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New facilities providing healthcare for people who have experienced sexual assault or rape, and a service for children and young people who have experienced harm and abuse, have been opened. The Sycamore Sexual Assault Response Coordination Service (SARCS) for adults in NHS Lothian was officially op

Scotland's legal aid crisis is the subject of a new series in The Herald entitled Beyond Breaking Point. There is already a crisis in legal aid, but the next five to ten years could be catastrophic. The future looks equally grim when it comes to civil legal aid. How did we get here? What does this m

Police in Thailand were forced to barricade themselves into their station as their town came under attack from around 200 escaped monkeys. Special enclosures in Lopburi – around 100 miles north-east of Bangkok – are used to manage the local monkey population.

Scotland’s Migration Service, which provides information and advice for people, employers and investors, has been expanded. The service will support newcomers to settle in Scotland, help more people and employers to navigate the immigration system, and attract more working-age people to Scotla

Legislation to allow for the early release of prisoners has been published. The Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Bill proposes that most prisoners serving sentences of less than four years would be released after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, rather than 50 per cent as at present. This

Blackadders LLP picked up three titles at the The Herald Law Awards 2024, with Bethany Buchanan-Webster winning the Up and Coming Award. The firm also triumphed in the Family and Child Law Team and the Employment and Pensions Team of the Year categories at a gala event in The Marriott Hotel in Glasg

Scotland's legal aid crisis looks like it could be "unsolvable" as more than a third of legal aid lawyers are set to retire in the next decade. There are currently 911 solicitors registered for legal aid – down from 1,084 in 2020, a drop of 16 per cent.

An independent commission is needed to improve integrity and effectiveness and tackle serious issues with honesty in the legal system, an expert investigating the Post Office scandal has said. Lawyers are aiding irresponsible decisions and there is abuse of confidentiality and legal professional pri

Denmark's welfare authority risks discriminating against people with disabilities, low-income individuals, migrants, refugees, and marginalised racial groups through its use of AI tools to flag individuals for social benefits fraud investigations, Amnesty International has said in a new report. 

Westwater Advocates’ David Hay KC has successfully challenged needs assessments undertaken by Western Isles Council, under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, as being inadequately reasoned in judicial review proceedings in the Outer House of the Court of Session. Mr Hay appeared for the peti

The High Court in London has begun hearing a legal challenge to the UK government's continued arms sales to Israel. The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq originally brought the challenge against all weapons exports to Israel for use in Gaza.

Requirements for voter identification brought in by the previous UK government should be scrapped, the parliamentary business minister Jamie Hepburn has said. Mr Hepburn highlighted evidence from the Electoral Commission that the new requirements kept potential voters away from the ballot box at the

Macleod & MacCallum, based in Inverness and Portree, won two awards last week. The first win came at the Inverness City Centre Business Awards which took place on 14 November, with the firm winning the Professional & Business Services Award.  

A man was caught allegedly trying to smuggle hundreds of tarantulas onto a plane. The 28-year-old suspect, who has not been named, was arrested at an airport in Peru after security officials noticed an unusual bulge around his stomach.

Aberdein Considine has been named Debt Recovery Team of the Year at The Herald’s Law Awards of Scotland 2024. The awards, which took place on Friday, celebrate the influential figures and firms in the Scottish legal sector.