News

A new £2 coin launched by The Royal Mint commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott. Scott, who was born in 1771, was an advocate as well as an author and is widely regarded as the Faculty of Advocates' most celebrated member.

Over a thousand computers used to mine cryptocurrency have been crushed by police using a steamroller. The 1,069 bitcoin mining rigs were seized by police in Malaysia after miners allegedly stole electricity worth $2 million from the power grid.

A post-mortem examination of a baby conducted against the wishes of his parents has been ruled a breach of Articles 8 and 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Leyla Polat, an Austrian national, became pregnant with her son Y.M. in 2006 and was told by doctors that her baby was l

Lord Matthews has been appointed to the Second Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session, effective from 1 August 2021. The Lord President, Lord Carloway, and the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, recommended the appointment to allow court business to continue to be dealt with efficiently

Scotland's new justice secretary has said he will not shy away from reforms that would raise the conviction rate in sex cases. Keith Brown said controversial plans for specialist sex crime courts without juries and the abolition of the not proven verdict, whose existence enables more acquittals acco

We have a new justice secretary who, at least in one respect, bears a similarity to his predecessor: he has not made any public statement about the ill-fated prosecution of Whitehouse and Clark, the Rangers’ administrators. I wrote to Keith Brown on 19 May asking about a public inquiry and rec

Donna Brennan has joined BTO Solicitors legal director in its Raeburn Hope office in Helensburgh. In her new role, Ms Brennan will manage the firm's wills, estates and succession planning team and in conjunction with her colleagues in Glasgow and Edinburgh, she will continue the expansion of th

Fiona McLeod provides a brief overview of the changes introduced by the Scottish Government's revised code of conduct for property factors. On 14 July 2021, the Scottish Government published a revised Code of Conduct for Property Factors setting out the minimum standards to which factors should adhe

The number of sheriff solemn cases concluded last month exceeded pre-Covid levels, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) figures show. There were 459 sheriff solemn cases concluded in June, which is 107 per cent of the average pre-Covid level.

Global legal business DWF has reported a 21 per cent rise in gross profit to £171.8 million in its full-year results for 2020/21. The group reported net revenue growth of 14 per cent (eight per cent organic) to £338.1 million at a gross margin of 50.8 per cent, while net revenue per part

Burness Paull has become the first Scottish law firm to become a signatory to the Terra Carta sustainable markets initiative supported by The Prince of Wales. Launched in January 2021, the Terra Carta (rather than the well-formed 'Terrestris Carta') provides a roadmap to 2030 for businesses to move

Israel has threatened ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's with "serious repercussions, legal and otherwise" after it said it would no longer sell its products in illegal settlements. In a statement on Monday, the ice cream company said it now believed it was "inconsistent with our values" for i

The Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain QC has recused herself from further involvement in the Rangers litigation. A number of individuals have been prosecuted, some maliciously, in respect of the acquisition and administration of Rangers Football Club.

Willie Rennie MSP has today said that the launch of a fraud probe into SNP donations shows the need for an independent director of public prosecutions, separate from the Lord Advocate’s role as the Scottish government’s chief law officer.  Last week, Police Scotland confirmed that i

A former Belgian judge was denied an effective remedy to challenge a judicial body's decision in breach of her rights, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled. The case concerned a former judge of the High Judicial Council (CSJ) who was suspended from her duties on the grounds that she