Search: Peter Watson

Lord Tyre, Lord Boyd and Lady Wise have been appointed to the First Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session and will take up their appointments from 5 January 2022. The Lord President, Lord Carloway, and the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, recommended the appointments to allow court bu

Attempts to make online courts the default forum for civil justice do not "make any sense" and are "very much second best" to conducting legal business in person, experts have told Scottish Legal News. Draft rules prepared by the Scottish Civil Justice Council – which are currently out for con

TLT partner and head of licensing in Scotland, Stephen McGowan, has published a book exploring the complex world of alcohol licensing in Scotland. Aimed at licensing practitioners, solicitors, local authority and police officers, as well as business owners, McGowan on Alcohol Licensing Law in S

Extra funding to services supporting victims of crime and to improve public understanding of stalking offences has been announced by Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf. The £137,000 funding, made up of one-off grants, includes funding to cover additional costs incurred during the Covid-19 lockdown

Most lawyers oppose the removal of the 'not proven' verdict from Scotland's legal system, according to new research. A survey carried out by the Open University found that Scots lawyers supported a system consisting of 'proven' and 'not proven' verdicts and requiring a juror majority of 12

The number of legal professionals contacting the charity LawCare for emotional support continues to rise year on year, with 738 legal professionals seeking help in 2020, a rise of nine per cent on the previous year. The charity received 964 calls, webchats, and emails to their support service in 202

Lord Hope of Craighead has warned that the UK government "will bring our precious union to an end" if it is not "very careful". The former Deputy President of the Supreme Court and Lord President of the Court of Session was speaking in the House of Lords on the devolution aspects of the Internal Mar

The last thing the UK needs is a government whose ministers exercise “unbridled power”, a former Supreme Court justice has said. Speaking to The Guardian, Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore, who retired from the bench last month, criticised recent comments from the Home Secretary Priti Patel and Pr

Legal mental health charity LawCare has released data on all COVID-19 related contacts it has received to date for Mental Health Awareness Week. Forty-eight legal professionals have contacted the charity with issues related to COVID-19 since 10 March, making up over a third (37 per cent) of all cont

Benjamin Bestgen looks at why you might breathe a sigh of relief knowing his lordship has had breakfast. See his last jurisprudential primer here. Legal television like My Cousin Vinny, Silk or The Good Wife is sometimes used to exemplify courtroom dos and don’ts – the first one having r

Katherine McAlpine and Rhian Griffiths have joined Lindsays. Ms McAlpine, who joins the firm’s Dundee team as a senior solicitor, will be providing advice on a wide variety of commercial litigation matters including debt recovery, insolvency issues, contractual disputes as well as landlord and

When Pinsent Masons was last night crowned Stonewall Scotland’s Workplace Diversity Champion for the second year running, it was in no small part down to the work done by senior associate Craig Macphee. Indeed, with the construction sector specialist promoting the firm’s LGBT inclusion w

Gavin Buchan discusses how the rise of new finance possibilities is a positive development for all. When anything crashes and burns, there is often something that rises from the ashes. Since the economy emerged from the other side of the global financial crisis, that something has been a range

Tech incubator CodeBase is bringing its LawTech Bridge programme in partnership with Barclays Ventures to Scotland with a launch event in Edinburgh later this month. The initiative has already seen considerable success in London, with a series of collaborations secured between law firms and startups

A number of former judges have condemned the suggestion endorsed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that judicial candidates be vetted by Parliament in a US-style process. The suggestion in the House of Commons last week by the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC that “there may very well need to be