The Scottish Civil Court has two main courts which are The Sheriff Courts which deals with small claims under the sum of one hundred thousand pounds, you can appeal the decision made by the Sheriff Courts in the Court of Session which is seen in Scotland as the Supreme Court of Civil Cases, This is followed by the UK Supreme Court where you can appeal the decision made by The Court Of Session.
The Sheriff Court deals with the majority of Civil cases in Scotland unless they are deemed off sufficient seriousness which in this case they would be heard in the Supreme Court Outer House.
The Sheriff Court is made up of six sheriffdom’s which are as followed;
Glasgow and Strathkelvin
Grampian, Highland and Islands
Lothian and Borders
North Strathclyde
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway
Tayside, Central and Fife
Each Sheriffdom has a sheriff principal charged with a number of duties in respect of the courts for which they are responsible, including in particular a duty “ to secure the efficient disposal of business in the sheriff courts of that sheriffdom”.
Civil matters being heard in the Sheriff court will be heard by a Sheriff sitting alone. The Sheriff Court has exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases with the value up to one hundred thousand pounds as of the 22nd of September 2015 prior to this the maximum value a claim that could be took to the Sheriff Court was the sum of five thousand pounds.
The types of cases which will be heard by a sheriff vary from cases involving debt,claims for compensation, contract disputes, bankruptcy, company liquidation, eviction and anti social behaviour, the Sheriff will also hear majority of family actions including divorce, child welfare and adoptions.
Cases can be presented by
Solicitors
Advocates
Cases are in the court are separated into
Small Claims – Claims with a value up to £3,000.
Summary Causes- Claims between £3,000 and £5,000, or claims for removal from heritable proper of what ever the value.
Ordinary Causes – All other cases are classes as ordinary causes. They have full, formal pleadings, and shorthand notes of evidence are taken.
The Sheriff Court is bound to follow decisions of the Inner House of the Court of Session which are in Point, and also the decisions of the House of Lords in Scottish cases. Decisions of the Outer House of the Court of Session , of the House of Lords in English cases, and of the Court of Appeal in England, are of persuasive, but not binding, authority.
The Court of Session
The court of Session is located in Parliament House in Edinburgh as a court of first instance and a court of appeal Scotland’s “Supreme” civil court, with jurisdiction over the whole of Scotland.
The Court is headed by the Lord President which since June 2012 has been The Right Hon Lord Carloway ( Colin John MacLean Sutherland) the second in rank being the Lord Justice Clerk since April 2016 has been Rt. Hon Lady Dorrian. The court is divided into The ‘Inner House’ and The ‘Outer House’, the former being divided into the first and second division
“The Outer House” is composed of twenty-two Lords who will either sit alone or in certain cases with a cvil jury. In the outer house Lords will hear civil cases at first instances on a range of matters such as delict (tort) and contract, commercial cases and judicial review. Judges within the outer house deal with a wide scope of work but designated judges will deal with intellectual property disputes. If you wish to appeal a ruling this would lie with the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom or the outer house
“The Inner House” is the appeal court although on rare cases it acts as a first instance court, the court is structured as First and Second divisions both of equal authority. The Court is presided over by the Lord President and the Lord Justice Clerk respectively. The divisions are made up of six judges each but the quorum is three. An extra division of three judges have been required more recently to deal with the high volume of cases. Appeals from the outer house are heard by the divisions along with appeals from the Sheriff Court and certain tribunals and other bodies. On rare occasions if a cases is deemed to be of a level of difficulty,importance or the judges feel it is necessary to overrule a previous binding authority a larger court is called which will seat five or more judges.
Judicial Review is a specialised type of court procedure that can be used to challenge the way in which a public organisation such as your local council has made a decision that affects you. its a way of supervising public bodies to make sure they’re acting within their legal powers and that they have proper procedures in place to deal with people fairly and openly. The judicial review will look at how the decision was made (and not where the decision itself was right or wrong), check that the organisation didn’t abuse its powers and check that it acted lawfully to do this you have to raise a petition for a judicial review.
The Court of Session has had special provisions for dealing with commercial actions for many years the purpose is to enable specialist judges to handle commercial cases quickly and flexibly.
