Last week the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service launched its new civil case management system across all sheriff courts. This paves the way for the introduction of the new Simple Procedure from 28th November 2016 and creates the platform to move towards Civil Online.
Civil Online, which will be accessible through the SCTS website, will enable claims to be made online; parties will be able to submit documents in support of their case, pay court fees and track their case progress. This will be introduced initially for Simple Procedure actions up to £5000 and we plan to extend this to all areas of simple procedure by mid-2017, allowing over 60% of all civil business in the sheriff courts to be processed through Civil Online.
SCTS had initially aimed to launch Civil Online to coincide with the introduction of Simple Procedure on 28th November, but we have decided to invest more time to ensure that the online access is extensively tested with future users and fully protected against any cyber security threats to data or financial transactions. We see this as a sensible decision to make sure we can provide users with the level of confidence they will require in the integrity of the site and the security of information and document exchange.
While the work required will only take a relatively short number of weeks, given that Christmas and New Year are fast approaching, we are now planning to introduce Civil Online in early 2017 and will confirm the release date shortly.
In the meantime Simple Procedure forms and guidance are now available on this website in editable PDF format and claims under Simple Procedure can be made from 28 November to sheriff courts in the same way as they currently are for small claims and summary cause.
We have added some information on Civil Online which may be of assistance at this stage.
f you have any queries please send them to civilonline@scotcourtstribunals.gov.uk