Scottish government unveiled its revised legal aid package i