News

The family of the former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco have been ordered to return a palace in Galicia to the state. Although Franco's heirs have owned the property for more than four decades, the court of La Coruña said that the palace was donated to the state and not the fascist dictato

A convicted prisoner detained at HMP Barlinnie subject to an order for lifelong restriction has had his petition for judicial review of the decision of the Scottish Ministers and Glasgow City Council not to conduct any risk assessment exercises in relation to him refused.  Thomas O’Leary&

Holyrood's Justice Committee has announced its timetable for parliamentary scrutiny of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill. The committee intends to start hearing oral evidence from witnesses in late October, with a view to completing its stage 1 report by 18 December 2020.

A new Vice President and four new sheriffs have been appointed to the Sheriff Appeal Court. The Lord President, Lord Carloway, appointed Sheriff Principal Duncan Murray as Vice President of the court; while Sheriffs Lorna Drummond, Robert Fife, Thomas McCartney and Fiona Tait were appointed as appea

Just Employment Law has appointed two newly qualified solicitors. Lauren Wilson and Pauline Hughes join the legal team following the successful completion of their traineeships with the firm.

Ryan Russell has been designated an accredited specialist in employment law by the Law Society of Scotland. Mr Russell is a partner with MML Legal in Dundee and former SLN Lawyer of the Month.

Outstanding Sheriff Court summary trials have increased by 28 per to 17,818, the latest figures from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) show. The ninth statistical bulletin from the SCTS contains quarterly figures on activity in all High, Sheriff, Justice of the Peace and criminal

Lindsays has recorded its busiest ever month in the property market with sales topping £31 million in August. The firm reported that home sales in August were up by 80 per cent compared with the same month last year.

The Open University needs just 15 more responses from practitioners on the Scottish criminal system to complete its survey. Lawyers are urged to help researchers complete their work so that their views can play a part in the inevitable reform of the system that is coming. Lawyers are invited to comp

Sarah Stewart considers the Scottish government's Heat Networks Bill and its impact on the housing and heating industries.District heating, also known as a heat network, is a distribution system of insulated pipes that takes heat from a central source and delivers it to a number of domestic or

When Amanda Millar put herself forward to become president of the Law Society of Scotland she wanted to make a difference to her profession during a time of considerable challenges. What she did not know back in the relative calm of 2018 was that by the time she took over from John Mulholland in Jun

A dystopian system designed to predict crime and stop it before it happens has resulted in a scheme that harasses residents of a small community in the US. Chris Nocco, sheriff of Pasco County in Florida, took office in 2011 with the idea of catching people harbouring criminal intent, the Tampa Bay

In 1687 the Court of Session in Scotland memorably declared that “We have no slaves in Scotland”. Tragically, that is no longer true, if it ever was, and the evils of modern slavery and people trafficking still reach these shores today.

A patent infringement appeal brought against the UK branch of the telecommunications company Huawei has been dismissed by the UK Supreme Court after the company challenged the decision by the English Court of Appeal to uphold the trial judge’s order. Unwired Planet International Ltd, the respo

The Scottish Parliament’s Covid-19 Committee is set to take evidence on renewing the emergency legislation passed to deal with the pandemic. The legislation, the Coronavirus (Scotland) Acts, will expire on 30 September, unless the Parliament agrees to extend them.