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Terra Firma Chambers will host an Employment Law Webinar, live via Zoom at 11am on Thursday, 8th April. This event, the latest in TFC’s 2021 webinar series, will be chaired by Terra Firma Director David Logan who will speak about Post-Covid Economic Realities for Employers. Peter Grant-Hutchis

Asylum seekers who enter the UK illegally will find it harder to stay under significant new plans announced by Home Secretary Priti Patel. Ms Patel will later set out her plans for the "biggest overhaul of the UK's asylum system in decades", which has already come under sharp criticism from human ri

Trade unionists who were imprisoned for their role in the 1972 builders' strike have been exonerated by the Court of Appeal in London nearly half a century later. The "Shrewsbury 24" were arrested five months after the strike and charged with over 200 offences including unlawful assembly, intimidati

A barrister whose application to become Queen's Counsel was opposed by two judges faced apparent bias in the appointments process, an investigation has concluded. Marc Beaumont unsuccessfully applied to the Queen's Counsel appointments panel in 2016 and again in 2018.

A purported haul of MDMA worth nearly £900,000 was actually strawberry-flavoured sweets, police have admitted. Paris police boasted on Twitter of their massive bust at an alleged "narcotics packaging workshop feeding underground parties".

A property development firm has failed to establish that it was entitled to a reconveyance of a tram line route sold to its predecessors in title that was subsequently re-acquired by the local authority that originally sold it under a compulsory purchase order. Granton Central Developments Ltd, who

Legal aid fees have increased by five per cent across the board from today, the biggest increase in more than a decade – but the Law Society of Scotland has warned that more must be done to address a "generation of underfunding". The Scottish government unveiled its revised legal aid package i

Gillespie Macandrew has announced the promotion of seven lawyers and two tax specialists across its Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth offices. Ashley McCann, Austin Burns and Patrick Munro have been promoted to associate, while David Halligan, Gillian Wilson, Melissa Strachan and Susan Henretty have bee

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been cleared of breaching the ministerial code following an independent inquiry by James Hamilton, an Irish barrister and former director of public prosecutions. Mr Hamilton, the Scottish government's independent adviser on the ministerial code since 2013, began an

Private residential landlords would be wise to take notice of Scotland’s first wrongful termination order. It establishes the fact that the law has teeth and can bite, writes Paul Harper. It is a ruling which underpins the fact that it could prove costly to evict tenants under false pretences

Addleshaw Goddard has called on the Scottish government to provide "urgent clarity" to retail landlords and occupiers over what will happen after the end of the evictions moratorium in six months' time. MSPs have voted in favour of extending the legislation but ministers are yet to announce plans fo

A new legislative framework for self-driving vehicles is needed and should hold them to the same standard as a "competent and careful" human driver, the Faculty of Advocates has said. The Faculty has published its response to the joint consultation paper on automated vehicles launched by the Scottis

The All-Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court has determined that Forth Boat Tours are not liable for injuries sustained by a former employee on July 2018, writes Ross Fairweather. In July 2018, the pursuer was working in the course of his employment as a barman with Forth Boat Tours. The defender

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has altered the approach that the European Patent Office (EPO) has taken with respect to oral proceedings being held by video conferencing, writes Stefanie Glassford. Prior to 2020, whilst oral proceedings by video conferencing before an Examining Divisio

The extended presumption against short sentences has led to a decline of custodial sentences of 12 months or less, but its full impact remains unclear due the Covid-19 pandemic. Scotland's chief statistician today published a bulletin on the presumption against short sentences (PASS), which was exte