Case Reports

The High Court of Justiciary has refused appeals by two people convicted of the murder of a 14-year-old girl in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment after finding that there was sufficient evidence for convictions on the basis of art and part liability. Andrew Kelly and Donna Brand were convicted

A lord ordinary has ruled that a waste management company is entitled to sue the Scottish government over its decision to delay the coming into effect of the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland. Biffa Waste Services Ltd, which committed around £51.4 million towards implementation of the DRS, so

A sheriff has concluded that the death of a man who fell from his fishing boat while trying to rescue a crew member could have been prevented if the crew of his vessel had been more familiar with the use of its man overboard recovery equipment. Lachlan Robertson died from the effects of immersion in

A dispute over an incorrectly served Low Emission Zone penalty charge notice that was ruled unenforceable by the First-tier and Upper Tribunals has been remitted to the First-tier Tribunal for reconsideration after a successful appeal by a local authority to the Inner House of the Court of Session.

The High Court of Justiciary has increased the length of an extended sentence imposed on a man who groomed a teenage girl into having sex with him and made indecent communications towards another person he believed to be a young girl, after the Crown appealed against the leniency of the original sen

A 16-year-old who was convicted of culpable homicide after he headbutted and punched an Elgin bus driver who later died from his injuries has lost an appeal against his sentence. NRL was detained for four years and four months, reduced from a headline sentence of six years and six months, after plea

The High Court of Justiciary has answered in the negative two questions relating to whether the Crown had acted unlawfully in the separate prosecution of two teenagers in Dundee Sheriff Court by acting in a manner said to be unlawful under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (I

A sheriff has determined that the deaths of two young people in a young offenders institution in Falkirk could have been avoided if reasonable precautions had been taken, and made 25 recommendations to improve the Scottish Prison Service. Katie Allan and William Brown, aged 21 and 16 respectively, b

A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has determined that an Icelandic woman who was divorced from her husband by decree in absence in Dunfermline Sheriff Court in 2021 was entitled to have that decree reduced. Linda Hafthorsdotir sought to reduce her divorce from Bjarni Eyvindsson, aft

The Inner House of the Court of Session has refused an appeal against a lord ordinary’s decision to refuse to reduce a decision of Glasgow City Council not to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment in respect of the demolition of four tower blocks in Maryhill. Petitioner and reclaimer Caz

A commercial judge has disqualified a man from acting as a company director for seven years after finding he had used illegal migrant workers as the majority of the workforce of his takeaway business while he was director. Qiqing was made the subject of a petition for a disqualification order by the

The Sheriff Appeal Court has allowed an appeal by a woman who successfully defended her case against a private car park operator that sought £6,370 in unpaid parking charges from her in respect of the sheriff’s decision that she was liable for the pursuer’s expenses, but only to th

A judicial review challenge against a decision of Glasgow City Council to issue a certificate of lawful proposed use or development in relation to a fence intended to be erected around a football pitch in a park has been refused by the Court of Session. Petitioner Gregory Brown sought declarator tha

A former landlord who alleged that his tenants had stolen a set of shutters and failed to pay for replacement carpets has been refused permission to appeal his two cases against them to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland after it upheld the First-tier Tribunal’s decision in both cases that no los

A sheriff has concluded that the death of a soldier who died after his sniper rifle discharged at his head while he was holding it could have been avoided if normal procedures for the unloading of rifles had been carried out following a shooting drill earlier that day, however no defects in any syst