Kapil Summan

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

Scotland's three principal bar associations have voted to opt out of a duty solicitor scheme less than two weeks before the most important conference in the world due to continued mistreatment of defence lawyers.

An elderly man has succeeded in challenging the procedural fairness of a hearing in which he was subjected to an experience reminiscent of Franz Kafka's The Trial, his lawyer said. In 2019, Dr Denis Paling appeared at Ipswich Magistrates Court in a case concerning unpaid council tax relating to a le

Today's judgment from the Supreme Court concerning two Scottish bills will come "as a shock to the SNP" as it may prevent Holyrood from holding a consultative referendum on independence in the future, one of the UK's leading legal figures has told Scottish Legal News.

More permanent sheriffs may be needed to cope with rising criminal business, the Lord President and Lord Justice General, Lord Carloway, has said.

Judicial salaries have been frozen for a year, new figures from the Ministry of Justice show.

The 'not proven' verdict was returned the least by juries in sexual offence trials between 2016 and 2020, a freedom of information request has shown. In such cases, Scotland's third verdict was used:

A new student clinic at Edinburgh Law School will be the first of its kind in Scotland and only the second in the UK when it opens its doors next month. The Scottish Tax Clinic, run by the university in conjunction with charity partner TaxAid, represents a significant expansion of pro bono tax servi

Plans to exclude juries from rape trials have been rubbished by the Faculty of Advocates. In a submission to Holyrood's Criminal Justice Committee, the Faculty states that many within the legal profession had been accused of being conspiracy theorists when they suggested last year that there was "a

Dmitry Dedov, Russia's judge at the European Court of Human Rights, gave a partly dissenting opinion in today's long-awaited judgment in the case brought by the widow of Alexander Litvinenko against the Russian state. Mr Litvinenko, a Russian defector and dissident, was fatally poisoned with poloniu

Stephen O'Rourke QC has been appointed principal crown counsel, replacing Alex Prentice QC in the role. Mr O'Rourke, whose seniority is immediately below that of the lord advocate and solicitor general, will lead the advocate depute team.

Joanna Cherry QC MP is returning to the bar on a limited basis and will defend feminist activist Marion Millar in her first case, Scottish Legal News can reveal. Ms Cherry has accepted instructions through Beltrami and Company to defend Ms Millar, who has been charged by police with offences under s

Society should adopt asynchronous legal hearings, Professor Richard Susskind has said. Speaking at an online conference hosted by the Judicial Institute for Scotland on what lies ahead for civil justice, the legal futurist laid out developments in the court system that he expects to see.

Bad faith actors are making crypto-political arguments in the legal arena, the Lord Chancellor has suggested. In a speech delivered at a conference on constitutional reform at University College London, Robert Buckland QC MP suggested the concept of the 'rule of law' was being abused for political e

Dorothy Bain QC is to be Scotland's next Lord Advocate, while Ruth Charteris QC will take up the role of Solicitor General. If the Scottish Parliament approves the nominations, Ms Bain will replace James Wolffe QC who will demit office once Her Majesty The Queen has signed the warrant appointin