The Supreme Court has today refused appeals by siblings challenging legislation which did not allow them relevant person status in the children’s hearing, but at the same time recognised the need to involve siblings in decisions by the hearing. The case was heard in November 2019. The judgment
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A Crown appeal against the leniency of the sentence of a man who pled guilty to deliberately coughing in the faces of two police officers and thus recklessly endangering their lives has resulted in the total sentence being increased by nine months. The appeal by HM Advocate followed the sentencing o
Lady Rae has retired from the bench. Lady Rae was admitted as a solicitor in 1974 and worked as an apprentice and assistant at Biggart Lumsden and Co, Balfour and Manson, Biggart Baillie & Gifford and Ross Harper & Murphy between 1974 and 1977. In 1977 she became a partner at Ross Harper &am
Members of the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee have launched a call for views on the operation of the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016. The act requires a parliamentary committee to review the operation of the act from when the duty to register came into force, up to March 2020.
The latest patent, trademark and design data from the UK Intellectual Property Office shows an impressive performance from Scotland in 2019. Scotland filed 1,168 registered design applications in 2019 compared with 757 applications the previous year – representing a 54.2 per cent rise. This bu
Vicky Fox has been appointed the next chief executive of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, taking over from Mark Ormerod CB, who retires in September. Ms Fox is currently the director of regulation and insight at the Independent Parliamentary St
Donald Findlay QC has said that defending Paul Ferris when he was accused of the killing of Arthur Thompson Jr was his most memorable moment in the courtroom. Mr Ferris was a teenager when he became an enforcer for Arthur Thompson, one of Glasgow's most notorious crime bosses.
Animal protection charity OneKind has hailed the Scottish government’s decision to accept an amendment bringing full protection for mountain hares in Scotland as a “triumph”. Scottish Green MSP Alison Johnstone lodged an amendment to the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, P
The Edinburgh Tax Network, in conjunction with CIOT and Terra Firma Chambers, will present a webinar on family investment companies and their use in estate, succession and tax planning on 24th June 2020 at 1pm. The speakers will be Ronnie Brown and Claire Macpherson of Burness Paull LLP.
The General Court of the European Union has sided with Louis Vuitton in a long-running dispute over its canvas chequerboard print, The Fashion Law reports. The mark had been registered in 2008 with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) but in 2015 it was challenged by an individual
A feminist group whose song became a global anthem for those protesting violence against women is being sued for allegedly inciting violence against police officers. A Rapist in Your Path, also called The Rapist Is You, became a global hit after Chilean feminist collective Las Tesis uploaded a video
A citizen of El Salvador who claimed that he would be a victim of organised crime if he was deported from the UK has failed to petition for a judicial review of the decision to deport him. The petitioner, known as DY, sought review of a decision by the Upper Tribunal not to allow him to appeal
All too often our coverage of fatal accident inquiries in Scotland is centred upon their non-occurrence rather than the lessons to be learned from them. A freedom of information request made last year revealed that there were 127 outstanding FAIs at the time of the inquiry. There has yet to be one i
The Scottish government is consulting on raising the age at which a young person can be referred to a children’s hearing from 16 to 18. Currently, only 16 and 17-year-olds who are already within the children’s hearing system can be referred or have their order continued until they are 18
An independently-chaired task force will start work this summer to consider whether the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) should be given extra powers to investigate wildlife crime, the rural affairs minister has confirmed ahead of MSPs’ final vote on pr