Lodge all documents electronically: sheriffs principal
Scotland's sheriffs principal have published a further guidance statement in order to achieve a consistency of approach across sheriff courts – this time on electronic submission of documents.
The guidance states that documents should only be lodged in hard copy form where there are exceptional circumstances, or where a sheriff so directs in advance of a hearing.
All documents and items of process in relation to new or existing cases in the sheriff court should be lodged electronically.
The guidance does not apply to commissary business, which remains subject to the Lord President’s Practice Note Number 1 of 2020, “Exception to electronic signatures and transmission of documents”.
An appendix to the guidance sets out the email addresses through which documents can be lodged electronically.
Documents in all types of ordinary actions, except initiating documents, can be submitted using civil online. For simple procedure, the claim form as well as all other documents should be submitted using the civil online portal.
Where the rules of court require specific documents to be lodged with an initiating writ or defences, such documents should be lodged both electronically and in hard copy form.