The Scottish Government has published details of a new Bill that it claims will bring about the biggest modernisation of Scotland’s courts in a generation.
The Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill implements many of the recommendations of the Scottish Civil Courts Review, led by principal reviewer Lord Gill and commissioned in 2007. Lord Gill recommended substantial changes to modernise and improve the structure and operation of the courts, which he described in the review as ‘slow, inefficient and expensive’.
Key provisions in the bill include:
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said:
“At present many lower value personal injury cases are raised in the Court of Session costing the parties a disproportionate amount and clogging up the court.
“In future, most of these cases will be able to be raised in the specialist personal injury court with specialist sheriffs and procedures designed to achieve settlement swiftly and at a proportionate cost to the parties. The sheriff courts are well placed to handle this transfer as the total cases coming out of the Court of Session is only around three per cent of the civil caseload in the sheriff courts.”
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