Case Reports

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

Prosecutors have failed in an appeal against a judge’s decision to order the disclosure of recordings of interviews of two complainers in a sex abuse case after appeal judges ruled that such label productions are subject to the control of the court, not the Crown. The Criminal Appeal Court held it

of the formal investigation procedure and, on the other, the aid schemes had not been notified to the Commission in any way. The undertakings in question therefore could not reasonably believe, despite the delay in the investigation procedure, that the Commission’s doubts no longer existed and th

A foster carer who was deregistered by a Scottish local authority after an unfounded allegation was made against her husband by a child in their care has had a legal challenge against the council’s decision dismissed. The woman claimed that she had been “punished” when she had “done no wrong

A man found guilty of a statutory breach of the peace who claimed there was “insufficient proof” that he committed the offence has had an appeal against conviction refused. The Criminal Appeal Court refused the appeal after ruling that where there is a single positive identification “very litt

The detention of an Algerian national who acquired permanent residence in 2003 and 28 criminal convictions by 2012, pending a decision to deport him, was not unlawful, the Supreme Court has ruled – as it additionally declined to make a preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European

A man who alleged that he was sexually abused as a child in a Catholic boarding school more than 50 years ago will not be allowed to pursue his claim. A judge in the Court of Session ruled that the pursuer’s case failed on the basis that any obligation of the defenders to make reparation for any w

The parents of a child who suffered brain damage during birth have failed in a challenge to a judge’s decision to refuse their claim for damages against a health board over hospital’s staff’s alleged negligence. The couple argued that the Lord Ordinary’s judgment did not constitute a “reas

Bills of suspension against incidental warrants such as those to take samples or to search remain subject to the “supervisory jurisdiction” of the High Court of Justiciary rather than the Sheriff Appeal Court, appeal judges have ruled. The Criminal Appeal Court held that such bills are still for