Faculty backs child focus in Sheriff Appeal Rules draft

Proposals to enable child-centred cases to be dealt with urgently by the Sheriff Appeal Court have been strongly supported by the Faculty of Advocates in a newly published consultation response.

Faculty was commenting on new draft Sheriff Appeal Court Rules prepared by the Scottish Civil Justice Council, which include new provision for “urgent disposal of appeals”.

At present, where an appeal concerns orders relating to parental responsibilities etc, the appellant must seek urgent disposal. The consultation suggests that there may be other categories of appeal for which the appellant should be compelled to seek urgent disposal, such as those involving orders in relation to adoption or permanence. 

Faculty strongly backs this move, stating: “The Faculty wishes to strongly endorse the inclusion of adoption and permanence orders in the list of appeals in which urgent disposal is mandatory. This recognition of the need for swift disposal of appeals concerned with the arrangements for the care of children is welcomed.”

Most of its remaining comments concern matters of detail, as Faculty agrees with the policy intent behind the proposals. Its preferred alternative terminology to “standard appeal procedure” and “accelerated appeal procedure” is “chapter 7 appeals” and “chapter 6A appeals”, rather than more “ungainly” and not always accurate terms describing procedure before one or three appeal sheriffs.

“One alternative option would be to adopt the language of ‘chapter 6A appeals’ and ‘chapter 7 appeals’. While such wording is not as descriptive of the appeal process, it has the merit of simplicity. We suspect that the profession would readily understand and embrace this terminology,” said the Faculty.

Regarding applications for transfer of a case from one to three appeal sheriffs, Faculty comments: “The rule as currently drafted does not contain any test which the party must satisfy… In principle, it appears to the Faculty that some hurdle should be overcome since the procedural sheriff has already heard parties as to the appropriate procedure and has taken a decision that chapter 6A is appropriate.

“One option might be to require the party applying to demonstrate cause or special cause. Alternatively, the party might be required to make the application on the basis of facts which were not before the procedural sheriff when the original determination was made.”

Click here to view the full response, and here for the consultation document.