MSHB

The Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 extended the moratorium on diligence from six weeks to six months and temporarily removed the prohibition on a debtor applying for more than one moratorium in a 12 months period.  The rationale behind the provisions extending the period during which individuals with financial difficulties could secure protection from creditors taking action against them, is to allow such individuals more time to find advice on how best to deal with their debts as well as to recover from time-limited income shocks.

Shopping events are designed to whip us all into a frenzy. Many of us succumb to the temptation to purchase goods at a discounted price, but what are your rights if they turn out not to be quite what we hoped for? Retailers will typically offer a return on goods which are unopened, unused or faulty. But what happens when these items aren’t faulty and we simply experience ‘buyer’s remorse’? In this article, we look at your rights as a consumer when you purchase online or in-store.

With COP26 having now begun in Glasgow, we at Miller Samuel Hill Brown have been considering the impact of our business operations on the environment, along with many other business and individuals across the United Kingdom and the world. While as a law firm in the services sector our impact is minimal when compared with other sectors (such as manufacturing), that is no excuse to avoid making change ourselves. We have therefore considered what further steps we can take as we work towards minimising our impact on our shared environment. As a result of this review, we have redrafted and updated our environmental policy, the centrepiece of which is our ambitious target to be a net-zero firm by 2035, 10 years ahead of the Scottish Government’s target for Scotland to be net-zero by 2045. We are already taking steps towards that goal and are confident that we will surpass our target.

It has been quite a wait since it was recommended by Sheriff Principal Taylor in his 2013  Review of Expenses and Funding of Civil Litigation in Scotland – but cost shifting has finally arrived.