Mitchell Skilling

A sheriff conducting a fatal accident inquiry into the deaths of three fishermen who died after their lifeboat failed to inflate has concluded that it was not possible to determine the cause of the flooding that caused their vessel to sink, but that failures by the vessel’s owners and the comp

A person injury sheriff has made a payment order totalling nearly £1.4 million after finding that a 54-year-old man was abused as a child at a boarding school operated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. Senior counsel for the pursuer, AB, had sought a combined award of £1,741,107

The Inner House of the Court of Session has upheld a Lord Ordinary’s decision not to order a company involved in the production of defective vaginal mesh products to state whether it had assets or insurance sufficient to meet any liabilities arising from claims against it. The reclaimer, N, wa

An appeal by a sex-based women’s rights group against a Lord Ordinary’s decision that guidance issued by the National Records of Scotland on how to answer a question in the upcoming Scottish census has been rejected by the Inner House of the Court of Session. Fair Play for Women Scotland

A sole practitioner solicitor who was found to have unfairly dismissed his receptionist by an employment tribunal and ordered to pay her over £15,000 in compensation has lost an appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal against the decision. The appellant, Mr W Finlayson (trading as Finlaysons)

The Inner House of the Court of Session has allowed a reclaiming motion by the BBC against a decision that the chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry had legitimately issued three consecutive restriction orders preventing the publication of information about an employment tribunal claim against h

A Lord Ordinary has determined that guidance issued by the National Records of Scotland on answering a question in the 2022 Scottish census is legally valid after it was challenged by an organisation that campaigns for biological sex-based rights of women and girls in the UK. It was contended by Fai

An Edinburgh man who was convicted of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner after he entered a flat one floor above his own one while naked has had his conviction quashed after the Sheriff Appeal Court accepted his appeal by stated case. It was argued by KWM that the sheriff had erred in conv

A reclaiming motion challenging part of legislation that required 50 per cent of the people sitting on public boards in Scotland to be women has succeeded before the Inner House of the Court of Session. It was argued by the reclaimer, For Women Scotland Ltd, that in disapplying parts of the Equality

The Sheriff Appeal Court has upheld a sheriff’s decision that a servitude right of access to a single-track roadway granted to the owners of a house in Cupar did not include access to the passing places and verges along that road. The appellants, Ian and Ruth MacAllan, were granted a right of

A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has allowed a minute permitting the employer of two of the administrators for Rangers FC to use material from an action for damages by one employee in its own court action against the Lord Advocate. Duff and Phelps Ltd raised the minute in the malic

A man who was convicted of forcing open a secure door and stealing cash from restaurant premises in Edinburgh has lost an appeal by stated case against his conviction in the Sheriff Appeal Court. It was argued by the appellant, Przemyslaw Gal, that the summary sheriff did not have sufficient evidenc

A Lord Ordinary has resolved a £29 million claim by a cigarette paper company against the manufacturers of ink dispensing machines by finding them to be liable for only £3,000 worth of the damage. It was averred by Benkert UK Ltd that a fire that destroyed their premises in Alva, Clackma

A man who was convicted of being involved in a drug supply operation has had his conviction quashed on appeal to the High Court of Justiciary after the Crown indicated that it could no longer support the conviction. It was argued by the appellant, Patrick Hattie, that the trial judge had given insuf

The High Court of Justiciary has refused a Crown appeal against a sheriff’s decision that an indictment against a former teacher accused of lewd, indecent, and libidinous practices against pupils should be deserted. It was pled by the respondent, Paul Cooney, that the Lord Advocate, through th