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The Crown Office's failure to notify complainers of decisions not to prosecute and its "lack of progress" on developing systems to learn from complaints have been criticised by the prosecution watchdog. The Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland has today published a report on the operational effec

Drivers accused of ‘minor’ road traffic offences should retain the right to go to court if fixed penalty notices are introduced in Scotland. The Law Society of Scotland has responded to a Scottish government consultation on whether the Road Traffic Offenders Act should be amended to give

The Scotsman has published a full obituary of Professor Joe Thomson, who passed away on 12 May at the age of 70. “Professor Joe Thomson, who has died just six days after his 70th birthday, was one of the leading legal scholars of his generation. He inspired hundreds of students with a unique s

The face of UKCS contracting is changing, and rapidly so with the introduction of the Oil and Gas Authority in October 2016. Laura Petrie considers whether mutual indemnities remain beneficial to all parties. To set the scene, the 2016 Court of Appeal decision in Transocean Drilling UK Ltd v Provide

The House of Lords has today appointed an ad hoc select committee to consider and report on the Bribery Act 2010. The committee will be taking evidence throughout the summer and autumn, and will be reporting in 2019. The Bribery Act 2010 created two basic crimes of giving and receiving bribes, and c

Four panellists from the Brexit and Family Law Group were invited to speak to MEPs and Permanent Representatives from the EU member states at the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday. The session, hosted by Catherine Bearder MEP and the Joint Brussels Office of the Law Societies, saw

David Hoey looks at the the Court of Appeal's decision in City of York v Grosset.  The Claimant was a teacher who suffered from cystic fibrosis. He was employed in one of the Respondent’s schools. Adjustments had been made to accommodate his disability but these had not been properly

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been fined £325,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after it lost unencrypted DVDs containing recordings of police interviews. The DVDs contained recordings of interviews with 15 victims of child sex abuse, to be used at the trial.

The Supreme Court’s contribution to the development of devolution jurisprudence will be the subject of a lecture delivered by the UK’s most senior judge in Edinburgh next month. The Scottish Public Law Group (SPLG) will host Lady Hale, who will deliver a special address in her first

Documents from the Auschwitz trial have been added to the UNESCO "Memory of the World Register”, marking their importance as "common heritage of humanity”, The Local reports. The trial of 22 Nazi officials who ran the death camp, which lasted from 1963-65 in Frankfurt, was the first in w

US gymnasts who were sexually abused by their doctor, Larry Nassar, are set to receive a $500 million settlement from Michigan State University (MSU), one of the largest settlements of its kind. California law firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi announced the deal struck with the university on behalf

Not having a place to call home is one of the most stressful situations a person can find themselves in, and as ‘stress’ is the theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (14-20 May) the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is urging property

Regulators in France and Belgium are allowing English lawyers to requalify even if they do not speak the local languages in an attempt to bring commercial legal work to their jurisdictions after Brexit. Officials at the Law Society told The Brief that bar heads in France and Belgium are encouraging

The UK’s police forces must address concerns over the use of facial recognition technology or they may face legal action, according to the UK’s privacy watchdog. Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has said the issue is a priority for her office.

Police officers dealing with digital disclosure are under-trained and often unaware of what they are looking for, a Justice Select Committee has heard. Digital forensic experts have said police failures have led to a number of court cases collapsing, The Guardian reports.