In a recent case from the Appeal Court, the Crown appealed what they believed to be a lenient sentence handed down in the Sheriff Court which would not have arisen were it not for the unusual and unprecedented situation that we have all been living in in recent months. In HMA v Iain Lindsay [2020] HCJAC 26, Iain Lindsay, the Respondent, had pled...

We live in very interesting times.  The coronavirus pandemic has turned society on its head, forcing all of us to change the way we live our lives.  Even the court's system – traditionally resistant to new technology – has been forced to adopt radical new processes just to keep the wheels of justice turning. One key aspect of this has...

Julia Donnelly, who heads up our Family Law team, recently made legal history by conducting the first Scottish virtual civil proof hearing involving evidence from witnesses held on Monday 15 June 2020. Arrangements for the case, which concerned a father’s application for contact with his children, involved extensive collaboration between the...