Civil justice statistics in Scotland: 2018-2019

1. Civil justice and court reform

In Scotland, civil law cases are usually conducted in a sheriff court or the Court of Session. Some cases are also heard in tribunals (section 1.3.1).

This chapter examines the procedures used in civil law in the Court of Session and sheriff courts (Figure 2). It then details recent reforms of these procedures (1.2). Finally we examine the evidence from courts data of the effect of these phased reforms (1.3).

Our findings suggest that:

• A significant amount of business has moved out of the Court of Session, which saw initiated cases decreasing by 48% since 2015-16.
• The specialised Sheriff Personal Injury Court now handles nearly 40% of personal injury cases in Scotland.
• The simple procedure has now effectively replaced the small claims procedure in sheriff courts, along with more straightforward summary cause cases.

1.1 Structures and procedures in civil courts

Figure 1 shows the current court structure and procedures, detailed in the following sections.

1.1.1 Sheriff court procedures

Civil law cases initiated in the sheriff courts can be pursued in one of five procedures:

Small claims – Small claims (claims up to £3,000) have largely been replaced by the simple procedure except for a very small number of EU cases.

Summary cause – This procedure is used where the case involves any monetary claim over £3,000 and up to and including £5,000. It is also used for the recovery of rented property, for the recovery of moveable property and for personal injury cases up to and including £5,000. Cases carried out using this procedure may be heard only in the sheriff courts at first instance. Simple procedure (phase one) has replaced actions relating to payment, delivery or for recovery of possession of moveable property and actions which order someone to do something specific.

Summary application – This is a less commonly used procedure, designed to be quick and informal. It is generally used for statutory applications (in other words, processes set out in legislation). For example, appeals from decisions of licensing boards are heard under summary application. Actions for the repossession of homes because of mortgage arrears also take place under summary application.

Simple procedure – This was introduced by the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, amalgamating small claims actions and summary cause in the sheriff courts, from 28 November 2016. Simple procedure (phase one) only covers the most straightforward summary causes, procedures for more complex cases will follow in due course. Similar to the procedures it replaced, the simple procedure applies to cases with a value up to and including £5,000.

Ordinary cause – This procedure is used where the case involves any monetary claim over £5,000, for cases involving family disputes and for many other cases where more complex legal issues arise. Cases carried out using this procedure may be heard in the sheriff courts or the Court of Session. Since 22 September 2015, cases up to and including a value of £100,000 are within the exclusive competence of the sheriff courts, as set out by the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

Since January 2016, appeals of civil cases which have been disposed of in the sheriff courts (whether by summary sheriffs or sheriffs) go to the Sheriff Appeal Court (Civil), except in some specialised pieces of legislation where direct appeal may be made to the Inner House of the Court of Session.

1.1.2 Court of Session procedures

The Court of Session is the highest civil court in Scotland. Cases before the Court of Session are normally initiated in one of two departments:

General Department - deals mainly with cases where one person wants to enforce a legal right against another. The General Department deals with a variety of case types including: personal injury, family, damages, interdict, intellectual property, debt and commercial.

Petition Department - deals with cases where the authority of the court is sought to deal with a variety of legal issues, other than disputes between people or organisations.

Cases are heard either in the Outer House or the Inner House. The Outer House is where the majority of cases are first heard. In this court, a single judge normally presides over cases. The Inner House deals primarily with appeals, although it does hear a small amount of first instance business. At least three judges sit to hear cases in the Inner House, except where the business is procedural in nature when a single judge may sit for most classes of appeal.

Appeals from the Outer House, known as reclaiming motions, are made to the Inner House (which also hears certain appeals from the Sheriff Appeal Court and certain tribunals and other bodies). Judgments of the Inner House of the Court of Session can be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

1.1.3 Specialist courts and tribunals

A number of specialist civil courts and tribunals also operate in Scotland. Examples of specialist courts include the Scottish Land Court, which deals with agricultural and crofting matters, and the Lands Valuation Appeal Court, which deals with rateable value issues. Appeal from specialist courts is usually to the Inner House of the Court of Session.

Some tribunals in Scotland operate in areas of devolved competence and some of these, the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, for example, are administered by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS). SCTS also provide support for the wide range of tribunals that form the Scottish Tribunals (see section on their website).

There are also a number of tribunals in Scotland which deal with areas of reserved competence – for example the Child Support Tribunal and the Employment Tribunal. These are currently administered by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.

