Civil justice statistics in Scotland: 2018-2019

The 2018-2019 civil justice statistics in Scotland release includes main statistics tables, figures and supplementary statistics tables.


Table 12: Debt cases initiated and disposed of1 in the civil courts, by case type, 2009-10 to 2018-19

Cases Procedure 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 % change since 2017-18 % change since 2009-10
Initiated Court of Session2 1 4 8 6 5 70 8 6 14 9 -36 800
Sheriff: ordinary cause 12,054 9,200 6,944 5,487 4,586 4,407 5,342 4,483 5,012 4,218 -16 -65
Sheriff: commercial 318 223 266 222 241 378 335 259 249 305 22 -4
Sheriff: summary cause3 5,307 4,415 3,922 3,381 3,114 3,258 3,896 2,336 5 6 20 -100
Sheriff: small claim3, 4 38,251 31,533 29,110 26,803 27,444 25,642 25,338 17,522 7 5 -29 -100
Sheriff: simple procedure3 z z z z z z z 5,961 32,077 25,210 -21 z
Total initiated 55,931 45,375 40,250 35,899 35,390 33,755 34,919 30,567 37,364 29,753 -20 -47
Disposed Court of Session2 16 2 2 2 6 4 8 13 8 8 0 -50
Sheriff: ordinary cause 10,150 7,729 5,885 4,534 3,566 3,520 3,902 3,560 3,356 3,344 0 -67
Sheriff: commercial 231 166 175 117 143 303 222 183 162 208 28 -10
Sheriff: summary cause3 5,772 4,337 3,884 3,324 2,906 3,199 3,490 3,024 284 35 -88 -99
Sheriff: small claim3, 4 40,347 31,026 28,934 26,023 25,876 26,319 24,953 22,149 1,214 106 -91 -100
Sheriff: simple procedure3 z z z z z z z 962 27,549 26,569 -4 z
Total disposed 56,516 43,260 38,880 34,000 32,497 33,345 32,575 29,891 32,573 30,270 -7 -46

1. Figures for initiations and disposals do not necessarily refer to the same cases.

2. First instance business only – excludes appeals and reclaiming motions.

3. The first phase of simple procedure replaced the small claims and the more straightforward cases under summary cause procedure from 28 November 2016. 

More complex summary cause cases will move during phase two of simple procedure in due course.

4. There are still a small number of small claims cases being registered mainly under the EU small claims procedure.

Contact

Email: justice_analysts@gov.scot

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