Philip Isaac Caplan, Lord Caplan, FRPS AFIAP (24 February 1929 – 7 November 2008) was a British lawyer and judge. He was a Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland from 1989 to 2000.[1][2]

Caplan was born into a Jewish family in Glasgow, the only son of businessman Hyman Caplan and his wife, Rosalena Caplan. He was educated at Eastwood High School and the University of Glasgow. He was a solicitor between 1952 and 1956, before being called to the bar in 1957. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1970.

He was appointed Sheriff of Lothian and Borders in 1979, then Sheriff Principal of North Strathclyde in 1983. In 1989, he was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, taking the title Lord Caplan. He sat both the Outer and Inner House, and retired in 2000. During his tenure, Caplan was one of the two Jewish judges on the Scottish High Court bench, alongside Hazel Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove.[2]

As a judge, Caplan heard what was then Scotland's longest civil case, which ran over 391 days, concerning the explosion of the oil platform Piper Alpha. In 1997, he issued a 1,500 page judgment which blamed the explosion on two dead platform workers, contradicting the report of Lord Cullen, which had blamed the platform's operator.[3][1][2]

Caplan was also a noted photographer.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 "Former High Court appeal judge Lord Caplan dies at 79". The Herald. 11 November 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Casely, Gordon (21 November 2008). "Lord Caplan". The Herald.
  3. ↑ "Workers blamed for oil rig disaster". The Guardian. 3 September 1997. p. 10.
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