News

The Lord Advocate suggested using terrorism legislation to deal with the pandemic, the Scottish government has inadvertently revealed due to improperly redacting his comments in material released following a freedom of information request. James Wolffe QC told ministers that the Civil Contingencies

The Scottish Parliament has voted in favour of the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Bill.  The member’s bill was brought forward by Daniel Johnson MSP and will create a new statutory offence of assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail

Scottish Legal News is asking readers whether it is time to ditch the salutation 'Dear Sirs' from correspondence following calls for its abandonment. In a letter to the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland, bearing the salutation "Dear Colleagues", Seonaid Stevenson-McCabe, Katy MacAskill and M&ag

Following last week’s announcement that during the latest lockdown the criminal courts will focus on the most serious cases, seven sheriff courts are now running jury trials linked to remote jury centres. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Ayr, Paisley, Kilmarnock, Hamilton and Airdrie Sheriff Courts are now

Addleshaw Goddard’s corporate team in Scotland has said it is confident that there will continue to be a strong pipeline of deal activity despite challenges caused by the ongoing pandemic and the impact of Brexit. With proposed changes to capital gains tax on the horizon for March 2021, the fi

There were more High Court evidence led trials in December 2020 than during the same period in the preceding two years amid severe delays caused by the pandemic, new figures from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) show. Remote jury centres enabled 29 High Court evidence led trials

The "unprecedented and very serious" backlog in the criminal courts due to the Covid-19 pandemic poses a serious risk to the criminal justice system, the four justice watchdogs in England and Wales have warned. In a joint report, the police, prosecutors, prisons and probation inspectorates expressed

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry will hold the first of its public hearings in September 2021 where it plans to hear from affected patients and families.

The Scottish Law Agents’ Society has highlighted the problems facing the profession in obtaining CPD following the Law Society of Scotland’s re-imposition of it in full as of the current practice year. Andrew Stevenson, secretary of the Society, said: “Covid lockdown has drive

Legislation to ensure property factors adhere to a consistent standard has been laid before the Scottish Parliament. Property factors are responsible for managing common parts of land or properties, overseeing maintenance and repair work on behalf of homeowners. Those included on the Property F

Lawyers acting for Sir Van Morrison have launched a legal challenge against the blanket ban on live music in licensed premises in Northern Ireland. Belfast-based John J Rice & Co Solicitors is acting for the famous musician in a judicial review which argues the ban, which dates back to the begin

Benjamin Bestgen considers the fairness of the high standards to which we hold lawyers. Read last week's jurisprudential primer here. The legal profession is a deeply human one and humans are complex creatures. As a species we are capable of extraordinary feats of courage, intellect, wisdom, kindnes

A teenager who was rapped for supporting Black Lives Matter protests turned the tables on her mother by turning her in for allegedly trying to storm the Capitol. Helena Duke, 18, took to Twitter to highlight footage of her mum, uncle and aunt among the mob of pro-Trump rioters who wreaked havoc earl

Andrew Stevenson reflects on a literary-cum-legal encounter between two of Scotland's greatest writers.  Two hundred years ago two of Scotland’s most eminent men of literature met in court. One of them, James Hogg, the self-styled Ettrick Shepherd, is best known for his novel The Private

The Civil Division of the Sheriff Appeal Court has allowed an appeal by a mother against the grant of a supervised contact order for her young daughter’s father and remitted the case to a new sheriff for reconsideration. The appellant, AG, who was the defender in the original ap