News

The brother of a deceased man who left the majority of his estate to his carer has failed to appeal a sheriff’s decision not to reduce the deceased’s last will in the Civil Division of the Sheriff Appeal Court. John Thompson, the pursuer and appellant, originally raised the action s

The 'not proven' verdict is neither logical nor sensible, undermines the presumption of innocence and should be abolished, a recently retired judge has said. Writing in Scottish Legal News today, Lord Uist, who retired from the bench in February, said that the third verdict was "wholly indefensible

The Faculty of Advocates is among a number of bar organisations that have condemned sanctions announced by China against barristers who gave legal advice in connection with human rights abuses in Xinjiang. In a letter signed by the Faculty, the Bar Council of England and Wales, The Bar of

Sarah McWhirter has been promoted to principal lawyer at Slater and Gordon Lawyers. Ms McWhirter joined the firm in 2017 and heads the Edinburgh medical negligence team. She represents clients from all over Scotland in a wide variety of claims covering all aspects of medical negligence, including cl

Employers in the Scottish construction sector could face legal action for damages running into hundreds of thousands of pounds after new figures found the industry has accounted for 100 Covid-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Of the 10,055 deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-

Stuart Gillies highlights how the decline of cash during pandemic has resulted in an increase in confidence in financial technology. It’s been over a year now since we first locked down, when shaking hands and meeting a colleague for a coffee was normal – and when wearing slippers t

The Scottish Public Law Group is holding a live webinar on Thursday 29 April from 17.30-19.30, on Devolution After Brexit. Even now that the UK has left the European Union, the full implications of that monumental change remain to be settled - from the shape and nature of our future relationship wit

Writing for Scottish Legal News today, retired judge Lord Uist explains why he supports the abolition of the 'not proven' verdict. There have been many suggestions that 'not proven' is logical because when we make claims about guilt or innocence we stray from certainty; the indicative mood is too st

A new law putting the US state of Georgia on daylight savings time all year round will reduce crime, officials have claimed. Governor Brian Kemp has signed Senate Bill 100, which provides that Georgia "shall observe daylight savings time year round as the standard time of the entire state".

Eilidh Smith looks at the lessons we can learn from the IP woes of Taylor Swift. Earlier this month, Taylor Swift fans everywhere were treated to the release of Fearless (Taylor's Version), a re-imagining and re-recording of her 2008 LP – the first in a project which plans to re-record and rel

An appeal by the Advocate General for Scotland against a decision to allow a proof to determine that the detention of three fishing boats by immigration officers was ultra vires has been refused by the Civil Division of the Sheriff Appeal Court. The pursuer and respondent,&n

Shepherd and Wedderburn has promoted four of its lawyers to partner and two to legal director.

Professors James Chalmers, Fiona Leverick and Vanessa Munro take issue with recent claims about how often and in what sort of case the 'not proven' verdict is used. In a recent piece for Scottish Legal News, Alistair Bonnington criticised calls to scrap the not proven verdict, making a remarkable cl

Lawyers representing former subpostmasters who had long-standing convictions quashed at the Court of Appeal have called for the criminal focus to now "finally and fiercely" switch to investigating Post Office officials who "maliciously ruined the lives of innocent people by prosecuting them in pursu

Hamish Lean outlines an unusual environmental case that will be heard in the Court of Session next month. Beavers became a protected species in Scotland in May 2019. There are two populations, one in Knapdale in Argyll, introduced as part of a scientific trial and properly licensed and another in th