News

A Scots lawyer who represented an elderly victim of a mortgage fraudster has been struck off the solicitors’ roll after being found guilty of “professional misconduct” over his failure to act his client’s best interests. Solicitor Alistair Bowie, 69, concluded missives w

Plans to devolve various tribunals to Scotland as part of the Smith agreement are to be delayed by at least two years, The Herald reports. The Scottish government was meant to take over the operation of a number of tribunals but a report now makes clear this will now not take place “before 202

Anderson Strathern has appointed Jemma Richardson as a director in its residential property team following growth in business. Ms Richardson joins the firm from Simpson & Marwick. She’ll work alongside the head of residential property, Sara Jalicy, and head of East Lothian operations, Grah

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Inheritance Tax and Intergenerational Fairness has published proposals for radical reform of the current inheritance tax system. The move follows two previous reports from the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), with the APPG proposing sweeping changes.

Plans to deliver Edinburgh’s first purpose-built music and performance venue for more than 100 years are back on track after the developer of a nearby shopping centre dropped its legal challenge.

The number of diversion from prosecution cases commenced in Scotland rose by seven per cent between 2017 and 2019 to over 1,800, around the same as the levels in 2014-15 and 2015-16. The statistics report, Criminal justice social work statistics in Scotland: 2018-19, published today by Sco

A serious fire occurred at the headquarters of the Law Society of England and Wales in London on Saturday night. Eleven people were evacuated from the building, which also houses The Law Society Gazette, as 150 firefighters fought the blaze at Chancery Lane at around 10:40 pm.

Sikhs have threatened to take legal action against Scottish government ministers if they are classified as a religion rather than an ethnic minority on the census. Sikhism is an Indian religion founded by Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century.

A third of courthouses in England and Wales have been closed in the past decade and sold to raise up to £250 million, new research indicates. The number of courts fell from 923 in 2010 to 628 by the end of 2019, The Times reports.

A Scots law student is set to spend the summer working with a death row project in America. Iain Mathieson, who graduated from Dundee University in 2018, will be working with the Arizona Capital Representation Project as a caseworker, assisting the organisation in its death penalty litigation work.

An item of jewellery has become the bane of a police force after it appealed for help in finding its "rightful owner". The item in question is a replica of the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings.

Ronald Conway responds to Michael Upton's recent reflections on Brexit. So John Cleese famously asked in The Life of Brian.

A right-wing extremist convicted of downloading “sinister, violent and disturbing” terrorist material has had an appeal against his prison sentence dismissed. David Dudgeon was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, reduced from a period of three years, after pleading guilty to

Plans to open civil partnerships to different-sex couples have drawbacks, but those might be a blessing in the long run, the Faculty of Advocates has suggested. In a submission to the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee, the Faculty said the Civil Partnership (Scotland)

A teenage trio who murdered a vulnerable pensioner have been sentenced to life imprisonment at the High Court in Edinburgh. Keirin McMillan or Elliott, who was 19 at the time of the offence, and two boys aged 16 and 17 were convicted in November of last year of the murder and robbery of Alasdair McP