News

Dentons is putting home-grown talent at the heart of a marketing campaign designed by MadeBrave as the law firm celebrates its Scottish operations’ 150th anniversary. Lawyers and support staff from across the firm are starring in a range of short films as well as print and digital advertising,

A drug dealer inadvertently landed himself with a lengthy prison sentence after taking a photograph of a block of Stilton cheese. Carl Stewart, 39, was identified as a user of the EncroChat mobile encryption service by forensic experts using an image he shared of a block of cheese in the palm of his

The High Court of Justiciary has refused an appeal against conviction by a man convicted of attempted murder made on the basis that he had a ‘jigsaw’ basis for a special defence of self-defence. Aaron Dines, also known as Morrison, was sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonm

James Wolffe QC and Alison Di Rollo QC are to resign once replacements for them are found. A survey by Scottish Legal News in March found that a majority of lawyers would like to see the Lord Advocate's dual role split so that his political and prosecutorial functions are entirely separate.

Terra Firma’s Robert Sutherland has been appointed as the Scottish editor for Garner’s Environmental Law. Garner's is the leading environmental law loose-leaf publication containing a comprehensive collection of UK acts, statutory instruments, Scottish acts and Scottish statutory instrum

The law of damages for unlawful eviction in Scotland fails victims and does little to deter landlords. It requires urgent reform, write Rebecca Morton, Shaun McPhee and Ben Christman of the Legal Services Agency. Eviction without a court order is both a crime and a civil wrong in Scotland, yet victi

Nationwide Building Society, the UK’s second-largest mortgage lender, has predicted that house prices will continue to rise this year beyond the end of the stamp duty holiday. The lender has warned, however, that higher costs could make it harder for first-time buyers to get on the property la

Laws intended to protect the privacy of children are being used by judges to cover up decisions in England and Wales, Sir James Munby has said. The former president of the High Court’s Family Division said that curbs on media reporting “prevent public officials being held to account

We humans are never lacking in our enthusiasm for crazy ‘investment’ ideas. Around four hundred years ago the Dutch managed to work themselves into a frenzy over tulip bulbs. At the height of the hysteria one bulb of Semper Augustus apparently changed hands in exchange for 12 acres of la

The Glasgow University School of Law Workshop has been awarded £6,000 from the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) to develop a community lending law library. The project will allow potential students to visualise themselves as studying at the University of Glasgow and consider a f

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are becoming more prominent in divorce proceedings as parties use them to hide their wealth, an English divorce lawyer has said. Ayesha Vardag, who acted for the successful party in Radmacher v Granatino, which reshaped the law on pre-nups in England and Wales, said

The lead singer of the Sex Pistols has been drawn into a High Court battle with his former bandmates over a new TV show about their career. John Lydon, also known as Johnny Rotten, has pulled out of the six-part miniseries to be directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle.

A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has granted an increased award of expenses to a group of 27 religious leaders who successfully challenged the Scottish Ministers’ decision to close places of worship in Scotland from late December 2020 to March 20

​A damning review of the legality of moving patients from hospitals to care homes in Scotland at the height of the pandemic has raised significant concerns about the actions of the Scottish government. The Mental Welfare Commission studied 457 individual moves - representing around 10 per cent of

The High Court in Northern Ireland has determined that the requirement for an applicant under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to prove they are suffering from a medical “disorder” was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The court held that a diagnosis of a disorder