News

The nation’s busiest courts are preparing for strike action today as workers claim they are under excessive strain in the wake of court reforms. Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen sheriff courts are expected to be most affected as the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) organised a walk-out fo

An American lawyer has dispensed with the usual corporate profile photo in favour of something different. North Carolina lawyer J Clark Fischer of the firm Randolph & Fischer is a “competitive bodybuilder and physique athlete” and wants prospective clients and other lawyers to know i

On Monday 22 December 2014 in an article headlined “Figures show court closures have slowed justice system”, we reported that Forfar Sheriff Gregor Murray had said court staff were having to “fight” their way through a “chock-a-block” diary after the transfer of business to Forfar follow

From left: James Shaw, Ruaraidh Niven, Neil Oxford, Edith Forrest , Sarah Chilton and Paula Chan

British intelligence agents will be able to testify in court so long as they wear wigs and makeup to hide their identities at the impending trial of an alleged al-Qaeda agent a judge has ruled. The six MI5 agents who undertook surveillance on Abid Naseer, 28, whom they believed was involved in a plo

Commenting on the Court of Session’s ruling in the "named person" judicial review, which rejected the petition on all counts, children’s minister Fiona McLeod (pictured), said: “This decision is good news for families in Scotland. "The ruling states that the policy does not contravene ECHR rig

Mark Brady

Fergus Thomson

The Scottish government has said a decision has not yet been made on the planned women’s prison in Greenock. The £75 million HMP Inverclyde has been widely opposed by campaigners and opposition parties who say the focus should be on reducing the number of women being put in prison.

Olivia Giles OBE

A High Court judge is to be asked whether the families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing can launch an appeal to get the conviction of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi overturned. Mr al-Megrahi was the only person convicted over the bombing of a Pan Am plane that killed 270 people as it flew over the so

Ending the automatic early release of prisoners will affect cases where a judge is considering a non-mandatory life sentence, the Faculty of Advocates has told MSPs. When examining the option of an order for lifelong restriction (OLR), the Faculty said, a judge must look forward and assess whether t

The Parole Board for Scotland has published its Annual Report 2013-14 today. The report shows, among other things, that out of 426 prisoner cases referred to the Board, 139 (or 33 per cent) were recommended for release on parole.

Following yesterday’s publication by the UK government of a draft bill for the transfer of powers from Westminster to Holyrood Alistair Morris, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said: “We welcome the publication of the draft clauses and are pleased to see that they take into account the

A disgruntled client who sued his former solicitors for damages but learned that a lawyer acting on his behalf had settled the action without his authority has failed in an appeal against a decision to absolve his former solicitors from further proceedings. Judges in the Inner House of the Court of