PROPOSALS to transfer all civil cases, including the 11,000 divorce actions handled each year in Scotland, to the already overburdened sheriff court system, raises more questions than answers. The sheriff courts are already the busiest of their kind in Europe. Despite ongoing reforms, their business remains firmly in arrears. Apart from their huge workload of criminal cases, they also dealt with 125,000 more minor civil actions in 2006. A study drawn up by Lord Gill, Lord Justice Clerk, suggests that moving even complex civil actions relating to property, reparations and commercial issues would free up the time of more senior judges. On the surface, such streamlining makes eminent sense at the top end of the legal scale. But it fails to explain how a finite number of sheriffs and fiscals will cope with an expanded agenda, particularly where the arcane specialist knowledge demanded of those whose forte is corporate law or divorce legislation comes into play. While senior judges might be left with more time on their hands to rule on the major cases, their junior colleagues would inevitably find themselves submerged in even more work.
PROPOSALS to transfer all civil cases, including the 11,000 divorce actions handled each year in Scotland, to the already overburdened sheriff court system, raises more questions than answers. The sheriff courts are already the busiest of their kind in Europe.
