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The SNP has pledged to establish a register of judicial interests if it returns to power. Scotland's judiciary has long opposed the creation of any such register. The incumbent Lord President, Lord Carloway, has warned in the past that such a register would deter applicants to the bench.

The Herald has published an obituary of lawyer David Houldsworth, who passed away in February at the age of 67. "[He] was ten years old when the two most important men in his life – his father, Ian, and his grandfather, Brigadier Sir Henry – died within three months of each other. H

Philip Simpson QC and Graham MacIver, instructed by the Office of the Advocate General, have successfully represented HMRC in a challenge to the loan charge legislation based on EU law: Finucane v HMRC [2021] CSOH 38. The challenge was brought in Scotland; there are parallel proceedings ra

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued penalties totalling £42.4 million last year, according to new figures. The data, contained in the ICO’s ‘work to recover fines’ report and analysed by the Parliament Street think tank, reveals a catalogue of fines

Dear Editor I see the eternal debate about the merits of the 'not proven' verdict has flared up again.

A terrible fate potentially awaits any Scottish folk troubadour lacking knowledge of US copyright law should he or she be tempted to record or sing in public a Scottish variant of Woody Guthrie’s great American anthem This Land is your Land, This Land is my Land, for they could find themselves

A landlord couple who refused to return a security deposit to tenants they accused of ruining the property with cigar smoke are facing a £100,000 legal bill. Nick Boakes and husband Harald Denker counter-sued after their former tenant Jonathan Hagmaier went to court for the return of the &poun

A former Edinburgh bus driver who lost his job after hitting a cyclist with his bus on Leith Walk has lost an Employment Tribunal appeal against his dismissal. The claimant, Mr S Beech, was employed by Lothian Buses Ltd between September 2008 and September 2019. He claimed t

For the final nomination in our series supporting the Scottish Council of Law Reporting's search for readers' favourite Session Case, Sir David Edward reflects on Brown v Hamilton District Council 1983 S.C. (H.L.) 1 – in which he himself appeared. Voting closes at midnight tonight. T

Advocate Tony Lenehan responds to yesterday's piece from academics on the 'not proven' debate. My article wasn’t intended to irk the professor and his academic colleagues. When he admits that the Scottish Jury Research evidence base isn’t perfect, in the largest part that is because Prof

Responsibility for the fatal accident inquiry (FAI) system would be removed from the Crown Office under new proposals from the Scottish Liberal Democrats. The FAI system has been plagued by delays, with investigations taking up to a decade to complete. The party commits to overhauling the "broken sy

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s corporate finance team advised on deals with an aggregate value of £7.1 billion in 2020. The team advised on 75 corporate finance transactions globally (excluding deals for the banking sector) – an increase of 18 per cent on its £6 billion aggregate

Dear Editor,

A new right to welfare, housing and healthcare appointments for prisoners has been proposed by the Scottish Liberal Democrats in its manifesto published today. Research by the party revealed that Scotland's prisons are completely overwhelmed, with the population reaching record levels in recent year

Quis provides some advice on 'court craft'. The sum of £54,000 of public money for legal advice. That might not seem too extreme. This was the figure paid by the civil service in Scotland for “external preparation” for the Salmond inquiry, despite there being 139 lawyers employed i