News

A man found guilty of a knifepoint robbery who also allegedly threatened to assault his defence counsel has lost an appeal against his conviction after claiming he did not receive a fair trial due to “defective representation”. Peter Boath, who was sentenced to nine years imprisonment for attack

The number of vulnerable children trafficked in Scotland has tripled since 2011. New figures also show that more than half of the 105 children trafficked in the past five years were Vietnamese.

David Bone Harper Macleod has advised on the financial close of a £78m investment in a Scottish windfarm.

Alan Turing An SNP MP is to move ahead with a bill that would see gay men who were convicted when homosexuality was a criminal offence pardoned.

Liam McArthur Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Liam McArthur has said confirmation that HMICS are set to investigate the actions of undercover police officers in Scotland is nothing less than required.

A solicitor in Angus has called for electric shock collars used on dogs to be banned after a “cursed” St Bernard was saved from death, The Courier reports. Nick Whelan said the Scottish government should ban the “barbaric” devices which deliver shocks for bad behaviour.

Gordon Jackson QC The Faculty of Advocates has been helping to fly the flag for Scotland at the conference of the International Bar Association (IBA) in Washington DC.

The English bar’s regulatory board has issued a list of competences that the 15,000 barristers in England and Wales should be meeting on a day-to-day basis, including speaking audibly and using “correct … grammar, spelling and punctuation”.

The Faculty of Advocates’ Criminal Appeal Service has taken on a new member of staff, Rachael Williamson, as its legal secretary. She joins Jacob Cohen, paralegal, at the hub of the service which was founded in January 2014 as a “one-stop shop” for solicitors.

The agency responsible for the procurement of medical equipment for the NHS in Scotland has secured a court order to conclude a framework agreement with its suppliers after a rival tenderer challenged its award of a contract. A judge in the Court of Session granted the interim order after ruling tha

David Isaac The UK has failed to satisfy numerous human rights recommendations made by the United Nations and should do more to deal with hate crimes, prison overcrowding and stop and search powers, according to a coalition of 175 civil society organisations, The Guardian reports.

Dawn Anderson

Placing a cosmetic product containing ingredients which have been tested on animals on the EU market may be prohibited where that testing has been conducted outside the EU in order to market the product in third countries and where the results of that testing are used to prove the safety of the prod

Pictured (L-R): Fiona Rasmusen, Michael Marwick and Scott Rasmusen