A revolution for Scottish civil justice? October 1, 2009
Posted by Richard Moorhead in : Uncategorized , trackbackLord Gill’s eagerly awaited review of the Scottish civil justice system has just been published. Recommendations include:
- specialist sheriffs in solemn crime, general civil, personal injury, family and commercial;
- a dramatic increase in the exclusive jurisdiction of the sheriff court from its current level of £5,000 to £150,000;
- a specialist personal injury court;
- a docket system in the Court of Session and sheriff court;
- a new case management model;
- a presumption towards judicial case management for most cases (with different arrangements in place for personal injury cases);
- procedural business to be conducted by email, telephone, video conferencing or in writing a simplified and ‘interventionist’ (read inquisitorial?) approach to claims of £5,000 or less with rules written in plain English and drafted for party litigants rather than legal practitioners;
- a free mediation service for claims under the new simplified procedure; and,
- interestingly, no recommendations are made on speculative fee arrangements pending the outcome of the Jackson review although this is seen as ‘urgent’.
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