News

A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has ruled that the operators of a store in a shopping centre in Glasgow were in breach of a court order obliging them to keep the store open but that their actions were not in contempt of court. Sapphire 16 SARL, the landlord under a lease of the pr

Attempts to make online courts the default forum for civil justice do not "make any sense" and are "very much second best" to conducting legal business in person, experts have told Scottish Legal News. Draft rules prepared by the Scottish Civil Justice Council – which are currently out for con

Scotland's three principal bar associations have voted to opt out of a duty solicitor scheme less than two weeks before the most important conference in the world due to continued mistreatment of defence lawyers.

The Nationality and Borders Bill threatens to create a two-tier asylum system which could result in more unsafe and perilous journeys, according to the Law Society of Scotland. As consideration of the Nationality and Borders bill at committee stage continues this week, the Law Society has also criti

An elderly man has succeeded in challenging the procedural fairness of a hearing in which he was subjected to an experience reminiscent of Franz Kafka's The Trial, his lawyer said. In 2019, Dr Denis Paling appeared at Ipswich Magistrates Court in a case concerning unpaid council tax relating to a le

Legal academics, including many from Scottish universities, have written to the University of Sussex in support of Professor Kathleen Stock, "for her academic work and public interventions on the questions surrounding the legal recognition of sex and gender identity." Professor Stock, a philosophy a

With the business use of artificial intelligence (AI) on the rise, there are key legal and contractual risks that businesses using, or supplying, AI need to consider, writes Phillip Kelly. As with most contracts for the sale of products, any contract for the supply or provision of AI is likely to co

The way evidence is handled and used by the criminal justice system is changing. The Scottish government has contracted with Axon Public Safety UK Ltd, to deliver the new Digital Evidence Sharing Capability service (DESC).

Last month's sheriff solemn caseload was 102 per cent of the average pre-Covid level, new figures show. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service's figures on the throughput of criminal cases in September also show:

Kanye West has legally changed his name to Ye following the approval of a Los Angeles court. He made the request in August, citing personal reasons for the decision.

A sheriff in Livingston Sheriff Court has found that a charge under Section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 of engaging in a course of abusive behaviour against an accused’s ex-partner was able to be sufficiently corroborated by Crown evidence. The accused, JH, was charged with str

The Crown Office has paid out £35 million over its malicious prosecutions relating to Rangers FC, its accounts show. The 2020/21 accounts, laid before Holyrood last week, show that £40.5m of taxpayer money has so far been earmarked for Rangers-related cases.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has unveiled a planned overhaul of the Human Rights Act. Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Raab said the European Court of Human Rights was imposing too many "obligations on the state" as opposed to defending individuals from "undue interference".

UK law firms' fees and profits are exceeding expectations this year, a report from PwC shows. Its 30th Law Firms’ Survey showed that just under three-quarters of firms reported an increase in fee income with 76 per cent seeing profit increases. The findings are consonant with the figures from

On 15 October 2021, Sheriff Martin Edington sat for the last time at Livingston Sheriff Court as its senior sheriff. After more than 20 years on the shrieval bench, Sheriff Edington will officially retire on 27 October. From 1999 until 2003, Sheriff Edington presided as a temporary sheriff, then an