News

The Faculty of Advocates’ fictional member is back in time for Christmas this year in Edward Kane, Advocate in The Hanged Man. Created by Ross Macfarlane KC in 2019, the popular series continues in The Scotsman every weekday from today until Christmas Eve.

Police have been led on a chase by a 12-year-old boy who travelled over 150 miles in his grandfather's car before being caught. The child took the stolen car on a 161-mile journey, starting in Issaquah in Washington, USA and travelling through the Cascade Mountains.

Sara Snell has been appointed as the new HM chief inspector of prisons for Scotland. She has extensive experience in the UK justice system having worked in HM Prison Service in England and Wales for 25 years.

Terra Firma Chambers has won the award for Stable of the Year at the Legal 500 Scotland Awards 2024. Kenneth Young made it a double celebration for TFC by picking up the award for Junior of the Year.

Black Chambers has announced Angela Gray KC as its newest member. Ms Gray has been an advocate depute for over a decade (24 years as a prosecutor in total), during which time she represented the Crown in a wide range of High Court trials, and also appeared for the lord advocate at the Supreme Court

Applicants for rights over land under the Electronic Communications Code should investigate who occupies the land before raising proceedings, otherwise they risk causing unnecessary expense by directing the proceedings against the wrong party, the Lands Tribunal for Scotland held on 20 November in N

MML Law, the prominent Dundee solicitors’ firm, has announced a raft of new appointments and promotions. Jay Lawson, a solicitor in MML’s busy employment law practice, has been promoted to partner and Natalie Menzies, a lawyer in the firm’s expanding private client department, has

First Minister John Swinney said he is “dissatisfied” with the lack of progress on the private prosecution of footballer David Goodwillie. Mr Goodwillie was ruled – on a balance of probabilities – to have raped Denise Clair in a civil case in 2017.

Lady Hale has appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, is a former judge who served as the first female president of the Supreme Court. In 2019 she announced the court’s judgement that the prorogation of Parliament was "unlawful, void and of no eff

The Law Society of Scotland’s commitment to diversity and inclusion has been recognised with an improved ranking in the Top 100 Inclusive UK Employers Index for 2024. The society has been ranked 76th in the 2024 list from the National Centre for Diversity, up from 84th place last year.

Ministers have welcomed parliamentary approval of three new proposed commissioners to the Scottish Land Commission (SLC). Ministers selected Dr Lucy Beattie and Dr Calum MacLeod as land commissioners and Robert Black as tenant farming commissioner at the Scottish Land Commission, following their rec

Legislation to strengthen tenants’ rights and prevent homelessness has passed stage 1 in the Scottish Parliament. The Housing (Scotland) Bill aims to tackle poverty across Scotland by improving the renting experience for tenants, through a range of new rights and a system of rent controls, in

The former head of the Scottish Muslim Police Association (SMPA) has been ordered to repay £8,000 in compensation to the organisation after being convicted of embezzlement. Asma Ali, 47, of Glasgow, stole that sum from the SMPA and used the money to pay for flights and rail travel to London as

A stowaway has managed to fly from New York to Paris without a boarding pass. The woman, a Russian passport holder somewhere between 55 and 60 years old, is awaiting deportation to the United States following her arrival in France without a visa, CNN reports.

On 27 November the Sheriff Appeal Court held that it is a necessary condition for there to be an obligation that two persons are party to it, and so where there is no debtor, there is no debt. In Wright v Wright EDI-A337-23, the pursuer sought to call up a standard security granted by the defender f