Sheriff Appeal Court

The Sheriff Appeal Court (Civil):
A large margin of cases in Scotland are heard in the Sheriff court therefore it is the busiest court within the Scottish system as it deals with both civil and criminal cases. There are 6 sheriffdoms in Scotland and each one has a sheriff principle with a number of duties which will vary depending on the courts they are in charge of. The Sheriff Appeal Court hears the appeals from the summary criminal proceedings in the sheriff court and will also hear civil cases from the sheriff court which includes the Sheriff personal injury court. Case of “JACK CUMMING vs SSE PLC” would be a prime example of the personal injury cases the court faces in the sheriff appeal court. In this example Jack Cumming seeks damages
It deals with all types of civil cases from civil wrongs (delict) which can be anything from damages, negligence, trespassing etc. other types of cases the court deals with include contract, commercial family law and many others. The Court of Session is split up into two courts, the Outer House and the Inner House. The Outer House can hear cases that have not been to any court before whilst the Inner House mainly the appeal court. As stated previously it would deal with cases coming from both the Outer House and the Sheriff Court. Scotland also has a Supreme Court of its own separate from the United Kingdom Supreme Court. The civil justice system in Scotland is quite unique due to the fact the jurisdiction of the Sheriff Courts and the Court of Sessions overlap

As it was stated previously, The Sheriff Appeal Courts foundation was based on the then lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill's Scottish Civil Courts Review. At the time Lord Gill criticized the civil justice system describing it as “a Victorian model that had survived by means of periodic piecemeal reforms” and also stating that “It is failing the litigant and it is failing society” (team, 2014). The review described the different ways in which the civil justice could speed up the civil justice system by taking different steps such as:
• Refining access to
Many reforms that were proposed by Lord Gill have however have been opposed to by legal professions and solicitors who are worried about losing their exclusive rights to be able to charge whatever they would like for their services (team, 2014). Lord Gill came to the conclusion that 1/3 of appeals to the inner house came from the sheriff courts whilst 2/3 came from direct from the sheriff courts which means it would not go through the principle sheriff but would directly go to the inner house. Lord Gill recognised that the majority of these appeals were not complicated and did not require a new national court which would be named the Sheriff Appeal Court could be established in order to deal with these appeals. Nevertheless, Lord Gill proposed that more complex appeals could be dealt with by the Senators of the College of Justice in the Supreme Court of Scotland. Civil Appeals are regulated by Act of Sederunt made by the Court of Session on 8 December 2015 and came into force on 1st of January 2016 (Session,