Case Reports

A man accused of drugs-related offences who challenged the admissibility of “expert” evidence of a police officer whose report included content copied from the “Ask Frank” government-funded website has failed in an appeal. The Criminal Appeal Court upheld the sheriff’s decision to repel th

A man accused of a statutory breach of the peace and resisting arrest has had the complaint against him dismissed after successfully challenging a summary sheriff’s decision to adjourn his trial. The Sheriff Appeal Court deserted the complaint simpliciter after ruling that the sheriff failed to �

A gamekeeper who was found guilty of killing a buzzard after a sheriff rejected his special defence of alibi has failed in an appeal against his conviction. By a majority of two-to-one, the Criminal Appeal Court refused the appeal after ruling that the sheriff provided “adequate reasons” for acc

The Supreme Court has referred the question of whether a Directive on equal gender treatment as regards social security precludes the imposition in national law of a requirement that, in addition to satisfying the physical, social and psychological criteria for recognising a change of gender, a pers

A man found guilty of two charges of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards two pre-pubescent girls on the basis of “mutual corroboration” has successfully appealed against his conviction. The Criminal Appeal Court ruled in the case of RG v Her Majesty’s Advocate t

A dental health nurse who was dismissed after being denied legal representation in disciplinary proceedings against her NHS employer cannot challenge the decisions by way of judicial review, a Court of Session judge has ruled. Lord Burns refused a petition by Susan Dryburgh, who was dismissed by NHS

A woman who raised a damages action against a health board following the death of her care home resident husband will be allowed to pursue her claim, after a judge in the Court of Session ruled that she had averred “more than the bare bones of a case”. The judge rejected the health board’s arg

A road traffic accident victim who sought to challenge a judge’s charge to a jury after the jurors had retired to consider their verdict in her damages claim against the driver who knocked her down has had her note of exception dismissed because it came “too late”. A judge in the Court of Sess

Damages claims against motor insurance bureaus should be determined according to the law of the state in which the accident occurred, the Supreme Court has ruled. Ms Moreno is a UK resident. In May 2011, whilst on holiday in Greece, she was hit by a car. The car was registered in Greece and driven b

The High Court has held that NHS England erred in law by refusing to consider the funding of an anti-retroviral drug that would ultimately save the health service money by reducing the occurrence of HIV and AIDS by upwards of seventy-five per cent. The National Aids Trust (NAT), a charity specialisi

An attempt to commit the statutory offence of rape is an indictable crime, appeal judges have ruled. The Criminal Appeal Court held that an attempt to commit the offence of rape under section 1 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 was a competently libelled charge, in refusing an appeal agains

A housing association pursuing a claim for damages against a sub-contractor has successfully applied to rectify a contract following a dispute about the identification of the company which granted it a warranty. A judge in the Court of Session granted decree of rectification after rejecting the defe

The Christian Institute and others’ appeal against the Scottish government’s Named Person scheme has been unanimously allowed by judges in the Supreme Court on the basis the information sharing provisions in Part 4 are incompatible with Article 8 ECHR — meaning the legislation will not be brou

A legal bid to remove the so-called “Independence Camp” from the grounds of the Scottish Parliament has been granted after a judge in the Court of Session ruled that such a move would not breach the protestors’ human rights. Lord Turnbull held that the order sought by the petitioners was “pr

In a claim to set aside a compromise on the basis of fraudulent misrepresentation, the defrauded representee need not prove it settled in the belief the misrepresentation were true in order to demonstrate influence by or reliance on that misrepresentation. The respondent, Mr Hayward, suffered an inj