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LORD GILL’S REVIEW ON THE CIVIL COURT SYSTEM IN SCOTLAND

A CIVIL INJUSTICE

THE CORNER STONES OF A FAIR AND EQUITABLE CIVIL JUSTICE SYSTEM

At Thompsons Solicitors we believe:

• Civil justice is not a commodity consumed by Court users

• It is our basic human right that the state shall provide all of its citizens equal access to its Civil Courts to resolve its disputes

• The Civil Justice system should therefore not be privatised any more than our hospitals or schools should be privatised

• The SNP Government has already made us pay for our courts to the tune of 80%

• The SNP Government’s intention is to have us fully pay for our courts by 2011 at 100%.  These change are designed to dovetail with any changes from Lord Gill’s Review.  That is, presumably, how the SNP intends to find any changes.

• Those with the strongest legal case should win not those with the largest pockets as would happen if the Courts were fully privatised

• Protection of life should be at the heart of the Civil Justice system

• Therefore cases involving the extremely important matter of health and safety should continue to be heard in our highest Courts before our most learned Judges to both ensure that the law on health and safety remains strong and clear and to also ensure that the justice system gives such cases their appropriate place

• Victims of injury and disease in Scotland should have exactly the same access to Courts as they do in England and Wales and should have the same opportunity to recover legal fees as victims in other jurisdictions

ATTACKS UPON THOSE CORNER STONES OF CIVIL JUSTICE WHICH ARE LIKELY TO RESULT FROM LORD GILL’S CIVIL JUSTICE REVIEW

At present no-one knows exactly what will be contained within Lord Gill’s review.  However it seems clear that the following, extremely detrimental, matters will be covered:

• It will further the stated political objective of the SNP Government to promote the Scottish Courts as the worldwide centre for dispute resolution for big business, irrespective of where that business is based

• To create space for the purpose of personal injury cases which are of such importance to health and safety, will be relegated from the country’s Supreme Court (the Court of Session) to the lower, less important, Sheriff Courts

• This shall institutionally reduce the importance that society places upon health and safety. It shall reduce the ability of individuals and Trade Unions to promote and advance matters of health and safety

• Indeed, it shall have a significantly retrograde affect, potentially eroding decades of hard fought battles by Trade Unions to advance workers rights through running health and safety cases because decisions in the Sheriff Courts will be less authoritative and less consistent

• Health and safety standards are likely therefore to slip with the result that injuries and deaths could increase

• It will also become necessary to pay fully for the privilege to use Civil Courts with the likely effect that those who are able and prepared to pay the most have the best chance of success