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The Crown Office has lodged a first notice to begin the court process for a fatal accident inquiry into the death of 59-year-old Alexander Salmond. Mr Salmond, an inmate within HMP Glenochil, near Alloa, died on 26 October 2022 after a gradual deterioration in his health.

The archive of the Scottish Law Agents Society (SLAS) is now in the care of the Signet Library, where it will be made accessible for study and scholarship.

Police were called to a German pub after a foreign customer inadvertently violated local custom by making 16 separate card transactions over the course of an evening. The 21-year-old Latvian customer ordered and drank 16 beers, paying for each one by card payment – which is not standard practi

Family law expert Shona Smith will be joining Blackadders' team in Edinburgh later this month. She brings extensive experience to the firm and has been accredited as a specialist in family law by the Law Society of Scotland since 1999.

Holmes Mackillop has announced appointments within the corporate and wills, estates and future planning teams. Rachel Loose completed a traineeship at Holmes Mackillop focused on corporate transactional work; Sophie Woodside also completed her traineeship at the firm, with a particular focus on will

Scotland's reconviction rate was 26.9 per cent in 2020-21 – a 2.6 percentage point increase from 24.3 per cent in 2019-20. The average number of reconvictions per offender, a measure of how often offenders are reconvicted, increased by eight per cent in the same period from 0.41 to 0.44.

The Faculty of Advocates has launched a new award to recognise human rights lawyers and defenders who uphold human rights and the rule of law worldwide. The 2023 Rule of Law Index revealed that more than six billion people live in countries where the rule of law weakened between 2022 and 2023. Funda

Individuals could spend more time under community supervision as part of their prison sentence, a consultation has proposed. Views are being sought on changing the point of release under licence conditions for people serving a custodial sentence of four years or more, which would "provide a more man

Amnesty International has documented new shipments of aviation fuel to Myanmar despite global calls to deprive the country’s military of the resources it needs to carry out unlawful air strikes. In January 2024, Amnesty International exposed the Myanmar military’s new evasive tactics for

Legal expert Professor Alison Britton passed away last Tuesday at the age of 63 following a short illness. As professor of healthcare and medical law at Glasgow Caledonian University, she carried out consultancy work for a range of organisations including the World Health Organization, the British M

A man who set fire to two properties while conspiring to set others ablaze has been jailed for three years after his encrypted phone messages revealed his crimes. Lewis Connor, 27, used five jerry cans filled with petrol to substantially damage a house in Dennyloanhead, near Falkirk, which was under

A team established to consider how the recommendations in the Cass Review might apply to NHS services in Scotland has submitted its findings to the Scottish Parliament, including a recommendation that the use of puberty-suppressing hormones be paused. A senior clinical team, commissioned by the chie

A round-up of human rights stories from around the world. 'Agony and pain': US health professionals reflect on the Gaza war

A former local authority employee who embezzled more than £1 million from Aberdeen City Council over a 17-year period has been imprisoned for four years. Michael Paterson, 59, set up an internal pathway which allowed him to fraudulently issue council tax refunds into his own bank account.

Joanna Cherry KC has lost Edinburgh South West to Labour’s Scott Arthur MP as the SNP suffered a major defeat at Westminster in the general election. Ms Cherry, a non-practising member of Arnot Manderson Advocates, said many voters felt that the SNP had “dropped the ball” on the ca