Lord Beckett is to succeed Lady Dorrian as lord justice clerk. In his new role he will also hold the office of president of the Second Division of the Inner House and chair of the Scottish Sentencing Council.
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The Law Society of Scotland has paid tribute to its longstanding former secretary, Kenneth Pritchard OBE, who has died at the age of 91. Mr Pritchard become just the society’s second secretary when he was appointed in 1976, and held the position for more than 20 years, until 1997. The role is
Thorntons has appointed two new partners, one an internal promotion and the other a lateral hire. Rachel Anderson, based in St Andrews, is promoted to private client partner and Jennifer Gallagher joins the firm’s Dundee team as a family law partner.
The Scottish Barony Register, based in Haddington and run by retired solicitor Alastair Shepherd, has issued its 2024 annual report. The register came into being some 20 years ago, when feudal law was largely abolished in Scotland on 28 November 2004, “the Appointed Day”. Mr Shephe
An engineering company has been fined after a labourer died during the construction of a wind farm on the Shetland Islands. Liam MacDonald, from Tain, Ross-shire, lost his life on the morning of 5 June 2022 while removing dried concrete from a skip at the Viking site on Upper Kergord.
A conman who cheated friends, online dating partners and a pensioner out of thousands of pounds to finance his internet gambling habit has been jailed for more than three-and-a-half-years. Michael Higgins, 42, of Livingston, West Lothian, fraudulently obtained a total of £18,225 from 15 victim
The High Court of Justiciary has refused an application under section 103 of the Extradition Act 2003 seeking leave for appeal against the extradition of a Norwegian citizen to face a rape trial in Oslo based on the poor mental health of his current spouse. Applicant RF, a Norwegian citizen, faced c
Glasgow-headquartered housebuilder Merchant Homes has been fined £160,000 after a man was killed by a telehandler at a construction site in Glasgow.
Court wait times could rise to more than three years for the most serious cases, Holyrood has been told. Malcolm Graham, chief executive of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS), told MSPs that not raising funding in 2025-26 would be the same as removing 10 courts dealing with serious cas
The High Court of Justiciary has refused a bill for criminal letters by a woman seeking to privately prosecute her former schoolteacher for what she alleged were indecent practices used against her between 1977 and 1980. Complainer AB alleged that respondent Paul Cooney had used lewd, indecent and l
Around 10 years ago, the Scottish government published The Digital Strategy for Justice in Scotland. It outlined a “vision to have modern, user-focused justice systems which use digital technology to deliver simple, fast and effective justice at best cost”, setting an objective of &ldquo
A man convicted of possession of a shotgun without a firearms certificate has lost an appeal against the conviction based on an argument that the jury was not entitled to infer that he knew the gun was in the back of his van. Stuart McMillan was convicted of a contravention of section 1(1)(a) of the
Defence solicitor Matthew McGovern reflects on the Summary Case Management Pilot. Proponents of summary justice reform always end up sounding a bit like proponents of communism or Brexit: the idea itself is never flawed, it just hasn’t been properly implemented (yet). However the Summary Case
The First Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session has issued welcome guidance on the assessment of “additional charges” payable on solicitors’ fees in judicial accounts, writes Claire White. This is a percentage uplift on solicitors’ fees which is allowed where th
Catherine Smith KC was sworn in as advocate general for Scotland at a ceremony at the Court of Session.
