News

As we move past the six-month mark with Covid-19 and with further business restriction pending, SLN asked Douglas Mill, who in the last 12 years has consulted with over 130 firms throughout the country, how things were going for High Street solicitors and how he saw matters playing out. How is the p

A postgraduate research scholarship launched to celebrate the bicentenary of the first publication of Session Cases in May 1821 has been awarded to Shona Warwick of the University of Edinburgh. Regular readers of SLN may recall reading about the scholarship offered by the Trustees of the Scottish Co

Glasgow firm Livingstone Brown has celebrated raising over £13,000 for charity in its tenth year of participation in the annual Will Aid campaign. The firm has written more than 250 wills for people in exchange for a voluntary donation since it first signed up to the scheme.

Peter Shand explores the latest trend of the super-wealthy setting up finance and legal offices to deal with their affairs. Scotland’s financial ecosystem is changing and one of the latest drivers could be the increase in the number of official ‘family offices’ being set up.

Alistair Robertson encourages fellow patent attorneys to "stay ahead of the curve" on emerging technology. Artificial Intelligence is all around us, from recommending what you should purchase next online, to understanding frustrated commands yelled at virtual assistants. It now affects our daily liv

Schools in El Salvador, South Africa, Bulgaria, England and Germany have joined together to compete with Scotland in the School Mock Court’s first-ever international programme. The project has turned the restrictions of Covid-19 into a positive opportunity for primary and secondary pupils worl

The Scottish government has recognised the early success of its First Home Fund with a pledge to reopen the scheme for applications in the new year. The fund, which offers first-time buyers loans of up to £25,000 for their deposit, was launched in December 2019 with an initial budget of &

A grown woman brought her father to court to break all ties after he cheated in a family game of Ludo. The 24-year-old woman told Bhopal Family Court in the Madhya Pradesh state of India that her father's cheating had broken her trust.

A local authority that claimed it was entitled to a percentage of a termination fee paid by a sub-lessee to the head tenant of a shopping centre it leased out has succeeded in establishing its entitlement to the monies.  The pursuer, 3639 Ltd, was the head tenant under the lease, and origi

Undercover police and MI5 agents will be given explicit permission in law to commit criminal offences under new legislation introduced by the UK government. The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Bill has been introduced to provide a "clear and consistent statutory basis for a limited number o

Jury trials will appear on the big screen from next week to help deal with Scotland's backlog of criminal cases. From next week jurors will appear at an Odeon cinema in Edinburgh, the first remote jury centre in the UK.

Laura McKenna discusses a case in which the claimant suffered from paranoid delusions, but was not considered to be disabled. Suffering from a serious mental health condition is no guarantee of disability status.

The head of the courts service has apologised to a black barrister who was mistaken for a defendant three times in a single day at court. Kevin Sadler, acting chief executive of HM Courts and Tribunals Service, promised to investigate the complaint of Alexandra Wilson, of 5SAH chambers.

The European Commission has decided to appeal a court ruling that US tech giant Apple did not receive illegal state aid from Ireland and does not have to pay €14 billion in back taxes. The Commission concluded in 2016 that Ireland broke EU state aid rules by granting undue tax benefits to Apple

The Scottish Civil Justice Council (SCJC) has approved new rules which will allow the use of Civil Online Procedure claim forms. The change means that from 1 December 2020, if agents or party litigants wish to submit a simple procedure claim this will have to be done through Civil Online.