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A mother who was convicted of assault after grabbing hold of and shouting at a schoolboy involved in a play-fight with her son has had her conviction overturned by appeal judges. The woman was convicted after trial in a Justice of the Peace Court of seizing hold of the six-year-old boy by the collar

A juror has been found guilty of contempt of court and fined £400 after he told a judge he forgot to turn up at Perth Sheriff Court. Jordan Hutchison slowed two trials at the court and inconvenienced over 70 members of the public as well as court staff.

A police force has been forced to apologise after an officer told a newsagent to give him the names of four people who bought copies of the commemorative edition of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. Wiltshire Police said it has now deleted the names of the buyers – collected after police told newsagents

Burness Paull has won a competitive tender process to become the sole provider of legal services in Scotland for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Following a rigorous three-month tender process involving three core stages, the firm has seen off competition to secure the three-year

Sending children to prison may make them more likely to commit sexual offences in adulthood according to a study set up by a charity which seeks to reduce crime. The study by the Commission on Sex in Prison, a group established Howard League for Penal Reform reached its conclusion after hearing evid

The organisation representing rank-and-file police officers has accused politicians of ignorance in relation to non-statutory stop and searches. The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has attacked politicians as well as Police Scotland’s leadership over plans to remove the police’s right to search

As consultations on land reform draw to an end Robert Scott-Dempster (pictured) discusses how any new measures must comply with the ECHR. Whilst it may feel to the average land owner that there is an inexorable wave of land reform coming in their direction it should not be forgotten that theEuropean

Scottish government proposals for land reform need to be coherent, clear and workable, the Law Society of Scotland has said. The Law Society has submitted its response to the Scottish government’s consultation on the future of land reform in Scotland.

The rights of over 1,000 UK prisoners were breached when they were disallowed from voting in elections judges in the European Court of Human Rights have ruled after inmates who were prevented from voting during elections between 2009 and 2011 brought a case to the Strasbourg court. In today's judgme

A Turkish national who was refused leave to remain in the UK despite claiming that he had established a family and private life has had a petition for judicial review of the decision dismissed by a judge in the Court of Session. Petitioner Halit Genc, 24, challenged the decision taken by the Upper T

A barrister has provoked a backlash after he said men should not be prosecuted for rape in situations where a woman is drunk. David Osborne said courts should throw cases out where complainants said they were unable to give consent because they had been drinking.

Donald Findlay QC Donald Findlay QC was on good form at the Criminal Law Masterclassin Glasgow at the weekend which drew over 100 lawyers from across Scotland.

Hugh Angus

A law meant to reduce the number of people being put in prison has had little effect as thousands of prisoners are still being imprisoned for three months or less The Herald reports. About one third of sentences handed out by courts are for a period of weeks, despite the then justice minister Kenny

Fired staff at a clothing firm are taking legal action after they reportedly were given just 15 minutes of consultation over the risk posed to their jobs. Thompsons Solicitors are to represent workers at USC, which went into administration, losing 79 permanent staff and 166 agency or zero-hours cont