The Council is undertaking a comprehensive project to reshape the nation’s civil procedure rules and is asking the public to help inform its review.

The Council is keen to engage with lay people and legal professionals alike to ensure the success of the far-reaching project.

A tour will be launched this summer with visits planned to all of the six court areas in Scotland and will include presentations, discussion and listening exercises.

In a recently published report, the Chair of the Council, the Lord President, Lord Carloway, says: “The public’s changed expectations of what services should look like, and how they should work, are key to understanding what fairness will mean in 2020. The public has become used to services which are increasingly swift and responsive, automated, available anywhere and accessible in a variety of different ways.”

He adds: “This is an opportunity to reshape civil justice and the Scottish Civil Justice Council needs to know what you think about those topics identified as forming the focus of our next year of work. The task is an ambitious but a necessary one: to build a civil justice system which makes more sense to someone born at the turn of the millennium than to someone born in the previous two centuries.”

The ‘New Civil Procedure Rules – First Report’ sets out the Council’s initial thoughts on the overarching principles of civil justice and how best to reshape the form and structure of court rules. This includes a bold vision for judges to actively manage defended actions.

Over the next year, the Council will focus on the development of a detailed model for ordinary procedure, both defended and undefended, in the Court of Session and sheriff court.

The work will be divided into six streams:

• commencement and initial case management
• applications and motions
• decrees, extracts and enforcement
• evidence, proof and hearings
• access to justice
• expenses and taxation.

Contact the Council at scjc@scotcourts.gov.uk with your queries and views.

@scottishcjc