Lord President looks at court reforms as new legal year opens

The Lord President, Lord Carloway, has looked at the effect of structural changes to Scotland’s courts system.

In an address to mark the opening of the new legal year attended by President of the United Kingdom Supreme Court, Lady Hale, Lord Thomas, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, Chief Justice of Ireland and President of the Irish Supreme Court and Sir Declan Morgan, Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Lord Carloway commented on the changes effected by the Courts Reform Act.

He said there has been a “significant reduction” in appellate and first instance civil work for the Court of Session as well as criminal appeals to the High Court.

“There has also been a predicted drop in the number of commercial cases. As a consequence of all of this, this court the Court of Session ought to become leaner, trimmer and fitter in the coming years,” he said.

He added: “The policy of having at least four non-commercial judges in the Outer House over a period of at least three months will continue, or rather increase to five, so as to avoid any criticism that ordinary first instance business is being regarded as less of a priority than other work. Major inroads have been made in relation to providing all judges with sufficient writing time in civil cases. Statistically, there has been a substantial improvement in the time taken to issue judgments, even if there continue to be problems in specific cases.”

On the processing of cases in the High Court, Lord Carloway, said he did not think the extensions that almost all cases require were a result of inefficiencies in the system.

“Rather, the introduction of enhanced disclosure, the need to search electronic databases and social media and advances in forensic science have made it all but impossible to comply with timescales set in a different era whilst at the same time accommodating the diaries of parties’ legal representatives,” he said.

Read the full speech here