The Sheriffdom of Tayside, Central and Fife has announced that from 3 April 2017, it is to create a specific court dedicated to dealing with commercial disputes.
The newest commercial court in Scotland will sit at Dundee, Forfar and Perth Sheriff Courts with Perth taking the administrative burden. All commercial actions will be commenced in Perth Sheriff Court and thereafter all documents will be lodged and processed there.
This new commercial court has been welcomed by Sheriff Principal Marysia Lewis stating that it will help "maintain a high standard of judicial decision-making efficiently delivered after taking into account the resources available to achieve it"[1].
Following a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 1999, the use of commercial courts has gone from strength to strength with increased use in Scotland. This can be attributed to the clear benefits associated with raising a commercial action rather than following the ordinary court procedure:
- In a commercial action one sheriff is allocated to the case at the outset of proceedings and he/she retains control throughout. This provides consistency and ensures that the same approach is taken to the claim throughout;
- The sheriffs appointed to a commercial action must have a background in commercial litigation;
- There is more flexibility provided to sheriffs in commercial actions. In addition to his/her normal "referee" and decision maker role in the dispute, he/she also acts as the case manager and directs the procedural progress of the action. He/she is expected to be proactive and take initiative to promote the speedy resolution of the claim, for example, the timescale tailored by the court reflects the nature of the dispute, compared to ordinary actions where timescales are fixed for various stages of procedure;
- Sheriffs in commercial actions are able to adopt innovative steps unconstrained by rules, provided they are intended to achieve a swifter resolution to the case. This autonomy is not provided to sheriffs in ordinary actions;
- Commercial actions have a case management conference which occurs seven weeks after the commencement of the action. This is the first real airing of the issues in the action and is much quicker than in ordinary procedures, where the first similar hearing is four months after the action is raised; and
- Hearings can occur over the phone, personal appearance by parties is not required and a specific time is given for the case to be heard. This prevents the long-waiting times and delayed proceedings that are common in ordinary procedure.
This news is welcomed by us and can only mean commercial clients
will be better served within Sheriffdoms.
[1] http://www.scottishlegal.com/2017/02/21/new-tayside-commercial-court-to-sit-from-april/
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