News

Thieves broke into a ninja museum in Japan this week and stole more than a million yen. The Iga-ryu Ninja museum, dedicated to the history and practices of ninja, suffered the break-in on Monday morning.

During his lifetime, James Erksine, Lord Grange, Scotland’s Lord Justice Clerk from 1710 to 1714, was best known for his eccentric opposition to the Witchcraft Act of 1735 which aimed to ensure there would be no return to the infamous witch hunts which had claimed the lives of so many women. E

A milk delivery man who was injured while delivering milk to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh has successfully appealed against a decision granting decree of absolvitor to the gallery’s controlling organisation. Andrew Wright, an employee of Graham’s Family Dairy, orig

Criminal defence solicitors have ridiculed a suggestion that summary trials be held at the weekend as a measure to cope with the mounting backlog of cases.

Local public health measures like minimum pricing of alcohol could be jeopardised under proposals for a UK internal market, the Faculty of Advocates has suggested. The UK government has published a white paper aimed at protecting the flow of goods and services across the UK at the end of the Brexit

BLM's Glasgow office has been spared as the firm closes two others in the UK and launches a redundancy consultation. The leases for the firm's Glasgow and Belfast offices are currently being renewed and BLM said it has no plans to close any of its other 11 UK offices.

The Law Society of Scotland has responded to an open letter published in yesterday's edition of Scottish Legal News that decried the paltry fees paid by the Scottish Legal Aid Board to a law firm for its work on a Supreme Court case. Patricia Thom, co-convener of the Law Society of Scotland&rsq

Law At Work (LAW), a firm which specialises in employment law, HR, and health and safety, has promoted two members of staff in its employment law Team. Heather Maclean, who joined the firm nine years ago, will now head up its knowledge development function as she moves from associate solicitor to se

Compass Chambers has announced the appointment of Angela Grahame QC as senior counsel to the Sheku Bayoh Public Inquiry. The inquiry will be chaired by Lord Bracadale and it will examine the circumstances of the death of Sheku Bayoh, who died in police custody on 3 May 2015.

The Ministry of Justice is to provide £3.1 million in funding to support people representing themselves in court. In a joint initiative with the Access to Justice Foundation, funding will be provided to not for profit organisations across the country to provide free legal support.

The Scottish Feminist Judgments Project (SFJP) has launched a podcast. The SFJP is a project which brings together legal academics, practising lawyers, and representatives from the third sector, to consider whether important legal cases might have been decided differently if the judgment had adopted

A British police officer was rescued by firefighters after he got his hands stuck in his own handcuffs. The core training sergeant for Northamptonshire's police force, Scott Renwick, admitted in a tweet that he got stuck in the broken handcuffs and had to be rescued by the local fire service.

A Scottish man who was injured in a quad bike accident while on holiday in Greece has been unsuccessful in obtaining damages in relation to his injuries. Keith Fitzsimmons claimed he was injured when the quad bike came into contact with a tanker whilst on the road. As the driver could not be located

Scottish Legal News is saddened – and angered – to have to reprint the open letter sent by Glenrothes solicitor Yvonne McKenna to the Scottish Legal Aid Board highlighting the unsustainably low SLAB fees her firm received for work on a landmark case concerning the rights of relevant pers

A revised version of a scheme which deals with counsel’s fees has been published by the Faculty of Advocates. The main updates in the 2020 Scheme for the Accounting For and Collection Of Counsel’s Fees relate to speculative fees and reflect changes introduced by the Civil Litigation (Exp