The rule change was approved by the Scottish Civil Justice Council to help deal with the efficient administration of business during the current Covid pandemic. The rule will be in force until 30 September 2021.

The rule means that all simple procedure cases must be submitted using Civil Online or, for solicitor firms, the new application programming interface (API) which was launched on 17 September.

Kay McCorquodale, chief development and innovation officer, said: “Civil Online has been live since April 2019 and has provided a quick, efficient and simple way for people to submit their claims. We launched our API in September allowing firms to submit multiple claims, which has been well received and has already resulted in 90 per cent of claims in October being registered electronically.

“This rule change will ensure a greater uptake in the use of the system which will help courts deal more efficiently with processing simple procedure claims. We were keen to ensure that the rule does not exclude anyone from raising a simple procedure claim and an exemption is included ensuring that those unable to access the system, for whatever reason, remain able to raise their claims.

“This rule change has effect until 30 September 2021 and we will use this time to monitor the practical effects of the change in order to assess how any permanent move towards electronic submission may benefit both users and the courts.”