Gill Report Published Today
1st October 2009
Lord Gill's Report on his Review of Scottish Civil Justice was published today and is available to view online on the Scottish Court Website at: www.scotcourts.gov.uk/civilcourtsreview.
The Report's aim is to recommend means of improving civil justice by making it faster, cheaper and fairer. Having taken almost 2 1/2 years to prepare, it examines, among other issues, costs of litigation to parties and to the public purse, mediation and other methods of dispute resolution, modern methods of communication and case management, and specialisation of courts or procedures.
The Report is rather lengthy, comprising two volumes of several hundreds of pages. A brief synopsis is available at: www.scotcourts.gov.uk/civilcourtsreview/theReport/Synopsis280909.pdf.
Findings and recommendations include the following:
- Concern among parties over long delays in their cases proceeding to hearings, often owing to civil business being postponed to make way for criminal business.
- Desire among practitioners for greater specialisation among judges. Accordingly, each sheriffdom should include specialist sheriffs, while there should also be a new category of judge called "district judge" to sit in the sheriff court on cases of modest value.
- Concern over the amount of business proceeding before the Court of Session that could be heard elsewhere, e.g. cases at first instance and Sheriff Court first appeals. Accordingly, there should be a threshold for bringing a case before the Court of Session of £150,001, below which sum litigation would require to be raised at the sheriff court. There should be a new National Sheriff Appeal Court.
- Desire for greater use of case management procedures and modern information technology. Accordingly, initial procedure should be done by telephone conference calls, emails etc.
- Desire for simpler procedures for party-litigants. Accordingly, there should be a new, simplified set of rules for cases worth up to £5,000, which should be written in plain English. There should be greater facility for lay representatives, so-called 'McKenzie Friends'.
- The government should foster the growth of in-court advice services for housing law issues.
- There should be a Civil Justice Council for Scotland to look at rules reform and to monitor the development of new court structures and procedures.
- There should be more legal education.
In conclusion, the Report puts forwards some interesting, thoughtful and progressive suggestions for legal reform. Taken as a whole, these could produce a radical shift in the legal landscape of civil justice in this country.