Case Reports

The sister of a man with severe learning difficulties has failed in an appeal against a sheriff’s decision to appoint a local authority social worker as welfare guardian to her brother. The woman complained that the mental health officer who prepared a report which favoured the council’s applica

The owners and publishers of the now defunct News of the World, which was ordered to pay £200,000 in damages after the former MSP Tommy Sheridan won a defamation action against the Scottish edition of the newspaper, have had an application for a new trial refused. Judges in the Inner House of the C

The beneficiaries of a trust fund which was created by a now deceased woman to reduce the impact of inheritance tax on her family have had a petition for rectification of a deed of appointment refused by a judge in the Court of Session. Lord Turnbull ruled that the deed accurately expressed the inte

A man found guilty of stalking who claimed that the sheriff “misdirected” the jury by failing to advise them of the need for his conduct to have caused “actual fear or alarm” has failed in an appeal against conviction, after the Criminal Appeal Court ruled that the misdirection was not a “

A man who claimed he didn’t receive a big enough discount on his sentence after being jailed for admitting an assault to severe injury charge has had an appeal dismissed. The Criminal Appeal Court refused the appeal by Ernest Findlay, who was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment after being give

Four legal claims worth tens of thousands of pounds each arising out health care products for the treatment of urinary incontinence have been remitted to the Court of Session. A judge allowed the actions to be remitted from the sheriff court after ruling that “cause had been shown” as there was

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