Scotland’s most senior judge, The Lord President, has announced reforms to the Court of Session’s calendar which it is hoped, will greatly increase the speed with which cases proceed through this court.
The Court of Session is Scotland’s supreme civil court, hearing cases at first instance on a wide range of civil matters and hearing some cases on appeal. Traditionally, the court calendar was arranged into 3 terms, in much the same way as school terms are.
The court would traditionally be on Vacation (or “in recess”) for 3-4 weeks over the Christmas period, for one month around Easter and for approximately 3 months over the summer period. This meant that, in effect, the Court only sat to deal with cases for roughly 7 months in any given year.
When litigants have required a Proof diet (i.e. a civil trial) that was going to take more than 4 days to conclude in order to resolve their case, they were often having to wait 18-24 months for a suitable diet to become available in the court calendar.
The reforms announced by the Lord President this week have done away with the long summer recess entirely and has reduced the Christmas and Easter vacations to just 2 weeks each, meaning that the court will be in session for 11 months of the year. Accordingly, the court ought to be handle many more civil cases in any given year and Proof diets and other substantive hearings should be available much sooner than they currently are. This reform also brings the Court of Session in line with the practice of the Commercial court and the High Court of Justiciary (which deals with criminal cases) which do not operate under a trimester system.
Although there may be many civil advocates, QCs and Court of Session solicitors who will rue the fact that there will no longer be a long summer recess in which to take holidays or to “get one’s house in order” before the start of the new legal year, it is, without doubt, in the interests of justice and in the interests of every client that their court actions are dealt with as expeditiously as possible. This new reform is, therefore, to be embraced by all!