Mitchell Skilling

A Livingston sheriff who heard a preliminary proof in an action for child contact has made an ex tempore judgment finding that the father seeking the contact order had sexually abused his child once in August 2020 and then again at a contact visit in March 2021, with the action later being dismissed

A petition by a community council seeking reduction of a decision of Argyll & Bute Council to appoint a preferred developer in respect of turning land it owned next to Helensburgh’s pier into a supermarket has been refused after it was found that no duty of fairness was owed in respect of

A Crown appeal against what it considered an unduly lenient extended sentence imposed on a man who caused his partner’s car to crash after pulling the handbrake, having previously detained her and her children in his house and assaulted them, has resulted in the sentence being lengthened by fo

A cancer patient who developed severe Somatic Symptom Disorder after a successful operation to remove his kidney has been awarded £904,000 in damages after it was found that pain symptoms that he suffered following the operation were attributable to the anxiety caused by a last-minute change o

The High Court of Justiciary has ruled that a sheriff’s decision to conduct a jury trial entirely in the absence of an accused who refused to attend court and smeared himself with faeces to prevent himself from being transported amounted to a miscarriage of justice as he had been excluded from

A sheriff in the All-Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court at Edinburgh has refused a motion for an interim payment of expenses in an action with an agreed final accounting of £30,000 after finding that delays in assessment of tax by the Auditor of Court was not sufficient reason to grant an

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the practice of the Scottish courts since 2013 in relation to the admission of evidence in trials for sexual offences is liable to infringe defendants’ rights under Article 6 ECHR but dismissed two appeals on that basis presented to the court after finding t

An English court has upheld a sentence imposed on a 16-year-old male for a prolonged assault on an older man recovering from a stroke but quashed six concurrent sentences imposed in respect of other offences considered at the same sentencing diet. It was argued on behalf of the appellant, referred t

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has ruled that a party with an express right to terminate a contract could not lose that right in circumstances where it continued to perform following the termination in circumstances where it did not know that it had that contractual right, in an appeal by

The Sheriff Appeal Court has refused an appeal against a business tenant’s removal from shop premises in Edinburgh following an undefended irritancy action in the sheriff court after finding that a sheriff had correctly refused a reponing note lodged after the grant of decree in absence. Abo T

A fatal accident inquiry into the death of a transgender woman prisoner by self-inflicted plastic bag asphyxia has concluded that the Scottish Prison Service had unlawfully isolated her while deciding how to proceed with her custody arrangements and made 12 recommendations for improvement of SPS pr

A woman in Pitlochry has lost a judicial review challenge against the decision of her local authority to grant planning permission for a brewery and taproom to be located less than 100 metres south of her residence after it was ruled that there was no inadequacy in the reasons given for granting the

A commercial judge in an action by a landlord against their business tenant seeking damages worth over £12 million after the property was allegedly left in a bad state of repair has ruled that a clause in the schedule to the lease allowing the tenant to pay the landlord a certified sum instead

A solicitor who alleged that another solicitor had falsified documents in misconduct proceedings against her following her removal as her father’s attorney has lost a challenge against the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission’s decision not to investigate the matter. Margaret Horsley, wh

An appeal by a doctor seeking reduction of a sheriff’s finding in a fatal accident inquiry into the death of a young child from a rare cancer that the death could have been avoided had she referred the matter to the paediatric unit in Inverness has been refused by the Inner House of the Court