Case Reports

An environmental charity which is challenging plans for a wind farm development in Invernesshire has had an application for a protective expenses order refused following an appeal. By a majority of two-to-one, judges in the Inner House of the Court of Session refused the appeal for a PEO after rulin

Iraqi civilians who said they suffered at the hands of the British armed forces have failed in their tortious claim against the Ministry of Defence as a consequence of foreign time-bar rules. The Supreme Court, comprising Lord Neuberger, Lady Hale, Lord Mance, Lord Sumption and Lord Reed, unanimousl

The Supreme Court has dismissed a company’s appeal against HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) contention the company was not entitled to deduct VAT on accountant’s fees as input tax under the contract. The Supreme Court dismissed Airtours Holidays Transport Ltd’s appeal by a majority of 3 to 2.

At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Lady Rae sentenced Gary Stevenson to life imprisonment with a punishment part of 17 years after he pleaded guilty to the murder of Katy Rourke at their shared flat in Govan. Mr Stevenson murdered Miss Rourke after she refused to have sex with him. He struck

A legal bid to remove the so-called “Independence Camp” from the grounds of the Scottish Parliament will require a further hearing to determine whether such a move will breach the protestors’ human rights. A judge in the Court of Session refused to grant an order for removal until hearing evid

A man found guilty of a charge which libelled that he broke into a residential property and stole jewellery has failed in an appeal against conviction after claiming there was “insufficient evidence” to corroborate the theft. The Criminal Appeal Court rejected the appellant’s claim that the st

A gambler who lost more than £90,000 after placing an online bet on a Scottish football match has failed in a legal challenge over the bookmaker’s decision to refuse to pay out. A judge in the Court of Session refused permission for the application for judicial review to proceed after ruling that

The extensive standardisation of packaging, the future EU-wide prohibition on menthol cigarettes and the special rules for electronic cigarettes, embodied in the EU directive on tobacco products, are lawful, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled The new 2014 directive on tobacco produ

A Scottish law firm which sued a former corporate client for payment of over £100,000 in unpaid legal fees has won its action after the company lost an appeal. The Inner House of the Court of Session upheld a judge’s decision that the firm was entitled to payment of their fees and that a counterc

A retired lawyer has won a dispute with his former partners in a solicitors’ firm over his entitlement to a share of the partnership assets. A judge has ruled that the partnership agreement made no provision for division of the firm’s assets on the retirement of a partner due to age, and therefo

A decision by the Sheriff Appeal Court to remit a case of a man convicted of a road traffic offence to the sentencing sheriff to alter the disposal and impose a competent sentence was not within its powers, appeal judges have ruled. The High Court of Justiciary Appeal Court held that the Sheriff App

A man detained in the state hospital after killing his wife, who subsequently raised an action for reparation against a health board over a doctor’s alleged failure to admit him to a psychiatric unit the day before he stabbed his spouse to death, has failed in a bid to recover documents he claimed

A mentally ill Nigerian asylum seeker who was detained pending deportation and who sought a declaration that a period of her detention was unlawful, in addition to damages, has had her appeal to the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed – as the court also declared R (Francis) was wrongly decided. A

The European Court of Human Rights has held, unanimously, that there was a violation of article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of convicted murderer, James Clifton Murray who complained he was serving a life sentence without a

A convicted rapist subject to an order for lifelong restriction who claimed that the prison service breached his human rights by failing to provide him with an opportunity to rehabilitate himself has had a petition for judicial review dismissed. David Beattie, who was made the subject of the OLR in