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Scotland's courts service is "paying lip service" to Covid-19 guidelines and more must be done to protect court users, lawyers across Scotland have said amid outbreaks in sheriff courts. Edinburgh Bar Association and Glasgow Bar Association are among 11 bar associations who have signed a letter crit

The number of legal professionals contacting the charity LawCare for emotional support continues to rise year on year, with 738 legal professionals seeking help in 2020, a rise of nine per cent on the previous year. The charity received 964 calls, webchats, and emails to their support service in 202

Global law firm Dentons is set to hold its Burns Supper virtually this evening, with the event featuring a number of the firm’s client-produced brands with a "Dentons Burns Night in a box". Food and drink for the night will include Baxters cock-a-leekie soup, Nairn’s oatcakes, Hall&rsquo

Mandy Laurie of Burness Paull explores whether employers can force employees to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Since Margaret Keenan became the first person to receive the Pfizer vaccine in the UK, the rest of the nation has watched on as the introduction of two vaccines and the approval of a third h

Ian McMonagle, tax specialist at Russell & Russell Business Advisers in Glasgow, is predicting a fresh spate of late notice penalties in the wake of changes made at the start of this tax year to how and when residential property owners pay tax on the sale of a home. The changes to the rules on C

William Shawcross has been appointed as the new independent reviewer of the controversial Prevent counter-terrorism programme. Prevent aims to safeguard vulnerable people from being drawn into terrorism, and forms one of the four strands of the UK government’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTE

New sentencing guidelines for drugs offences have been introduced in a bid to tackle ethnic and gender disparities. The Sentencing Council has published research showing that the odds of a black offender receiving an immediate custodial sentence for a drug offence are 40 per cent higher than the odd

An entire police station is under investigation after officers and civilian staff used their building for an illegal late-night party. One video circulating on social media shows the officers and staff at the major police station in Paris dancing the Macarena at 3am without face masks.

An action by the lessee of a storage unit located on a former poultry farm that was destroyed by a fire in 2016 has been dismissed by a sheriff. Philip Samson rented a unit at the Turkeytorium, formerly Fenton Barns Farm, owned by DC Watson & Sons (Fenton Barns) Ltd, and sought damages for loss

Tayside legal and estate agency firm Miller Hendry has announced three promotions and a new appointment at its Perth and Dundee offices. Lindsay Kirkwood has been promoted to associate in the private client team in Dundee, while Michael Johnston and Samera Ali have been promoted to senior solicitors

Mountain hares in Scotland will gain greater legal protection under regulations introduced to the Scottish Parliament today. From 1 March 2021, it will be illegal to intentionally kill, injure or take mountain hares at any time unless a licence is obtained.

Eamon Keane responds to Alistair Bonnington on the Scottish Parliament's Salmond inquiry. I wish to comment upon one matter, related to evidence and procedure, raised in Alistair Bonnington’s opinion piece, in which he is, in my opinion, wholly incorrect. Namely, his assertions about the inte

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA trade union, which represents Scottish government civil servants and prosecutors, responds to Alistair Bonnington on the Salmond inquiry. Many of you will have views on the evidence and issues that have been dealt with by the Committee on the Scottish Govern

Juries should be cut from 12 members to seven in order to clear the Covid-19 backlog of criminal cases in England and Wales, Labour has said. The call follows a joint report from the police, prosecutors, prisons and probation inspectorates, which said the "unprecedented and very serious" backlog in

Benjamin Bestgen examines the impact of "respectability" in criminal trials. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. Tropes like the “Gentleman Thief” pick up on the allure of the white-collar criminal: a person who appears respectable, educated, even charming. A worldly, cleve