‘Legal reforms should lower the costs of going to court in Scotland but civil juries remain problematic’

Andrew Gilmour
Andrew Gilmour

Parties bringing cases in Scotland’s civil courts stand to benefit from lower costs, according to a legal expert.

Andrew Gilmour, Partner of BLM, the UK and Ireland risk and insurance law business, said that changes being introduced under the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 should generally help to save money for all litigants, both pursuers and defenders.

From 22 September, if a personal injury litigation case below £100,000 is raised in court then this will no longer be in the Court of Session.



This means that pursuers and defenders will be able to consult a solicitor to represent them in the Sheriff Court rather than paying for an advocate to appear on their behalf in the Court of Session.

Pursuers will have the choice of raising personal injury litigation valued at between £5,000 and £100,000 in either their local Sheriff Court or the new All-Scotland Personal Injuries Sheriff Court in Edinburgh; if they are seeking more than £100,000 then they will also have the option of going to the Court of Session.

Motor claims below £5,000 will be covered by the new Simple Procedure in local Sheriff Courts, which again should lower the cost of taking legal action.

Mr Gilmour said: “The increased use of Sheriff Courts instead of the Court of Session should lower the cost of bringing a case.

“We’re still waiting for a lot of the details to be published about the new Simple Procedure for Sheriff Courts, but these are likely to help keep costs down too.

“I also expect there to be more settlements out of court because the Scottish Civil Justice Council is going to consider making the current voluntary pre-action protocols into a compulsory scheme.”

Also in the reforms however, civil jury trials will be extended to cover the new All-Scotland Personal Injuries Sheriff Court. Previously, juries could only sit in civil cases in the Court of Session. Businesses and their insurers could face paying out larger sums in court cases under these changes.

Mr Gilmour said: “Civil juries can make very large awards in some cases.

“For example, in June a jury in the Court of Session awarded £140,000 to a 35 year old widow for the loss of society of her partner due to an industrial accident. This was more than 10 times what the total award would be in England for the bereavement suffered by all qualifying relatives.

“Businesses and their insurers need to be aware of this change in the law then and be prepared for jury trials in the new All-Scotland Personal Injuries Sheriff Court.

“In summary then the court reforms are a curate’s egg because the introduction of civil juries to the new All-Scotland Personal Injuries Sheriff Court could raise compensation payments and costs of going to court, but the increased use of Sheriff Courts instead of the Court of Session should lower costs in other cases.”

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