Cases include any transaction or dispute of a commercial or business nature, Examples are banking and insurances transactions, contracts for the sale or supply of goods or services( national or international) and commercial leases. The court also deals with disputes about building contracts, partnership agreements and business property. Company petitions, raised under the Acts found in Division 1 of Volume 4 of the Parliament House Book, are also dealt with by the commercial judges.
cases will be presented by either an advocate who is a member of the facility whose status and function correspond to that of a barrister, A solicitor-advocate who is regarded as a member of the law society of Scotland, experienced solicitors who obtain an extension of theirs of audience by undergoing additional training in evidence and in the procedure of the court of session, A practitioner from another member state of the European Union where the circumstances are prescribed by the European Communities (services of Lawyers) Order 1978 and An individual who is a party to a case but a firm or a company must always be represented by a solicitor-advocate.
The UK. Supreme Court
The United Kingdom Supreme Court replaced the House of Lords as the highest court in the Land and was officially opened on the 1st of October 2009. The supreme court is an appeal court and therefore can not hear any case at first instances and can not hear any cases unless a relevant order has been made in a lower court. The court hears appeal cases from England,Wales,Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The UK Supreme Court is an independent institution, presided over by twelve appointed judges known formally as Justice of the Supreme Court. The last case to be heard in the House of Lords was the 30th of July, in the transition from The House of Lords to the UK Supreme Court, the Supreme Court assumed jurisdiction of the Appellate committee of the House of Lords and the devolution jurisdiction of the Judicial committee of the privy council.
Out of the twelve judges two Scottish Judges sit along side their other ten counterparts Lord Hodge & Lord Reed to give their professional view on Scots Civil law cases, as Scots law varies from other parts of the UK also Judges from Wales and Northern Ireland will sit along side English judges.
England & Wales
The court of appeal, Civil division
The court of appeal, Criminal division
High Court (in some limited cases)
Scotland
The court of session
Northern Ireland
The court of appeal
When the House of Lords moved to the UK Supreme Court eleven of the original twelve law lords became officially the first justices of the Supreme Court and will still remain members of the House of Lords, they will not have the right to sit or vote in the Lords, but once they retire they will return to the House of Lords, but newly appointed judges to the UK Supreme Court will not be given peerage.
The court is made up of twelve judges, known formally as Justice of the Supreme Court. This includes a President since 2012 is Lord Neuberger and a deputy president who is Lady Hale since 2013, who are appointed by the queen on the recommendation of the Judicial Appointments Commission.
The Supreme court is housed in the former Middlesex Guildhall on the western side of Parliament Square and this forms part of a pre-existing quadrangle made up of the House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Treasury. The Supreme Court location is seen as a highly symbolic of the United Kingdoms separation of powers.
The Uk Supreme Court
The court of Session
The Sheriff Court
There is other forums of resolving disputes without taking the matter to court these include mediation and arbitration.
Mediation is a way of resolving disputes without the necessity of going to court, it is a easy and an affective way of resolving disputes. If both parties agree to mediation then a trained mediator who is impartial to either side helps reach a decision which both parties are happy to agree with, the mediator does not have the legal power to impose a decision.All discussions held are in confidence this helps the mediator build a relationship with the parties and makes the parties feel like they can open up and go into personal detail about the case at hand. If an agreement can not be reached the parties are not bound by what has been discussed, the mediation agreement only becomes binding once both parties agree, if the agreement is not upheld by the parties it may be enforced contractually.
Types of cases that mediators can help resolve include consumer,contract,family and neighbour disputes.
The benefits of mediation are;
the outcome is worked out by both of the parties involved with the help of the mediator.
It avoids the uncertainty and dissatisfaction that can be experienced by a judge ruling where the parties have little control over the decision that can be made which may leave either party unpleased.
Mediation is a fast way to resolve disputes.
Mediation works in 90% of commercial disputes, a settlement is usually reached on the day or within a few days of the mediation meeting.
Step by step guide of the mediation process
An Individual meeting
Meeting the other party
Joint mediation
Conclusion
Post mediation
Arbitration aims to to resolve disputes fairly,impartially and without unnecessary delay or expense. Arbitration is much like a court process as parties still provide testimony and gives evidence similar to a trial but less formal. Scotland in many respects leads the way in arbitration as of 5th of June 2010 the Arbitration Scotland Act was giving royal ascent and came into force on the 7th of June.
The arbitrator which is the privately individual picked to determine the outcome of the case, under the Arbitration Scotland Act 2010 the decision reached by the arbitrator is legally binding on both parties, the right of appeal will be limited.
The process of picking the arbitrator is agreed by both parties, in doing this the parties can ensure the arbitrator is an expert in the choosing field of dispute which will understand the the profession and business practice and the terminology.The parties can ensure the arbitrator can deal with the dispute within an agreed timeframe where if the case was to go before a judge the timeframe would be out of there hands and could be caught up in the court timeframe.