SCTS announces enhancements to Civil Online

The Court Document Display and Electronic Notification changes will mean that Civil Online users will be able to open, save and print a range of court-generated simple procedure documents via the portal and courts will be able to send documents electronically to parties and their representatives who have elected for “online” contact, removing the requirement on court staff to send many court documents by post. Finally, Civil Online Users will receive notice when documents have been submitted by other parties in their simple procedure cases.

These features will be available for all cases registered by Sheriff Courts from 13 December 2018.

Simple Procedure Rule 6.5(1)(d) allows for a document to be “sent” by the court by making it available to that party using the portal on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website.

These changes will allow this particular rule to be applied and are intended to deliver the following benefits to users and SCTS: Civil Online users will receive close to real-time notification of decisions in their cases; they will have access to case information and court-generated documents outwith normal office hours; the notification process will be secure and reliable and courts will now actively inform Civil Online users when documents have been lodged by other parties.

To ensure Civil Online users, the judiciary and court staff have confidence in the new process, there will be a transitional period of at least four weeks during which courts will continue to send documents by post in all cases to allow post-release testing to take place.