News

Harper Macleod has been appointed to provide legal services to the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), the world’s leading test facility for wave and tidal power devices. The firm won a place on EMEC’s new legal services framework following a tender process and the appoint

Disabled voters can lawfully be required to enter polling places through a back entrance, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled. In a "disappointing" ruling yesterday, the court said polling places and election procedures in Europe need to be accessible for disabled people, but access

Rosina Dolan, a partner at Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP, took to the streets of the capital earlier this month alongside 40,000 people to run the London Marathon. The solicitor’s efforts raised an impressive £2,240 – significantly exceeding her original £1k target &nd

The BBC has profiled lawyer Manjula Pradeep who was born in Western India to a Dalit family, a community on the lowest rung of the caste ladder. Growing up she experienced severe discrimination and indignity because of her background. She was also the victim of sexual abuse yet excelled at school an

A woman is suing Kellogg's for $5 million, alleging the company's strawberry Pop-Tarts contain very little strawberry. Filed earlier this month in the Southern District of New York, the suit is the latest in a series of class actions against Kellogg Sales.

The nieces of a deceased Irish citizen who executed her will in Scotland have failed in their application to have the writing on the back of an envelope containing a copy of the will recognised as an adjunct or codicil to it. Christina Cummins and Bridget Tierney, the nieces of the late Mary Downey,

David Davis MP has pledged to lead a rebellion against the government’s proposed changes to judicial review, branding them an assault on the legal system. Before the first test of the Judicial Review and Courts Bill in the Commons today, Mr Davis wrote in an article for The Guardian that the p

A three year limitation period applies in the majority of injury claims in both Scotland and England, with the courts in both jurisdictions having equitable discretion to allow a claim to proceed despite being issued late. This raises the question of the effect in this context of a period of delay o

The Scotsman has published an obituary for John Watt Wightman CVO CBE RD* WS, lawyer and commodore, who passed away on 19 September 2021, aged 87. "John Wightman was born in Leith, to solicitor Robert Johnson Wightman and Edith Laing. Shortly after he was joined by sister Edith Mary. John recalled p

Shepherd and Wedderburn partner Louisa Knox has been appointed as a non-executive board director at Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE). Ms Knox specialises in pensions law, working on a range of clients on all pensions related matters including ongoing advisory, scheme restructuring, ESG and r

In 2020-21, 58 victims of homicide were recorded, 12 per cent (eight victims) fewer than the 66 victims recorded in 2019-20. Of the 58 victims, 83 per cent (48) were male. Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published Homicide in Scotland, 2020-21. The publication provides information on crime

A Spanish law governing the registration of births that gives the father's name immutable precedence over the mother's where there is a disagreement falls foul of the ECHR, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. The Article 14 case concerned the applicant’s request to reverse the order

Robert Milligan QC's new book Funding Personal Injury Litigation in Scotland is now available to purchase. 2021 has been a landmark year in the funding of personal injury litigation in Scotland. Long-awaited changes in relation to damages based agreements (DBAs) and qualified one way cost

Plans to offer "automatic online convictions" to people charged with minor offences will lead to "trigger-happy justice", campaigners have said. The UK government's controversial Judicial Review and Courts Bill, which returns to the Commons floor today, will allow for people charged with minor offen

A Scottish environmental charity has successfully challenged the manner in which licences for lethal control of beavers in Scotland were issued by way of petition for judicial review in the Outer House of the Court of Session. Trees For Life sought nine declarators as well as the reduction of 49 lic