It's just over a year since the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA) was founded to represent the interests of criminal lawyers, and the organisation and its inaugural president Julia McPartlin have had a busy time since then. The SSBA was launched during a challenging period. The profession w
Search: Scottish syndicate purchased land 1901 for £5000
To coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week 2022, the Scottish Sentencing Council has published a new research report reviewing the challenges of and approaches to sentencing offenders with mental health issues. The literature review, carried out by a group of expert academics from universities ac
The Scottish government’s cladding remediation programme continues to generate law reform with the announcement yesterday that the Single Building Assessment (SBS) programme will be expanded. The pilot SBS scheme, designed to replace the EWS1 external wall assessment process in Scotland, came
Following a two-year financial support package for Scottish solicitors to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, the Law Society of Scotland is proposing a practising certificate fee which is "lower in real terms" compared to the pre-pandemic fee level. The Law Society agreed a £2.2 millio
A newly published judgment from 2019 details how former Scottish MP Natalie McGarry, who was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for embezzlement that year, won an appeal against a sheriff’s decision not to allow her to withdraw her guilty pleas, with the Crown granted authority fo
A Scottish Green Party MSP today launched a consultation on her legislative proposal to designate protest free ‘buffer zones’ outside abortion clinics across the country. Gillian Mackay said that intimidation and harassment outside these healthcare facilities must end, and that legislati
Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee has agreed to ask the Scottish government to consider a petition's request to erect a national memorial to people accused of witchcraft. The petition was lodged by Claire Mitchell QC of the Witches of Scotland campaign.
The dedicated fund to compensate women who paid for private transvaginal mesh removal surgery will open next month, the Scottish government has confirmed. Established under the Transvaginal Mesh Removal (Cost Reimbursement) (Scotland) Act 2022, which was passed by MSPs in January, the Transvaginal M
In a blog written for and originally published by the Scottish Sentencing Council, Sheriff Jillian Martin Brown explains the work of the problem-solving court in Forfar. The problem-solving court in Forfar originated out of a partnership between sheriffs sitting in Arbroath Sheriff Court and the Gle
The case of Hastings v Finsbury Orthopaedics Ltd and another has already made Scottish legal history. It was the first case in which evidence was heard by a Scottish court on an alleged defect in a hip replacement product in litigation raised under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (CPA).
Plans for future legislation are part of the Scottish government’s response to an independent review into the handling of complaints against the police. The Scottish government has launched a 12-week consultation on a new bill which delivers on a commitment made in September last year.
Plans to progress children’s rights legislation have been announced by Deputy First Minister John Swinney. The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill was backed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament in March 2021, but could not be implemented because of a legal challenge brought by the UK gove
A fresh attempt to establish drug consumption rooms in Scotland contrary to the wishes of the Home Office has been launched. Campaigners are calling for the rooms to be introduced to stem the tide of drug deaths.
Proposals to make misogyny a hate crime are backed by almost two-thirds of Scots, according to a poll by The Times. The Scottish government is considering new laws after the targeting of women was left out of the Hate Crime Act, which is yet to come into force despite being passed last year.
The Law Society of Scotland has been awarded an Investors in Diversity accreditation, underlining its record of leading workplace best practice for the Scottish legal profession. The National Centre for Diversity has awarded the accreditation following a thorough process over a year, which included