News

Thursday 25 November at 6pm The SYLA is pleased to present the second of a two-part series focusing on diversity and inclusion within the Scottish legal profession, more specifically, the inclusion of BAME solicitors. The events will take the form of roundtable discussions.

A concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott is being held next month at Parliament Hall in aid of The Abbotsford Trust. The event will celebrate the world-famous Scots poet, creator of the historical novel, advocate and judge.

One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honour or observation.

A man who drove to his practical driving test because he was running late is facing a police investigation. The unnamed 37-year-old arrived at the test centre in Bergheim, near the German city of Cologne, in an Opel Zafira which he parked out front.

Two applications by former tenants of Glasgow properties made after their landlords failed to place their tenancy deposits into an approved tenancy deposit scheme have resulted in awards of £500 and £6,000 from The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland’s Housing and Property Chamber. Iv

The Scottish government should introduce a bill on legal aid fees sooner than is currently planned, a Holyrood committee has said. In a pre-budget scrutiny report on the government's justice priorities in 2022-23, the Criminal Justice Committee states that the "failure to address the problems with f

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) has denied suggestions it may have altered court statistics to make it "appear as if we are getting through the backlog". Criminal defence solicitor Euan Gosney tweeted on November 19 that there "were approx 60+ summary trials in Edinburgh Sheriff Cou

The Scottish Sentencing Council is to prepare a sentencing guideline on domestic abuse offences. Also included in its latest work programme will be the continuation of the development of guidelines for death by driving, the sexual offences of rape, indecent images of children, and sexual assault, as

Dame Elish Angiolini QC has been appointed as chair of an inquiry into the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by police officer Wayne Couzens. The inquiry will establish an account of Mr Couzens' conduct throughout his career, noting any red flags prior to the murder. The second part will look at issu

Professor Raphael Heffron has been named the new dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies St. Augustine in Trinidad & Tobago. Professor Heffron was formerly professor for global energy law & sustainability at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law & Polic

Legal experts at the University of Stirling have launched a new study to ensure that consumer laws are as ‘smart’ as the emerging technologies that they regulate. The rapidly growing ‘Internet of Things’ – a network of connected objects such as cars, wearables, smart sp

Councils will be given powers to ensure short-term lets are safe and meet the needs of their local communities under legislation laid before the Scottish Parliament. Under the legislation, all local authorities will be required to establish a short-term lets licensing scheme by October 2022. Existin

Trainee solicitor Lauren Bowie, founder of Legable, has been named as one of Young Women Scotland’s 30 under 30. She is also a mentor, a LawScot Foundation fundraising committee member and is passionate about improving social mobility and diversity in the legal profession.

Seven more convictions of former subpostmasters linked to a flawed Post Office computer system have been overturned. Subpostmasters were victims of a scandal which saw the Post Office use its private prosecution powers over a 15-year period from 2000 onwards to prosecute and convict them of crimes.

Actor Kevin Spacey has been ordered to pay a production company more than $30 million for breach of contract. An arbitrator ruled that sexual misconduct scandals surrounding the actor meant he fell foul of his contract and had to pay the production firm behind the Netflix show House of Cards, in whi