Introduction
In Scotland, civil courts play a very integral role in the administration of justice established under a common rule and an even provision of law within scot. The body is geared and maintained by the judiciary of the land, occupying various designated offices with the responsibilities of giving judgments in a bid to ensuring fair and recommended trials. The body is also charged with the task of sentencing those found guilty under the law of scot. The civil court of Scotland is run at different stages starting from the highest to the lowest court. The highest court is the supreme court of the United Kingdom that is charged with deals with cases of appeal from the Court of Session (Ozturk et al., 2016 pp. 221).
The Supreme Court
The second after the supreme court of the United Kingdom is the Court of Session charged with the responsibility of listening to cases of the first instance from the outer court as well as listening to cases of appeal from the inner court. The third position is the sheriff appeal court that is to preside over the appeal cases from the sheriff courts. In addition, the sheriff personal injury court becomes fourth with the responsibility of listening to cases at a personal level regarding the various injuries (Lawteacher.net, 2018 para 5-9). Finally, the sheriff court charged with a role of sitting and listening to cases at local levels. The research paper is; therefore aimed at demystifying the structure of civil courts in Scotland and the person charged with the cases at different levels.
The Sheriff Court
For the paper, the structure of the civil court is discussed in ascending order, which is from the lowest court to the highest court of the land. To start with; therefore, is the sheriff court. These are the courts at the local level charged with the task of dealing with the emerging cases brought to their jurisdiction. These courts are considered the most significant ones in Scotland because they deal with people directly and thus have the direct experience regarding the civil cases in Scotland as a whole.
Structure and Procedures of the Sheriff Court
The judges responsible for these cases are distributed considering the number of cases presented by the local members. Similarly, the sheriffs can also be instructed to sit in any of the forty-nine courts considering the need and emergencies. Sheriffs are at times responsible for the cases presented before forwarding. These are experienced lawyers who make resolutions on the issues within their jurisdiction. The total number of sheriffs as at now in Scotland is 142, and can be directed to any court depending on the demand just like the judges. In every sheriff court there exist sheriff boss that listens to the appeal cases. Moreover, in these points there exist also the sheriff clerks charged with the responsibilities of the running of the court issues (OpenLearn, 2018 para 4-6). They ensure that every activity proceeds well and smoothly. Besides, they document all the formal materials and pieces of evidence for cases and establishing a principle of ensuring the running of the court appropriately. Besides, there exist two kinds of procedures that are solved at the sheriffdom.
The Court of Session
Firstly, the Small Claims procedure that is an unofficial claim used in tackling minor issues, for example, customer issues. Secondly, the Summary Cause Procedure that is applied when the value of the claim ranges from £3000 to £5000 tackling cases like rent issues and delivery of items. Lastly, the Ordinary procedure applied mainly in divorce issues and termination of contracts and partnership. Concerning the ordinary cause procedure, the case can pass through the sheriff boss after whom it proceeds to the inner house of the court session (Hodge, 2015 pp.300-305).
The Inner and Outer House of the Court of Session
The second court of a great significance too is the Court of Session. The Court of Session comprises of the court of the first instance, that is the inner house and the court of appeal; the outer court of the Court of Session. The inner house is charged with the role of presiding over the civil issues in the land of Scotland with the aim of bringing peace. It looks into these matters and sits in the assembly house in Edinburgh.
There exist two categories in the inner house, that is the first and the second categories each charged with equal significance.
The European Courts
The first category comprises of the senior justice, the lord boss or president while the second category comprised of the second most senior justice, the justice clerk. The first division is containing five judges while the six are of the second category totaling to eleven judges in the inner house of the Court of Session. The internal division listens to the cases on appeal from the sheriff court and even some tribunals from other areas. In this category cases can be brought forward by the following: an advocate whose role equals to the role of a lawyer in England, a solicitor advocate who is confirmed as one of the law society custodians of Scotland, a practitioner from the countries within the European nations (Dyer, 2016 pp. 34).
Related case to the inner house is the outer house of the Court of Session that is the court of the first time. It comprises of twenty-four justices in total. However, at times specialist adjudicators may be asked to sit on some of the issues due to the small rate of specialization. It solves case related to business contracts, and narrowly dealing with property chaos. Under some circumstances, different provisions can be made to tackle the commercial related case. Any appeal from the outer court is forwarded to the supreme court of the United Kingdom (Baum, 2015 pp.67). The outer and inner hoses are covered under the umbrella of the court session; the distinguished civil court in Scotland. It is established in the assembly house in Edinburgh headed by the court boss deputized by the president of a justice clerk.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
The supreme court of the United Kingdom is the last court in the category of the domestic courts. It is the final civil court in the land of entire England. It listens to civil cases from not only England but also Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Unlike other courts, it is concerned with the hearing of challenging and constitutional advantage that is for the whole (Bankowski et al., 2016 pp. 323-341).
The European Courts
The Supreme Court comprises of 12 justices on acting capacities, supervised by the Lord of Philips. Besides the twelve appointed, the lord may still ask some other senior justices to take responsibilities in some areas on acting capacities in respect of the rule of the land. The hearing is to be heard by five judges generally unless in individual cases when it can go up to nine members.
The European Courts
Apart from the above mentioned civil courts in Scotland, there also exist two other types to be considered in Scotland as among the civil courts. These are The European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. The two courts are of significant help to Scotland as a member state of the European Union (Reed, 2018 pp.560-571). The European Court of Justice is primarily intended to ensure proper implementation of the European Union law and to establish the assimilation of the measures addressed in the unions. The bench is made up of a single judge from each member country reinforced by the eight advocates through their authorized opinions to the table in a bid to assist in cases.
The court deals with reviewing the rules and principles that are made laws by the countries under the union and also when the union fails to deliver or keep its promise to the member states. It has been considered as the best and highest within the European Union when dealing with issues concerning union law but not a specific nation's law. Similar to the European court of justice is the European court of human rights which in collaboration with the Scotland rule of 1998 gave risen credits in the Scottish rule of law reinforced by the European court of human rights. If any case there is an issue that deems fit to be undertaken by the European court of human rights, the Scottish law through the civil courts will consider the decisions and statements of the Strasbourg court.
Conclusion
In precision, the law of Scotland through the support of the government needs strong institutions ever ready to address their problems in a bid to bring justice. There are lots of cases day in day out and this judicial system should be in a position of using the passed laws to bring justice to the people. From the above-discussed structure, starting from the lowest to the highest civil court in Scotland, it is crystal clear that there various issues that need a clear structure. All the levels from the supreme court of the United Kingdom, the court of sessions up to the sheriff courts, contain responsible, experienced personnel with integrity to serve Scotland. The structure is; therefore, a good layout for one to identify where and who would be responsible for his or her justice as a way of averting confusion.
References
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