Mitchell Skilling

The environmental group Greenpeace has lost its appeal in the Court of Session against decisions allowing two companies to create two new production wells in the Vorlich oil field in the North Sea.  BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd and Ithaca Energy UK Ltd, who appeared as interested partie

The UK Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a Vietnamese asylum seeker challenging a decision of an immigration tribunal under fast-track procedure rules that were found to be structurally unfair to refuse her application. The appeal on behalf of TN challenged the validity of a decision made und

A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has found that the owner of a farm in Fife was not liable for injuries inflicted on a teenage stable hand by a racehorse that was stabled there. Milly Morrison sought reparations of £50,000 in solatium from James Oakden for a head injury and s

The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber has ordered a Glasgow landlord to pay £2,400 to his former tenants after they applied to the tribunal for a Wrongful Termination Order. Lesley Munro and Grant McNicoll argued that they would not have left the property had they n

The English Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has rejected a claim for trade mark infringement by a self-described “spiritual and holistic therapist” who claimed that another holistic therapist had been using her mark to market online courses and upheld a counterclaim of passing off

A petition for recognition of foreign legal proceedings under the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 by the Director of Finance for a group of insolvent companies has been refused by a judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session. Chang Chin Fen sought recognition of two orders f

The English Court of Appeal has upheld a decision of the UK Intellectual Property Office to reject two patent applications designating an artificial intelligence designed to create patentable inventions as the inventor. Dr Stephen Thaler, who filed the applications in 2018, argued that his AI, the D

An army officer who owned a seaside house in Fife has lost an appeal in the Inner House of the Court of Session against the decision that he did not have a servitude over a strip of land owned by his neighbours. Major Douglas Soulsby, the pursuer and reclaimer, challenged the Lord Ordinary’s d

The UK Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a travel agent against a decision that it could not set aside a contractual agreement with an airline with a monopoly on flights between the UK and Pakistan for reasons of lawful act economic duress. Times Travel UK had originally brought a claim again

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has set aside a decision of the High Court of Justice (Queen’s Bench Division) advising that children aged under 16 should not be prescribed puberty-blocking drugs as part of treatment for gender dysphoria without sanction from the court. The Tavistock

The High Court of Justiciary has refused an appeal by a Cumbernauld man against his conviction at Airdrie Sheriff Court for assaulting another man near a local shop with a knife. Gary Orr received a 30-month cumulo penalty after being found guilty of assaulting the complainer, Patrick Clar

The English Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions against a decision that a widow of a formerly polygamous marriage was entitled to Bereavement Payment and Widowed Parent’s Allowance. Nasim Akhtar, the respondent, had married her husband, A, in P

A bio-energy company whose appeal against the refusal of an application for planning permission for an energy-from-waste installation was refused by the Scottish Ministers has failed to appeal that decision in the Inner House of the Court of Session. North Lanarkshire Biopower Ltd had proposed a dev

A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has declared that a purported planning grant for an e-bike docking station outside a Category B listed tenement building in Dundee is ultra vires and of no effect after the decision was challenged by locals. Westend Residents CIC, a commun

A sheriff has determined that the death of a prisoner in Scotland’s only privately-run prison could potentially have been avoided were it not for defects in the prison’s then-current system of working. John Smith died as a result of heart and lung disease on 20 April 2019 in his cell in