Simple Procedure Rules to be amended next month
New court rules will come into force next month amending the Simple Procedure Rules and the Fatal Accident Inquiry Rules.
Both sets of changes have been produced by the Scottish Civil Justice Council. The FAI rule changes are minor drafting amendments prior to the commencement of the new FAI rules to ensure that they operate as intended.
With simple procedure, which came into force last year, the Council’s secretariat has liaised with officials from the Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service on the effective operation of the rules in the courts, and has also received feedback from stakeholders such as the Society of Messengers at Arms & Sheriff Officers and Citizens Advice Scotland. This has resulted in amendments to improve and clarify the rules.
Changes include:
- amending the decision form to require the sheriff clerk to set out the date of the decision;
- amending the form of charge to align it with the form prescribed in all other civil proceedings;
- amending rule 15.3 to provide, as per s 7(1) of the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Extracts Act 1892, that service of a charge is required prior to enforcing a decision by (i) an earnings arrestment; (ii) a money attachment; or (iii) the attachment of an article.
Both sets of changes come into force on 15 June 2017, the commencement date for the new FAI rules.