The Scotland Act 2016 put in place arrangements to devolve the administration of reserved tribunals to the Scottish Parliament. The devolution will be delivered by an Order in Council which is currently the subject of discussion between the UK and Scottish Governments.

Statistics on specialist courts and tribunals are not included in this bulletin. Further information can be found in those courts and tribunals’ annual reports (Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland annual reports, Scottish Land Court reported decisions and Lands Tribunal for Scotland).  The President of the Scottish Tribunals also produces an annual report, Scottish Tribunals Annual Report.

1.2 Court reforms

In October 2014, the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 was passed by the Scottish Parliament and received Royal Assent in November 2014. The reforms aim to address existing inefficiencies and bring about a cost-efficient, effective and accessible civil justice system for all individuals. Key reforms introduced by the Act, their date of implementation and expected indicators of their effects are listed in the remainder of this section.

The changes outlined in this section are not an exhaustive list of changes introduced by the Act. Transitional arrangements apply to all of the reforms described. More information on the Act can be found on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website.

The Scottish Parliament passed the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 in May 2018.  It received Royal Assent on 5 June 2018.  The legislation contains provisions which aim to make the expenses in civil litigation more predictable and affordable, which, when implemented in 2020-21, will improve access to justice.  Improved access to justice may result in an increase in the number of cases, especially personal injury actions. The Act also makes provision for a group proceedings procedure which it is hoped will be introduced in 2020-21. The implementation of group proceedings is likely to result in a decrease in the number of actions as multiple claims of the same or similar nature are dealt with by one representative case.

1.2.1 Courts and procedures

Exclusive competence of sheriff courts

From 22^nd September 2015

The exclusive competence for all sheriff courts has been extended. Before the Act, only actions with a value of up to and including £5,000 could be raised in the sheriff courts, while cases above that value were eligible to be heard in the Court of Session. This has now changed, and actions with a value of up to and including £100,000 fall within the exclusive competence of the sheriff courts, while cases above this value will usually be raised in the Court of Session.

Sheriff Personal Injury Court

From 22^nd September 2015

Litigants can choose to raise actions pertaining to personal injury valued up to and including £100,000 either in their local sheriff court or in the national personal injury court in Edinburgh. For higher value actions, a pursuer (claimant) has the choice of these forums and also the Court of Session. The Sheriff Personal Injury Court was established to increase efficiency and reduce settlement times of cases.

Summary sheriffs

From 1^st April 2016

Summary sheriffs were created and they have a more limited jurisdiction than existing sheriffs, they are limited to dealing with cases of less than £5,000. Summary sheriffs are able to deal with the following proceedings: family; domestic abuse; adoption; children’s hearings; forced marriage; warrants and interim orders; diligence proceedings; extension of time to pay debts and simple procedure.

Simple procedure (phase one)

From 28^th November 2016

This procedure replaced most of the small claims actions (the exception being a few EU cases) and the more straightforward summary cause procedures, applying to cases with a value less than £5,000. Simple procedure has been designed to be efficient, inexpensive and informal, so that parties can represent themselves. It is mainly dealt with by the new summary sheriffs.

Simple procedure (phase one) only replaced summary cause actions relating to payment, delivery or for recovery of possession of moveable property, and actions which order someone to do something specific. A second phase of simple procedure is expected to follow in due course, covering certain types of actions not covered by the first phase such as personal injury cases.

1.2.2 Judicial review

From 22^nd September 2015

Reforms introduced require an application for raising proceedings to be made within a three month time limit. Applicants must also seek permission from the Court of Session to proceed under the new procedure for judicial review.

1.2.3 Appeals

Appeals from Court of Session to the UK Supreme Court

From 22^nd September 2015

Permission from Court of Session judges is now required before cases can reach the UK’s Supreme Court. This means any party wishing to overturn a decision from the Inner House of the Court of Session must seek permission beforehand. If the Inner House refuses, the party can seek permission from the Supreme Court directly. In effect, the changes mean appeals from Scotland to the Supreme Court are now subject to the same rules as appeals from other parts of the UK.

Sheriff Appeal Court (Civil)

From 1^st January 2016

The Sheriff Appeal Court was established to ensure cases are dealt with at an appropriate level and prevent unmeritorious claims from reaching the higher courts. The court is presided over by Appeal Sheriffs, and led to the previous sheriff principal role of adjudicating on appeals against decisions of sheriffs being abolished.

