Case Reports

A part-time firefighter who was found guilty of wilful fire-raising but claimed that a “miscarriage of justice” had occurred has failed in an appeal against conviction. David Mackay argued that the sheriff “erred” in leaving it to a juror who knew one of the witnesses to hear the evidence an

A nurse who reached an out-of-court settlement after suing a health board following an accident at work has been granted a motion which means her former employers will bear the expenses for five expert witnesses who were instructed during her preparation of the action. A judge in the Court of Sessio

A man found guilty of stealing electricity has seen his conviction overturned because police officers failed to secure a warrant before searching his home. Charles McKenzie, 57 from Dundee, was arrested in September 2013 after police discovered he had illegitimately provided electricity to his 14th

A pensioner who was banned from driving for 10 years after he seriously injured two motorcyclists in a road traffic accident while driving himself to a hospital has failed in an appeal against his conviction. The Criminal Appeal Court ruled that the sheriff had correctly withdrawn the special defenc

of the expiration of her grant of leave to remain in July 2013 the petitioner made another application for permission to stay for longer than a year based on her article 8 rights, which she said were stronger because of her increased integration into her family life in Glasgow. She had recovered fr

A slot machine company has failed in its appeal to the UK Supreme Court against a decision of the Court of Appeal that the winnings from its machines were subject to taxation as they were deemed to be “gaming machines”. President of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, sitting with Lord Reed, Lord

A convicted rapist's petition to the nobile officium of the Court of Session has been dismissed as incompetent on various grounds including the fact the decision from which it stemmed was reviewable by neither the Court of Session nor the High Court of Justiciary and that thenobile officium is not d

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has unanimously ruled that banking data, irrespective of whether it contains sensitive information, is protected under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in a case in which San Marino judicial authorities seized the banking documents of four Ita

A father who was jailed for two years after being found guilty of abducting his 11-year-old son has failed in an appeal against conviction but had his sentence reduced to one of nine months’ imprisonment. The Criminal Appeal Court ruled that he had “no lawful authority” to remove the child fro

A legal challenge over the appointment of Susan O’Brien QC to chair an inquiry into historic child abuse in Scotland has been refused by a judge in the Court of Session. The Congregation of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth and The Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul sought judicial review of

The Criminal Appeal Court has issued an opinion setting out the test for the granting of an application under section 107(8) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, where leave to argue the ground of appeal has already been refused leave at the “sift”. The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Carlowa

in the CARE programme amounted to or resulted from a breach by the respondents of their duties. “There is then a complaint that, although the CARE programme was completed by the end of March 2014, it took until August before the post-programme report was finalised and until early September for it

An action for delivery of files and documents can be raised in the sheriff court by way of summary cause procedure, a Sheriff Principal has ruled. Sheriff Principal Mhairi Stephen QC allowed an appeal against a decision of a sheriff at Livingston, who held that the action ought to be dismissed as �

Scotland’s chief law officer has been granted a court order to recover the combined voice and flight data recorder from a Super Puma helicopter which crashed into the North Sea in 2013 and killed four of the passengers on board. A judge in the Court of Session ruled that the CVFDR should be made a

A solicitor who was seeking £4.25 million from the owner of a stolen Leonardo da Vinci painting after helping to secure its return has had his claim dismissed by a judge in the Court of Session. Marshall Ronald sued the Duke of Buccleuch for payment of the fee said to be due in terms of a “contra