Opinion

Alan Delaney looks at the approach taken by the ICO during the COVID-19 crisis. Last month the ICO updated its guidance on the regulatory approach it intends to take during the current COVID-19 crisis. This guidance provides employers with some degree of comfort that where they are struggling to com

Janis McDonald, chief officer at deafscotland, highlights the importance of inclusive communication – sharing information in a way that everybody can understand. Inclusive communication is short on money, focus and understanding with a distance to go to meet the needs of the one million p

Benjamin Bestgen considers the pitfalls of statistics in his latest jurisprudential primer. See last week's here. Being falsely convicted for murdering one's children is likely amongst the worst experiences any person can have. In 1998, solicitor Sally Clark was convicted of the murders of her two b

Carly Forrest, Lauren Kerr and Craig Fulton of Brodies look ahead to Scottish gyms reopening in September. When social distancing measures were introduced in March, we were only allowed to leave our homes for four reasons: medical needs, shopping for basic necessities, travel to and from work (

Brenda Mitchell and Jodi Gordon say that proposed changes to the Highway Code are simply tinkering at the edges given the recent road casualty figures.

Hamish Lean looks at the potential amalgamation of Scotland's land dispute bodies. The Scottish government has launched a consultation about the possibility of amalgamating the Scottish Land Court and the Lands Tribunal in Scotland. The Scottish Land Court deals with crofting disputes and disputes b

Tom Nener highlights the importance of protecting your brand as criminals take advantage of the pandemic. The coronavirus crisis has provided a fertile platform for sophisticated counterfeiters, as highlighted in recent reports by cross-border law enforcement agencies Interpol and Europol.

Iain McDougall discusses the increase in copyright infringement claims during the pandemic. Like most law firms we are seeing trends in certain types of litigation as a result of COVID-19. As expected, we have been asked to assist clients with disputes regarding rental premises, interruption to

Innes Clark looks at redundancy and the right to appeal, which is not as clear cut as you might have thought. An appeal against a decision to make an employee redundant appears in many, if not most, company redundancy procedures. While the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievanc

Gordon MacLure details the steps businesses can take now to get some breathing space as the HMRC's preferential creditor status has now been restored. HMRC’s secondary preferential creditor status was restored on 22 July 2020 when the Finance Act 2020 received Royal Assent. This makes HMR

In his latest jurisprudential primer, the third on neurolaw, Benjamin Bestgen details more technologies on the horizon which the law will have to get to grips with, including 'brainhacking' and 'memory engineering'. In the “Morty’s Mindblowers” episode of the cartoon seri

In ordinary times, MBM Commercial would celebrate its August birthday alongside clients, sipping drinks and watching festival fireworks from an Edinburgh HQ that has a ringside view over the capital’s historic castle. These are not ordinary times, though, and while the firm, which was spun out

In this protracted period of societal and economic uncertainty, one thing seems certain – change is coming for the North Sea, writes Ross Gardiner. Over the last few years, carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been mentioned increasingly at industry events and workshops as being an important p

The Inner House has agreed that unenforceable parts of an adjudicator’s decision can be ‘severed off’, write Fraser Hopkins and Jilly Petrie. It’s well understood that adjudication is a quick way of resolving construction disputes, on an interim basis at least (albe

Debbie Fellows urges employers and staff to come to an arrangement on how to treat a period of quarantine for employment and pay purposes. Quarantine following travel from Spain and other countries not featured on the Scottish government’s list of exemptions is a legal requirement and employee