The effect of the reforms removes the ability to appeal directly from the sheriff court to the Court of Session, and provides a mechanism for appeal within the sheriff court system.

1.3 Recent trends of civil law court cases

Between 2009-10 and 2012-13, the number of cases initiated in the sheriff courts fell by 34% (excluding summary applications^[2]) (Table 1 & Figure 2). Cases in the Court of Session saw a more fluctuating trend.

From 2012-13 to 2015-16, the total number of initiated cases across all courts was stable at around 77,000 until a decrease of 5% to 73,600 in 2016-17.

The total number of civil cases initiated in the courts decreased in 2018-19, down 11% on the total for 2017-18, reversing the 10% increase seen last year. Decreases in case numbers were observed across most case types except damages (up 5%) and family (up 3%) (see section 2.2 for more information).

The main contributors for the decrease in initiations in 2018-19 are debt and eviction actions, down 20% and 15% respectively. Debt actions reversed the surge in volumes recorded last year, which saw the first full financial year of the simple procedure (Table 12). This year saw the first significant drop in evictions since their upward trend beginning in 2013-14.

In the following sections we examine these trends further in the context of the reforms of civil courts proceedings discussed in section 1.2.

1.3.1 Courts and procedures

In 2018-19, 66,241 cases were initiated in the sheriff courts and 60,872 were disposed. This represents a 12% decrease in initiations and a corresponding 5% decrease in disposals on the previous year (Table 3).

However, this decrease was not observed across all procedures in the sheriff courts. The numbers of ordinary cause procedures increased, although by a small margin of 1%. Small claims procedures were almost entirely replaced in 2018-19 by the simple procedure. (A large proportion of the remaining few cases relate to EU small claims cases)

2018-19 is the second full year of phase one simple procedure, and saw 28,249 cases initiated, and 29,613 disposed of. There was a 19% decrease in initiated cases from 2017-18, while disposals were down by 1%.

The simple procedure has absorbed nearly all small claims and summary cause cases for debt and damages actions (Table 12 and Table 19), although this year this did not result in an increase in the overall case load at sheriff courts. Since we only have two years’ worth of simple procedure data, the trend in case volumes is not yet clear.

A further 3,591 cases were initiated in the national Sheriff Personal Injury Court, a 9% increase on 2017-18 (Table 18). Based on the available data from 2015-16 onwards, many of the cases pursued in the Sheriff Personal Injury Court would likely have been initiated at the Court of Session, which has seen a corresponding fall in the number of cases initiated since the institution of the new court (Table 1).

While business levels have decreased by 11% across all courts, the number of cases initiated at the Court of Session is almost the same as 2017-18 at 2,275.

Combined, the simple procedure and Sheriff Personal Injury Court accounted for 44% of all civil court business, down from 47% in 2017-18.

The relative costs of these procedures is provided on the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service website^[3].

1.3.2 Judicial review

The Court of Session deals with judicial review. This is a specialised type of court procedure that can be used to challenge the way a person or body with power or authority has made a decision if no other remedy is possible.

There were 402 judicial review cases initiated in 2018-19, a 13% increase on 2017-18 (Table 25). Between 2015-16 and 2016-17 there was a large decrease, explained in part due to a rise in number of judicial reviews in the preceding year, ahead of the reform. The number of judicial reviews initiated at the Petition Department of the Court of Session has been highly variable over time.

1.3.3 Appeals

Sheriff Appeal Court (Civil)

In 2018-19, 266 cases were initiated and 203 disposed of (Table 26). Compared to 2017-18, the number of initiated cases decreased by 7%, and disposed cases by 14%.

Prior to January 2016, appeals would have been directed to the Court of Session, thereby entailing higher costs and possibly taking longer to determine. There has been a decrease in the appeals made from the sheriff courts, but numbers are small: for the last five years there were 53, 42, 18, 31 and 21 respectively (Table S8 Supplementary statistics tables). The last three years correspond to when the Sheriff Appeal Court operated for full financial years.

Appeals from Court of Session to the UK Supreme Court

In 2018-19, 18 civil law applications were initiated under the provisions for bringing appeals to the UK Supreme Court (Table 27). During this period, 19 applications were disposed of by the Inner House of the Court of Session (two granted, 15 refused and two withdrawn).

In 2018-19, of the 14 cases disposed of by the Supreme Court for permission to appeal (having been initially refused by the Inner House in Scotland), three were granted and the rest were refused^[4].