Guilty pleas among further restarts in Scottish courts

Further guidance for Court of Session and criminal sheriff court business has been issued by Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service as the courts work to increase the levels of business they are able to conduct.

The 10 hub sheriff courts will now hear and dispose of summary criminal cases where it is agreed in advance by parties that they can be resolved without the need for a trial. The pleas to be recorded, and the facts on which they are based, must all be agreed, and neither the accused nor their solicitor need attend court.

Click here for a link to the full guidance. Ian Moir, convener of the Law Society of Scotland's Criminal Legal Aid Committee tweeted: "This will allow any case that can be resolved to be processed in early course and safely. ABWOR can be granted for these written pleas. Important step to reducing the backlog."

David Fraser, SCTS Director of Operations commented: "Working with COPFS and the Law Society we are introducing these practical measures which can be safely applied during the current lockdown arrangements. We are all very conscious of the impact of any delay on the individuals involved in cases whether as an accused, victim or witness and this will allow further cases to be resolved at this time."

Guidance was also issued last week enabling a solicitor to represent by electronic means a client in a case beginning with an appearance from custody (access from SCTS home page: "Attendance by electronic means").

In the Court of Session, a new guidance note, operative until 1 June 2020 unless extended (click here to access), confirms that all business will be conducted remotely, with the Inner House sitting as an online court to hear appeals and the Outer House conducting most procedural hearings as scheduled, preferably by telephone conference though the court may agree to accept written submissions. All documents require to be in electronic form.

The note states: "Work is underway to develop an approach to re-fixing business scheduled to call since 23 March that has had to be cancelled." Parties should email to confirm that they require rescheduling.

As regards substantive hearings, "No civil jury trials are able to run for the time being. Essential and urgent hearings where witnesses are required which are suitable for conducting remotely will be considered on a case by case basis. Case docketing will be implemented on a trial basis in the near future for all case types, with cases in which substantive hearings are already fixed being allocated to specific judges for active case management. Judicial reviews granted permission to proceed will be allocated and consideration given on a case by case basis to the most appropriate method of conducting procedural and substantive hearings."