Coronavirus

A new process to report COVID-19 deaths is now in place. Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has worked with National Records of Scotland (NRS) to put the new procedure in place, which involves cross-checking records between HPS and NRS to identify individuals who have died and have a laboratory-confir

A former senior judge has said efforts should be made to preserve jury trials during the pandemic after the Scottish government attempted to pass legislation allowing solemn trials to be conducted without juries. Crossbench peer Lord Hope of Craighead's comments come after the governm

The criminal bar has welcomed a decision by ministers to withdraw their plan for trial without jury, and vowed to help “find a temporary solution to this temporary problem”. The Scottish Criminal Bar Association (SCBA) had strongly condemned a provision in the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill

A joint statement issued by 14 European countries has raised concern about "the risk of violations of the principles of rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights" in responses to the coronavirus pandemic. The short statement was agreed by the governments of Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Fr

Darina Kerr details the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill's provisions relevant to the commercial property sector. The bill includes changes to the notice period required by landlords to ‘irritate’, or take back, a lease and pursue tenants for unpaid rent. This is now extended from 14 days to

The Scottish government is delaying controversial plans to abolish juries in solemn trials for the duration of the coronavirus emergency after a furious backlash from the legal profession and outraged politicians. The bill, which was introduced only yesterday by Constitution Secretary

The Lord Advocate has said that domestic abuse cases will continue to be prosecuted vigorously and fairly during the coronavirus pandemic. This comes one year after the introduction of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which criminalised coercive and controlling behaviour towards a partner or

The Scottish government is attempting to give ministers the power to allow solemn trials to be conducted without juries and to "dismantle in one fell swoop more than 600 years of legal principle" in a move described as a "knee-jerk reaction" at best and something "far more sinister" at worst. The Sc

Scotland’s first purpose-built justice centre in Inverness opens today.

A new website has been launched to track the use of alternatives to traditional court hearings during the coronavirus pandemic. Legal technologist Professor Richard Susskind, who is president of the Society for Computers and Law, said remotecourts.org is "designed to help the global community of jus

Watermans Legal has announced it will be offering a discount to health workers throughout 2020. The demand for wills has soared in the past month after the global health crisis sparked a surge of people enquiring about getting their affairs in order.

The UK government has been advised by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) that it can use anonymised mobile phone data in order to track people who have COVID-19. Deputy commissioner Steve Wood said in a statement: “Generalised location data trend analysis is helping to tackle the coro

The Lord President, Lord Carloway has published short statement intended to offer general advice to parents and carers whose children are the subject of orders made by a court relating to parental responsibilities and rights, for example in relation to contact or residence.

The Scottish government has fleshed out the details of its plans to give private and social tenants increased protection from eviction ahead of the emergency legislation being introduced at Holyrood tomorrow. The Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill will increase the minimum notice period for private an

The UK's wrongful trading law will be suspended to allow businesses to "weather the storm" of the coronavirus pandemic, business secretary Alok Sharma has announced. The change, backdated to apply from 1 March 2020, will allow directors of companies to pay staff and suppliers even if the compan