Blueprint for cheaper, faster, fairer justice for all

Scotland's second most senior judge yesterday outlined plans to make what he called "failing" courts better, quicker and cheaper to run.

Brian Gill, the Lord Justice Clerk, laid out detailed and radical proposals that he believes will make it easier for Scots to obtain justice in anything from a simple housing dispute to a major corporate lawsuit.

The report has been welcomed by the Scottish Government, which is now likely to implement the changes over the next five years.

The reforms are the most comprehensive to be proposed since before Queen Victoria ascended to the throne – and, if backed by politicians, would have almost as big an impact on criminal justice as civil.

They include plans to slim down the most powerful civil court in the land, the Court of Session, and transfer much of its casework to sheriffs as well as the creation of a new kind of judicial officer, called a district judge.

Lord Gill has also called for what effectively amounts to two new national tribunals, a Scotland-wide personal injury court in Edinburgh and a single new court of appeal for sheriff cases, criminal and civil.

And he spelled out new ways of speeding up justice, ensuring that civil cases do not, as they can now, drag on for years, often ending without ever going to court.

The lawman, regarded as one of Scotland's finest legal minds, yesterday published his official Scottish Civil Courts Review, which runs to more than 600 pages. It was commissioned by the former Labour-Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive more than two years ago. But Lord Gill was yesterday at pains to stress that his work had been "enthusiastically supported" by the SNP government, too.

Scotland's civil justice system, he said, was in desperate need of a fix. He said: "We are proud of Scots law and our independent legal system but what is the point if the machinery of justice in Scotland does not work?

"Our study has satisfied us that civil justice in Scotland is failing. It is failing to deliver justice to the citizen expeditiously, economically or efficiently.

"Our structures and procedures are wholly unsuited to modern conditions.

"They inflict needless costs on the public purse, on the Scottish Legal Aid Board and on individual litigants at every level. The system's delays are notorious and in some cases scandalous. Its procedural inefficiencies operate against the interests of justice."

Legal insiders were yesterday astonished that such a damning indictment of the system should be delivered by one of its most senior figures. But there is said to be considerable acceptance of the need for reform within the legal profession. Some senior advocates have said they fear that legal work, particularly commercial jobs, will "go south" to London courts if Scotland's rickety system is not repaired.

The reforms are not all good news for the profession, however. Lord Gill, when asked if some lawyers would be worse off because of his reforms, said: "There will be people who this will seriously affect. It stands to reason that if you are trying to make justice cheaper for the litigant then legal costs have to come down."

Scotland's civil courts cost around 30 million to run every year with taxpayers footing around half of the total bill. Lord Gill was unable to say how much his reforms would save. But he said he expected the number of judges in the Court of Session to fall. The salaries of such judges run into more than 100,000 a year. Lord Gill has proposed what he called a major shift of jurisdiction from the Court of Session to sheriff courts.

Scots can currently sue in either court, provided the value of their case exceeds 5,000. Lord Gill said that this jurisdictional overlap between sheriff courts and the Court of Session was "a fundamental weakness" in the Scottish system.

He called for the courts service, not litigants, to decide who should hear cases.

Lord Gill said his proposals would effectively impose a system of hierarchy to Scottish civil courts. But the veteran judge admitted they would also have profound effects on the criminal justice system.

Sheriffs, he said, should focus on bigger civil cases. They should be encouraged to specialise in key areas like family law, commerce, personal injury or crime. They should no longer, Lord Gill suggested, have to hear simple summary cases – the sundry assaults and thefts, heard without a jury, that currently take up much of their time.

Instead, he said, such matters should be dealt with by his new category of district judges – junior sheriffs not to be confused with the justices of peace who currently hear minor criminal and administrative cases in district courts.

The new district judges under the Lord Gill system will also be expected to handle simple and straightforward low-value civil actions, including small claims, housing disputes and appeals from the children's hearing system, freeing sheriffs to deal with more weighty matters.

Lord Gill outlined plans to encourage mediation to keep some disputes out of court. He stopped short, however, of recommending that alternatives to court should always be tried before suing.

Most court work, he said, is still done on paper and most data is kept manually. He believes the entire court system should move to a simplified electronic system.

Court of Session

SCOTLAND'S supreme civil court will see some of the biggest changes in its more than 500-year history. Currently, its 34 judges can be asked to rule on any civil matter valued at over 5,000, including almost countless personal injury claims.

Lord Gill believes the nation's leading legal minds should focus on those cases that are the most important, financially and legally. His proposals would see fewer judges on the Court of Session bench dealing with far fewer cases at first instance. It would, however, retain its position as the ultimate court of appeal on all civil cases.

Sheriff Courts

Sheriffs, who already have hefty criminal and civil workloads, will be expected to handle many civil actions previously dealt with by the Court of Session. Currently they only have "exclusive" jurisdiction over cases valued at up to 5,000. Under the proposed system sheriffs would be asked to judge claims of up to 150,000. The reforms, however, should see senior sheriffs freed from some of their more routine cases, criminal and civil.

DISTRICT JUDGES

Gill proposes the creation of an entirely new judicial officer for Scotland, the district judge. They would effectively be junior sheriffs, hearing civil actions of "modest value", minor family disputes, most housing cases and referrals and appeals from the children's hearing systems. Lord Gill also proposes that such judges should handle summary criminal cases, those where a full sheriff currently sits without a jury.

NATIONAL SHERIFF APPEAL COURT

This new body will hear appeals from summary criminal cases and civil cases that have been before sheriffs or district judges and would take that pressure off the Court of Session. Inevitably, some cases will still be fought all the way to the highest court in the land.

PERSONAL INJURY COURT

Personal injury claims account for much of the business clogging up the civil justice system. The Gill Review would like to see many go before specialist sheriffs, either at local courts, or at a national personal injury court. Lord Gill would, however, like to see the most complex and serious cases still go to the Court of Session.