Mitchell Skilling

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

The family of a 50-year-old man who died after having an accident on a diving boat near Cape Wrath have been awarded £290,000 in damages by a judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session. Debbie Warner, the widow of the late Lex Warner, raised the action following her husband’s death

A sheriff has ordered the Brexit Party to pay just over £22,000 in unpaid invoice expenses to an advertising company based in Glasgow. VMS Enterprises Ltd, a supplier of mobile advertising services in the form of mobile billboards and electronic boards, was contracted by the then-Brexit Party

An appeal by a man charged with 19 sexual offences against six different complainers challenging a trial judge’s decision to review orders allowing certain evidence to be led by him has been refused by the High Court of Justiciary. The appellant, JW, made the appeal under section 275(9) of the

A prisoner who challenged a decision of the Parole Board that he should not be released from prison on licence has had his petition for judicial review of the decision refused by the Outer House of the Court of Session. Dean Ryan, who had previously been in closed prison conditions, argued that the

The Sheriff Appeal Court has determined that a certificate of repairs issued by the proprietors of a farm in respect of a real burden to the purchasers of the burdened property contained manifest errors preventing it from being wholly enforceable. Paul and Evonne Salmond, originally the de