Absolvitor: Scots Law Online

The House of Lords has ruled, in the case of Helow v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, that the fair-mided and informed observer would not have considered there was a real possibility of bias in Lady Cosgrove’s hearing of an asylum case involving a member of the Palestinian
Liberation Organisation, notwithstanding her membership of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is to consider whether to use its statutory powers to bring a legal challenge against Aberdeen City Council on whether their recent budget cuts have been “equality impact assessed” as required by law.

The council cutbacks caused controversy in May when the authority closed the Choices disabled day centre. Choices offered respite care for 56 people and was closed as part of the council’s programme of budget savings. Choices campaigner Kevin McCahery, the petitioner in the case of McCahery v. Aberdeen City Council was reported by BBC News as saying he was delighted at the news.

According to the International Middle East Media Centre, a group of international legal personalities from Ireland and Scotland visited eastern parts of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, mainly in the southern Khan Younis city, observing the damage caused by continuous Israeli army actions in such a border area.

The visit, according to local organizers, was aimed at observing the amount of suffering Palestinian residents face due to the frequent Israeli attacks. The Gaza Youth Development Society, the principal organizer, reported that the delegation talked directly to the local inhabitants.

Emad Asfour, the society’s head, called on the delegation to convey what they witnessed in Gaza to their countries, so an international mobility can be maintained for the sake of ending the suffering of Gaza’s population under the Israeli blockade and actions. For example, it is reported that the eastern border areas of Gaza adjacent to Israel have been frequently exposed to Israeli army actions such as shooting heavily and razing large areas of farm lands.

BBC News reports that Sheriff Hogg in Edinburgh Sheriff Court has fined a Polish man £100 for breach of the peace for taking a photo of an unwell (the report suggests possibly drunk) woman outside a pub.

The Sheriff is quoted as saying: “I’m going to impose a fine to remind him chivalry is not dead and when somebody is in distress you leave them to it.”

Wait a moment, I’m not sure where the Sheriff gets his information on chivalry from, but I have it on good authority that the knight’s approach to the damsal in distress is not to “leave her to it”. In fact, the amateur photographer ought to have assisted the woman, then laid seige to the inn which had served her the offending food/drink instead.

For more on this peculiar judgement, see zero point nine.

Hot on the heels of my own heroic efforts in the case of M. v. Aberdeenshire Council and Campbell Smith‘s class size busting case in East Lothian Council, Petitioners, comes another parental victory in a placing request appeal to the Sheriff.

It has been reported that a couple from Helensburgh have secured a place at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh. Argyll & Bute Council had insisted that the child’s current placement at Hermitage Academy(declared interest – I was once, actually twice, a pupil there) was more suitable for her.

It turns out that they were wrong and – if the allegations made by the parents in The Scotsman are accurate – also dishonest, corrupt and malicious.

I have not read the judgement as yet, but I imagine that the (unnamed) lawyer’s claim that this case will set a precedent is a little on the optimistic side.

Just a brief post, to draw your attention to the good news story in the Herald about prisoners making time to help themselves and their communities by contributing to community time banks.

Heartwarming isn’t it? Community service in the truest sense. If you’re not familiar with time banking, see TimeBank UK for details.

The image accompanying this post shows the jaw-dropping Italian Chapel in Orkney – an example of what a few prisoners and a lot of time can do.

According to the Daily Record, the number of women training to be advocates in Scotland’s courts is set to equal the number of male devils for the first time.

Numbers of women have risen recently and this year’s autumn intake is almost an equal split.

Claire Mitchell, one of the 110 female practising advocates in Scotland, is quoted as saying: “The figures are a very promising sign for women in the business. The Law Society estimate that by 2011, there will be more women than men in the legal profession.”

“No doubt at some time, there will be a 50-50 split at the faculty as well.”

The Record also reminds us that Scotland’s first female advocate was Margaret Kidd, who was admitted to the Scottish Bar in 1923 and continued to practice until 1974.

The Stornoway Gazette reports that Calmax Construction Company, based in Lewis, were fined a total of £10,000 for waste and pollution charges.

It seems that Calmax were demolishing a house and the rubble left over contained a substantial amount of asbestos. Rather than, I don’t know, calling in some experts to get rid of this hazardous substance safely, Calmax decided to simply burn it. Their crime was only detected by the eagle eyes of “a passing officer” from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Am I alone in thinking that the fine in this case is not set at a level likely to deter? I don’t know what the going rate is for safely disposing of a houseful of asbestos, but I reckon that it’s expensive enough to make an asbestosis bonfire a profitable venture at that level of fine. To my mind the directors of the company should be ordered by the court to eat anything they haven’t disposed of correctly.

The image shows a close up of asbestos (when not on fire).