News

The number of homicides in Scotland remains at its lowest level in 40 years, according to new statistics. There were 60 cases in 2018/19, the third lowest number of recorded homicide cases for a single 12-month period since 1976, after 59 cases were recorded in 2015/16 and 17/18.

A woman has been charged with falsely reporting her own murder after she posed as her husband and told his alleged mistress that he had shot her. The wife - from the city of Bluffdale in Utah - was arguing with her husband about him talking to the other woman, police said.

A company which claims to have possessed a number of industrial units in a business park for more than 20 years has been granted a full hearing in an action against a property developer who was allegedly seeking to take over possession of the land. The pursuers GNC (Scotland) Ltd were seeking declar

A prisoner support expert has raised concerns about the function of a law aimed at offering more support to prisoners due for release on a Friday after it emerged only 15 people had benefited from it in three years. Under the Prisoners (Control of Release) (Scotland) Act 2015, prisoners due for rele

The former head of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has called for the establishment of a parliamentary commissioner for the environment and a dedicated environment court after Brexit. Professor Campbell Gemmell, professor of environment policy, regulation and governance at Universi

Patients have been left permanently scarred and unable to get compensation because of weak regulation of cosmetic surgery, according to a BBC investigation. The introduction of a compulsory register of cosmetic surgeons was recommended by a UK government review in 2013, but a voluntary register was

Law lecturer Malcolm Combe has announced he is taking up a new post at the University of Strathclyde in December. Mr Combe, a solicitor and senior lecturer in law at the University of Aberdeen, admitted in a blog post that it "will be a wrench to leave" the north-eastern city after more than eight y

The Law Society of Scotland is seeking views from the profession relating to their experiences of representing vulnerable individuals facing criminal prosecution. The Law Society’s Criminal Law Committee has convened a working group of individuals from practice and academia, to review existing

The Society of Advocates in Aberdeen welcomed the Press & Journal to its library for an exclusive tour over the weekend. The professional body was founded over 450 years ago and has been based in the library on Concert Court since 19870.

Lord Kinclaven shares insights from the MiniTrial legal education scheme, teaching thousands of Scottish pupils about the justice system. Turn back the clock to 2001, when the book Paths to Justice Scotland was published. It was a survey which examined, among other things, the public’s perspec

Legal aid for vulnerable migrant children who have been separated from their parents has been reinstated in England and Wales. Non-asylum immigration matters were removed from the legal aid scheme under major reforms in 2013, but ministers have now reinstated the scheme for under-18s who are not in

Police are investigating a crowdfunding page aiming to raise £10,000 to hire someone to kill high-profile Brexit litigant Gina Miller. The crowdfunder was anonymously launched on GoFundMe in April and was not taken down until last week, the Sunday Mirror reports.

Solicitor Aamer Anwar has criticised police for failing to crack down on Italian football fans making fascist salutes on the streets of Glasgow. Footage of dozens of Lazio fans making the raised-hand salute while parading down Buchanan Street went viral on social media ahead of their game against Ce

State-run rehabilitation camps for young smartphone addicts have been established in South Korea. The 12-day programme sees teenagers who struggle to stay off their devices hand in their phone and undergo coaching to bring their use down to a healthy level of two to three hours a day, The Times repo

Holmes Mackillop has announced the appointment of Ralph Riddiough and Michelle Rae to the firm's corporate team in Glasgow. Mr Riddiough brings over 20 years' experience in mainstream corporate transactional work gained in private practice in Edinburgh, Glasgow and latterly in Ayrshire.