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Judicial review – Legal aid – Human rights – Right to respect for private and family life. Court of Session: Granting a judicial review petition by a petitioner, who was a complainer in criminal proceedings, and whose application for legal aid to enable her to be represented at a hearing before the sheriff of the accused's petition for recovery of her medical records was refused by the Scottish Ministers, who argued that she had no right to be heard or represented before the sheriff on that application, the court held that a haver and any person whose rights under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights might be infringed by an order for recovery of medical records and other sensitive documents must have the application for recovery intimated to them and be given the opportunity to be heard in opposition to the application before an order was made or, at least, before the documents were handed over to the party seeking them: accordingly the court reduced the Scottish Ministers' decision, founded as it was on an error of law as to the complainer's right to be heard, leaving the ministers to make a new decision on a correct legal basis.
Judicial review – Legal aid – Human rights – Right to respect for private and family life. Court of Session: Granting a judicial review petition by a petitioner, who was a complainer in criminal proceedings, and whose application for legal aid to enable her to be represented at a hearing before the sheriff of the accused's petition for recovery of her medical records was refused by the Scottish Ministers, who argued that she had no right to be heard or represented before the sheriff on that application, the court held that a haver and any person whose rights under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights might be infringed by an order for recovery of medical records and other sensitive documents must have the application for recovery intimated to them and be given the opportunity to be heard in opposition to the application before an order was made or, at least, before the documents were handed over to the party seeking them: accordingly the court reduced the Scottish Ministers' decision, founded as it was on an error of law as to the complainer's right to be heard, leaving the ministers to make a new decision on a correct legal basis.
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