News

The owners of a Scottish estate who were seeking to challenge a decision to the effect that they had breached “the right to roam” by locking three gated entrances to the land and by erecting a sign warning of wild boar have had their appeal dismissed. The Inner House of the Court Session has ref

Gill Grassie IP experts Robert Buchan and Gill Grassie (pictured) of Brodies LLP look at how Brexit has led to uncertainty about UK lawyers' future in the planned Unified Patent Court in this year's Scottish Legal News Annual Review.

A 41-year-old man has been ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work under a community payback order for illegally storing waste at a site in Perthshire. Alistair Roy admitted the offences at Perth Sheriff Court on 6 December 2016.

Michael Jackson Onshoring of IP to Ireland rather than the UK has become a "dividend" of the Brexit process, the managing partner of Irish law firm Matheson has said.

The first tax appeal case heard under the UK government's online "video hearing" pilot has taken place, with lawyers in Belfast presenting evidence to a judge sitting in London. The HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), launching the pilot last month, said it would explore how video hearings mi

Michael Matheson The overall level of crime in Scotland and the likelihood of being a victim have both fallen since 2008/09 – though there has been no change in the level of crime since 2014/15.

Tyre firm Michelin has been fined £5,000 by an employment tribunal for unfairly sacking a grieving worker, The Herald reports. It marks the first time a judge in Scotland has exercised powers granted in 2014 to fine bosses for this kind of behaviour.

A man campaigning for a change in the law to allow the adoption of adults has failed to gain the support of the Scottish government. Nathan Sparling, 27, called on MSPs to enact changes to allow him to be adopted by his stepfather, Brian, something which cannot currently be done under Scots law.

An Austrian official is to be given more than €300,000 after he was unfairly passed over for a job because he is male, The Local reports. Peter Franzmayr sued after failing to gain an internal promotion in the country’s transport ministry in 2011.

Robin Mitchell

The family of a man who murdered his mother but remains executor of her estate has called for a change in the law. Ross Taggart, 33, from Dunfermline, strangled his mother, Carol, 54, in 2014 before trying to pawn some of her property.

A Scottish local authority which failed to provide an adequate plan to support an autistic child’s return to secondary school breached its duty not to discriminate on the grounds of disability. The Inner House of the Court of Session refused an appeal by Edinburgh City Council against an Additiona

Often mis-attributed to Bismark, the poet John Godfey Saxe is reputed to have said that “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made”. The authors of this book are both lawyers with a wealth of political experience, and this combination makes

Holyrood’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee has unanimously backed the general principles of the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) Bill. The bill pardons men convicted of same-sex sexual activity that no longer constitutes a crime, and offers to ‘disregard’ their crimina

There were 514 applications to the Solicitors Regulation Authority to open new law firms in 2017, underlining the health of the legal profession despite Brexit related uncertainty, according to accountants and business advisers Hazlewoods, which specialises in the legal profession. With 10,400 solic