Gordon is coordinating the firm's response to a request from the
Sheriff Court Rules Council for views on the proposed introduction
of a specialist procedure for dealing with personal injury actions
in the Sheriff Court similar to the one that has been operating
successfully in the Court of Session for the last few years. As
many of you will be aware the new procedure was introduced in the
Court of Session to speed up the progress of personal injury
actions by doing Simpson & Marwick Information Bulletin away
with detailed pleadings and ensuring that in most cases proof/trial
dates were automatically allocated for twelve months after the
initial lodging of the defences. Parties were also obliged to
lodge detailed Valuations of Claim along with appropriate
supporting documentation within specified periods of time and hold
a pre-trial meeting at least four weeks in advance of the
proof/trial where meaningful discussions on the possibility of
agreeing parts if not all of the claim was expected.
There is little doubt that the introduction of the new personal
injury procedure in the Court of Session has resulted in cases
being dealt with more quickly and efficiently. As a firm we are in
favour of a similar procedure being adopted in the Sheriff Court
with one or two observations. The benefits of having similar
proceedings for personal injury actions in the upper and lower
courts are obvious. Our experience is that cases are perhaps not
quite as well presented in the Sheriff Court as in the Court of
Session and this should be borne in mind to ensure that any changes
in Sheriff Court rules will still result in a pursuer having to
give fair notice of the factual basis of his case and the duties of
care or statutory provisions relied upon.
Another issue is what the appropriate time period would be for a
Sheriff Court action between lodging of defences and allocation of
proof. This currently runs just under a year in the Court of
Session and that may be too long for the Sheriff Court. The
difficulty is of course that in the Sheriff Court one finds a
diverse range of actions from straightforward low value road
traffic accidents to high value and complex injury claims. There is
also the question of how long the Proof or trial should be. In the
Court of Session you will normally have a four day allocation but
again that might generally be thought of as too long for the
Sheriff Court.
Our view is that a standard period of nine months between the
lodging of defences and the proof/trial would be reasonable and
that a two day diet would suit most circumstances. In every case it
would be open to either side to apply to the court by Motion for a
variation of the timetable giving appropriate reasons.
We have also suggested that the pre-trial meeting might be
better taking place six or even eight weeks prior to the
proof/trial and that parties should be obliged to lodge up to date
valuations at that time.
As you might recall in last month's SMIB we highlighted the fact
that at Glasgow Sheriff Court they are presently running a pilot
scheme using an abbreviated Sheriff Court procedure again with a
view to speeding up the litigation process.
We will of course keep you fully updated on these important
issues as they develop.
Gordon Keyden, 52, is a Partner based at the Edinburgh office
and a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. If any
misdemeanours are uncovered the sanctions available to the
Management Board include a range of penalties the most draconian of
which would be having to caddy for Peter Anderson at next year's
event.