Civil court business down again in 2018-19

Civil court business in Scotland fell by 11% overall in 2018-19 compared with the previous year, new official figures show.

Excluding summary applications, there were 72,100 civil law cases initiated across the Court of Session and sheriff courts in 2018-19, continuing the long term downward trend in court business levels over the last 10 years. This reverses the 10% increase seen in the previous year, which saw the first full year of the simple procedure in the sheriff court.

Debt actions, which remain the most common, constituting 41% of principal craves, recorded a 20% decrease. Family actions, now the second most common at 18%, rose by 3% while eviction cases (17% of the total) were down 15%. Repossession actions were down 9%, but damages cases, which fluctuate more from year to year, increased by 8%.

The number of Court of Session actions has decreased by 48% since 2015-16, reflecting the civil court reforms which widened the exclusive competence of the sheriff courts to cases seeking up to £100,000.

The specialised Sheriff Personal Injury Court now covers nearly 40% of personal injury cases in Scotland.

All sheriffdoms in Scotland experienced a decrease in business levels from 2017-18. Between 2017-18 and 2018-19, Grampian, Highlands & Islands, alongside Glasgow & Strathkelvin, saw the largest decrease in initiated cases (both down 16%), while North Strathclyde saw the smallest (down 7%).

Statistics on specialist courts and tribunals are not included in these figures.

The 2017-18 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey shows that nearly three in 10 adults were estimated to have experienced at least one civil law problem during the previous three years. The most common type of issues were disputes with neighbours (15%), followed by problems with faulty goods or services (5%), and money and debt issues (4%).