Solicitors, legal firms and other Civil Online Portal users should be aware that Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service are rolling out a new version of the Civil Online Portal to coincide with the revised Simple Procedure legislation which comes into force on Wednesday 31 May.
Existing Civil Online functions will be available in the new portal and users will be able to access details of any claim lodged using the old system.
However, draft claims and responses (i.e. those partially completed but not yet sent to the court) will be removed from the portal if not submitted by 16:00 Tuesday 30 May. Any information previously entered into a draft will be lost and users will need to begin a fresh claim or response in the new system.
This also applies to any claims submitted via the old portal and subsequently rejected by Court staff. These claims will require to be submitted afresh on the new portal.
To allow for work to be undertaken in advance of the commencement of the new rules and launch of the new portal, the current Civil Online Portal will be unavailable to all users from:
Thursday 25 May from 16:00 until 08:00 on Friday 26 May and from 16:00 on Tuesday 30 May.
The new Civil Online Portal will be then available to all users from 08:00 on Wednesday 31 May.
The bulk Solicitor API will also be unavailable during the said time period, namely from 16:00 hrs on Tuesday 30 May until 08:00 hrs on Wednesday 31 May.
Should you have any questions please contact Jennie Munro and Gary White at the Civil Lab (civilonlinelab@scotcourts.gov.uk)