News

A top advocate has launched an attack against Scottish government proposals to end automatic early release for long-term prisoners, saying the SNP has adopted a “bogus, populist position” that will not improve public safety. Brian McConnachie QC (pictured), former principal advocate depute at th

Armed police have responded to over 1,600 routine incidents despite assurances form Police Scotland last year that the practice would end. Assistant chief constable Bernard Higgins (pictured), giving evidence to Holyrood’s policing committee yesterday, said officers in armed response vehicles (ARV

The son of a woman with Alzheimer’s disease who challenged a decision of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland (MHTS) to make a compulsory treatment order (CTO) in relation to his mother has had his appeal refused. Judges in the Inner House of the Court of Session upheld a ruling of the sheriff

School pupils have won through to the semi-finals of the Law Society of Scotland’s national debating tournament after arguing the cases for and against the removal of immigration controls. Of the 128 teams that entered the Donald Dewar Memorial Debating Tournament, 16 teams from schools across Sco

The Law School at the University of Aberdeen has announced a two-day conference in honour of Professor David Carey Miller from 6 to 7 March 2015. Professor Miller has researched and taught at the University of Aberdeen for over forty years, and his work has an international reputation for excellence

Figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) show reports of fake law firms have gone up by 101 per cent. The SRA, which is the body regulating solicitors in England and Wales, said there were 701 reports of fake law firms in 2014, up from 349 in 2012.

David Menzies (pictured) responds to allegations that the insolvency profession in Scotland preys on the vulnerable. I read with interest the views expressed by Mike Dailly of Govan Law Centre in his blog published inScottish Legal News on 24 February 2015. The blog raises valid concerns about debt,

Solicitor Carol Fox, of Fox and Partners (pictured), has written about becoming a single mother through IVF treatment in the 1990s in her new book Memoirs of a Feminist Mother. Carol, 55, who recently won millions in equal pay for female workers from North and South Lanarkshire councils, relates how

Fiona Morton (left) and Paul Kerr

A bill to create a duty to provide crisis grants for people on low incomes and to support independent living has been passed by the Scottish parliament. The passing of the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Bill will make the Scottish Welfare Fund a permanent, statutory scheme.

Gemma Ogilvie

Two Celtic supporters who were convicted of “offensive behaviour at football” after singing a pro-IRA and INLA song have been granted leave to appeal over whether their human rights had been breached. The Criminal Appeal Court will be asked to consider whether the applicants’ rights under Arti

The story entitled “Local council to ask for historic building transferred in error to be returned” in yesterday’s SLN contained an inaccuracy. We stated: “Along with Laigh Hall it was part-gifted to the Faculty of Advocates.”

An arrangement where a woman carried her son’s baby as a surrogate mother has been described as “entirely lawful” by a judge. The mother carried the donor egg which had been fertilised with her son’s sperm when another female relative who was meant to carry the IVF baby was forced to withdra

Maria Rud, a Russian artist based in Edinburgh, along with sculptor and partner Ewan Allinson, have won a legal case against the Swiss gallery, Galerie Zabbeni. In 2012, Ms Rud and Mr Allinson were invited by gallery owner Andrea Zabbeni, to exhibit over 30 original works of art and sculpture at the