News

The challenge to the Inverclyde Local Development Plan by five leading house builders and developers has been successful. In MacTaggart and Mickel Homes Limited and Others v Inverclyde Council and Another [2020] CSIH 44, the Inner House of the Court of Session quashed the housing chapter of the Inve

Almost £4 million has been allocated by the Drug Deaths Taskforce to projects to support its work reducing harm and deaths. The taskforce has announced the Scottish government funding for research and front-line services to help tackle the drug deaths public health emergency over the next year

Gordon MacLure details the steps businesses can take now to get some breathing space as the HMRC's preferential creditor status has now been restored. HMRC’s secondary preferential creditor status was restored on 22 July 2020 when the Finance Act 2020 received Royal Assent. This makes HMR

In his latest jurisprudential primer, the third on neurolaw, Benjamin Bestgen details more technologies on the horizon which the law will have to get to grips with, including 'brainhacking' and 'memory engineering'. In the “Morty’s Mindblowers” episode of the cartoon seri

A mother who allegedly dug a ten-metre-long, three-metre-tall tunnel in a bid to break her son out of prison has been arrested. Police believe that the 51-year-old woman had been working on the tunnel in southern Ukraine for at least three weeks before being caught.

Colleagues at Burness Paull have said they are heartbroken after the sudden passing of a partner at the firm. Theresa Hunt, who was based in the firm’s Aberdeen office and a leading member of its specialist planning law team, passed away on Friday 24 July. She was 40 years old.

The Outer House of the Court of Session has refused to grant a protective expenses order to cap expenses in an action seeking declarator that the Scottish Parliament has power to legislate for a second independence referendum. Martin Keatings argued that it was appropriate and necessa

Brodies LLP has continued to make progress for the year to 30 April 2020, reporting a seven per cent increase in turnover to £82.0m (2018/19: £76.9m). This amounts to 20 per cent growth in the last two years and marks the tenth consecutive year of progress for the firm. Profits before pa

A former Conservative minister is to lead an investigation into the scope of judicial review. Lord Faulks has been appointed to head the panel, which also includes Dundee University's Professor Alan Page, Vikram Sachdeva QC, Professor Carol Harlow, an honorary QC, of the LSE, and Celina Colquho

Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC has warned that judges suspect ministers are increasingly misleading the courts. Mr Grieve, who served as the UK government's senior law officer for four years under David Cameron, said a "serious problem" was emerging between the government and the judiciar

There were no high-value fraud prosecutions in Scotland in the first half of this year, according to data from KPMG. The firm’s bi-annual Fraud Barometer measures fraud cases with losses of £100,000 or more reaching the UK courts. For the first time in the history of the report, zer

More than 5,000 local law firms and up to half of law centres in England and Wales could go bust as a result of the COVID-19 crisis if the UK government does not step in, MPs have warned. In a new report, Westminster's justice select committee has urged the Ministry of Justice to consider further gr

The vast majority of medium-sized businesses in Scotland can only continue trading for up to nine months with current funding arrangements, according to new research from accountancy and business advisory firm, BDO. BDO’s second Re-thinking the Economy survey reveals that medium-sized business

In ordinary times, MBM Commercial would celebrate its August birthday alongside clients, sipping drinks and watching festival fireworks from an Edinburgh HQ that has a ringside view over the capital’s historic castle. These are not ordinary times, though, and while the firm, which was spun out

Digby Brown Solicitors completed its Scottish Courts Challenge in just 10 hour and 26 minutes – and raised even more money for charity than anticipated after clocking more than 300 extra miles. On Friday last week a team of 180 walkers, runners and cyclists aimed to conquer a 1,433-mile virtua