Michael Zander reports on Scottish proposals for civil justice reform
Although many of the recommendations of the Report of the Scottish Civil Courts Review (the Gill report), published in September, are of interest purely in Scotland, some are of wider interest, especially in the context of “the Woolf Reforms 10-Years-On” debates.
The review was carried out over two years by four judges led by Lord Gill, the lord justice clerk.
The most important recommendations concern the organisation of the courts structure. The root of the civil justice problem, Lord Gill says in his introduction, is that Scotland, uniquely among the major jurisdictions of the British Isles, has no proper hierarchy of civil courts. At first instance, the jurisdiction of the sheriff court and the court of session mostly overlap, with only two levels of judge. As a result, “much of the work of these courts is done by judges and sheriffs who are over-qualified for it”.
The report recommends a major transfer of business from the court of session to the sheriff court. (The
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