Advocates Respond to Gill Review
21st January 2010
While expressing overall support for Lord Gill’s recent Scottish Civil Courts Review, the Faculty of Advocates has nonetheless submitted a response which criticises the particular proposal to raise the financial threshold for cases suitable for the Court of Session. The limit is presently £5,000, but the Review proposes to increase this to £150,000, effectively bestowing on the Sheriff Courts exclusive jurisdiction on all cases worth less.
The Faculty describes the proposed new limit as ‘inexplicably high’, being three times the equivalent threshold applied in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (which operate different court systems).
It would mean that of the 3,400 or so cases currently before the Court of Session, about 2,000 would have been deemed unsuitable for Scotland’s highest domestic civil court.
Advocates and solicitor-advocates alone have a right of audience at the Court of Session, while solicitors may appear before the Sheriff Courts. Accordingly, there is a concern that raising the limit would perhaps remove work from advocates and put it instead into the hands of solicitors.