A report on responses to a consultation on the use of pre-action protocols in personal injury actions has been published by the Scottish Civil Justice Council.

 The existing voluntary pre‐action protocols in relation to personal injury and industrial disease claims were developed by the Law Society of Scotland.

 The Scottish Civil Courts Review 2009 recommended that these pre-action protocols should be compulsory and that, in principle, the protocols should apply to all categories of personal injury claim.

 The Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 gives the Court of Session the power to introduce, by means of rules, compulsory pre-action protocols. 

At its inaugural meeting of 10 June 2013 the Scottish Civil Justice Council’s Personal Injury Committee discussed the advantages of pre-action protocols and agreed that their usefulness was limited by the fact that they are not compulsory. 

 The PIC undertook an information and evidence gathering exercise between April and June 2014 in order to assist its consideration of the possible introduction of compulsory pre-action protocols and of the relevant rules. 

 The consultation responses have been published on the SCJC website.

 The PIC will look at the responses in depth and in due course make recommendations to the SCJC as to the policy which should be adopted.