Mitchell Skilling

A sheriff has granted an application by a single woman in her late forties to adopt a four-year-old child and dispensed with the consent of her parents after determining that they would be unable to satisfactorily discharge their responsibilities for the foreseeable future and the orders they propos

The High Court of Justiciary has quashed a sheriff’s findings that a man who refused to attend a Housing Department meeting to be set up with approved housing during a period of supervised release had breached the conditions of his supervised release order, after finding that the procedure fol

The Sheriff Appeal Court has quashed the conviction of a woman fined £100 for shouting and swearing and making a homophobic remark to a female complainer after finding that the justice of the peace had not adequately explained in her verdict why she preferred the evidence of the complainer. El

A lord ordinary has ruled that a claim by an Indian national seeking asylum in the UK on the basis of his homosexuality could not be regarded as clearly unfounded for the purposes of section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 after finding that it was not impossible that a tribun

A sheriff has awarded £3,216 in damages to a lorry driver who was injured when a learner motorcyclist collided with the back of his lorry and he fell from the steps outside the cab after he rejected an argument that the force involved in the crash was too small to cause any injury. Pursuer Joh

A lord ordinary has granted a petition for adoption raised by a separated couple that no longer resided in the same household after finding that it was not necessary for a couple to reside together in order to create an enduring family relationship. Petitioners AB and CD separated in July 2023, two

A sheriff principal has ruled that the rules of procedure of the Sheriff Appeal Court do not allow it to overturn an earlier decision made by the court in the same judicial process after the issue arose in an remitted case for medical negligence raised by a man who committed criminal offences after

A Perth sheriff has ordered a man who drove through a motorway barrier to pay just over £8,000 after finding that the majority of the costs claimed by the highways contractor responsible for carrying out emergency repairs to the site were reasonable. Bear Scotland Ltd, which was responsible fo

A sheriff has reduced the price payable for an asbestos removal service after a business contracted by the owner of a derelict farm building but ordered the customer to pay the remaining outstanding amount after finding that the cleaning company had breached the requirement to exercise reasonable ca

A judge in the High Court of England and Wales has granted an interim injunction sought by a boxing promoter preventing one of its senior employees from doing work for a rival promotion after finding that there was a risk of irrecoverable damage to the claimants if it was not granted. Claimant Boxxe

A Stirling sheriff has granted decree of divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown between a couple who occupied a rented council property after a physical altercation in January 2024 but refused to allow a transfer of the tenancy from the defender to the pursuer after finding her case to be

An appeal against a decision that VAT was chargeable on investment fund success fees that became payable after the investment adviser left the VAT group of the company holding the fund has been unanimously dismissed by the Supreme Court. The Prudential Assurance Company Ltd argued that no VAT was ch

A sheriff has reversed a child contact order made in June 2024 at the request of the child’s mother after an incident at her house in which the father punched the door of her house while trying to force his way inside, having determined that the relationship between the parties was too degrade

The Sheriff Appeal Court has resolved a dispute between the proprietors of two adjoining plots of land in Arbroath over the existence of a servitude of drainage over one of the properties by ruling that there was a servitude over the original drainage route by positive prescription that was not aban

The Sheriff Appeal Court has refused to allow the director of a liquidated company who was also the director of a creditor of that company to act as lay representative for the latter after finding that he was not a suitable person to act as the defender’s representative. Pursuer Colin Hastings