Case Reports

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

A supermarket worker who fell off a “dalek” as she was hanging clothing on a rack has had an action for £14,000 damages dismissed by a judge in the Court of Session. Elizabeth Gilchrist, a shop assistant at Asda, claimed that her employers breached their statutory duty of care to by failing to

A law student who refused to pay his tuition fees after alleging that the university at which he was studying failed to deliver the standard of education and service he expected has had a “breach of contract” claim dismissed. Lihe Liu claimed that one of his lecturers at Glasgow Caledonian Unive

A racehorse trainer who was severely injured when a horse fell and landed on him during an exercise session has had an action for damages refused. John McShane would have been awarded more than £270,000 in solatium, loss of earnings, including winnings, and future care and services had the defender

A Scots lawyer who was jailed for embezzling thousands of pounds of clients’ money has been struck of the solicitors’ roll for professional misconduct. Steven Crommie, who was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment earlier this year after pleading guilty to the offence, “deliberately and repeated

A transcript of a passage of Tommy Sheridan’s cross-examination of Andrew Coulson during the former MSP’s perjury trial was inadmissible in evidence at the trial of the ex-editor of the News of the World for allegedly making false statements under oath. The Criminal Appeal Court ruled that the e

A trainee greenkeeper who was jailed for 21 months after being convicted of assaulting a university student following an argument in a pub has successfully challenged the sentence imposed by a sheriff. The Criminal Appeal Court ruled that the offence was not one which ought to have attracted a custo