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New hate crime figures published today by the Crown Office show that racial crime remains the most commonly reported hate crime with 2,880 charges in 2018-19. Sexual orientation aggravated crime is the second most common type of hate crime with 1,176 charges reported in 2018-19, an increase of five

Prosecutors have successfully appealed against a sheriff’s decision to acquit a landlord accused of racially aggravated harassment after he called a tenant a “f*cking black bastard”. The sheriff acquitted the respondent because the Crown failed to lead any evidence to sho

Plans to recruit volunteers to work in digital forensics with a major police force have been criticised by experts as a "disaster waiting to happen". West Midlands Police has invited applications from volunteers, who would receive "hands on experience" at crime scenes and help analyse distressing an

Drone owners could land in jail for up to a year if they fly their drone while drunk under new laws. Legislation passed by Japan's parliament this week provides for prison sentences and fines of up to 300,000 yen (around £2,200) for those caught flying a drone while intoxicated.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has been granted permission to intervene in a judicial review of the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA). Human rights group Liberty is taking judicial review proceedings against the law, also known as the Snoopers' Charter, on the basis that it provides for unlawf

Men prosecuted for same-sex sexual activity which is now entirely legal will be able to apply to have their convictions erased from October. Legislation passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament last year will grant an automatic pardon to every man in Scotland criminalised for breaching homophob

Since the announcement last week that a fatal accident inquiry is to be held into the Super Puma helicopter crash off Shetland in August 2013, there has been a vociferous response criticising the delay of almost six years, writes Lisa Gregory. While perhaps in the minority, there will be some who wi

The Scottish government is seeking views on plans to introduce a legal duty on Scottish public authorities to notify Police Scotland about suspected human trafficking and exploitation victims. Information collected through the ‘duty to notify’ will provide a more accurate picture of the

A former Rangers administrator has been paid £80,000 in compensation over an order to freeze his assets that the Lord Advocate admitted was "wrongful", The Herald reports. David Whitehouse, 52, of Duff and Phelps, has been seeking £180,000 in damages against Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC

Glasgow-based solicitor John Frame has won the Law Society of Scotland’s In-house Rising Star Award for 2019. Mr Frame, legal director for transport in UK & Europe at Serco, has played a major role in the business, quickly becoming a trusted and valued colleague. He was appointed to the ro

The Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (PIRC) has found that police were justified in using a baton on a man with a history of violence who threatened to stab one of the officers pursuing him. Officers arrived in the Rutherglen area of Glasgow on the afternoon of 21 January 2019 after p

A judge in Minneapolis has sentenced lawyer Paul Hansmeier to 14 years' imprisonment for a scheme which saw him upload pornographic material to file-sharing networks before threatening to sue people who downloaded them, Ars Technica reports. “It is almost incalculable how much your abuse of tr

Family law expert Denise Laverty has joined Gilson Gray. Ms Laverty is a dual qualified family and divorce lawyer and accredited family law specialist with over 26 years’ experience in Scotland and England.

Thousands of criminal cases are being reviewed after the family of a judge said he had been going to work drunk. The allegations were made in guardianship papers filed by the family of Judge William T. Marshall, 62, an elected judge in southern Ohio.

Stuart McWilliams stresses the importance of registration for EU nationals ahead of Brexit. In recent months, I have spent a lot of time meeting with EU nationals concerned about their status once the UK leaves the EU. As negotiations in Parliament drag on, and with a Conservative leadership el