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We value complaints and use information from them to help us to improve our services.
If something goes wrong or you are dissatisfied with our services, please tell us.
The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service is committed to providing high-quality services.
We define a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction about our action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by us or on our behalf.
You can complain about things like:
Your complaint may involve more than one service or be about someone working for us.
There are some things we can’t deal with through our complaints handling procedure. These include:
If other procedures or rights of appeal can help you resolve your concerns, we will give information and advice, though not legal advice, to help you.
Anyone can make a complaint to us, including the representative of someone who is dissatisfied with our service. Please also read the section on ‘Getting help to make your complaint’.
You can complain in person at any of our courts or offices, by phone, in writing, or by e-mail. We aim to develop an online complaints form but this is not available yet.
It is often easier for complaints to be resolved if you make them quickly and directly to the service concerned. So please consider talking to a member of our staff providing the service you are complaining about. Then they can try to resolve any problems on the spot. Or write directly to the tribunal, office or court concerned. You will find our location details here, with courts listed alphabetically.
When making a complaint, please tell us:
Normally, you must make your complaint within six months of:
In exceptional circumstances, we may be able to accept a complaint after the time limit. If you feel that the time limit should not apply to your complaint, please tell us why.
We will always tell you who is dealing with your complaint.
Our complaints procedure has two stages:
1 Front Line Response
We aim to resolve complaints quickly and close to where we provided the service. This could mean an on-the-spot apology and explanation if something has clearly gone wrong, and we will try to take immediate action to resolve the problem.
We will give you our decision within five working days.
2 Investigation
We will look into all complaints and those that appear to be complicated or serious may need a detailed investigation. We will also investigate if you are not satisfied with our frontline response.
When we investigate a complaint we will:
If our investigation will take longer than 20 working days, we will tell you. We will try to agree revised time limits with you and will keep you updated on our progress.
If you are still dissatisfied with our final decision or the way we dealt with your complaint, you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) to look at it.
The SPSO considers complaints about Scottish public authorities and has produced a Model Complaints Handling Procedure, which we have adopted. Read more
The SPSO cannot normally look at:
You can contact the SPSO:
By Post: Freepost SPSO
By Telephone: Freephone 0800 377 7330; (or 0131 225 5300)
We understand that you may be unable, or reluctant, to make a complaint yourself. We accept complaints from the representative of a person who is dissatisfied with our service. We can take complaints from a friend, relative, or an advocate (someone who will support you), if you have given them your consent to complain for you.
You can find out about advocates in your area by contacting the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance.
Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance
We are committed to making our service easy to use for all members of the community. In line with our statutory equalities duties, we will always ensure that reasonable adjustments are made to help people access and use our services.
If you have trouble putting your complaint in writing, or want information in another language or format, such as large print, audio or Braille, please tell us in person, or contact us at these addresses/phone numbers.
In all other circumstances your complaint should be made, in the first instance, directly to the tribunal, office or court providing the service you are complaining about. This can be done in writing, via email or in person.
Contact details, including the generic email addresses and phone numbers, for all courts and offices can be found here.
For general enquiries email enquiries@scotcourts.gov.uk or call on 0131 444 3311
We can also give you this leaflet in other languages and formats (such as large print, audio and Braille).
You can make a complaint in person, by phone, by letter, or by e-mail.
We have a two-stage complaints procedure. We will always try to deal with your complaint quickly. But if it is clear that the matter will need a detailed investigation, we will tell you and keep you updated on our progress.
We will try to resolve your complaint quickly, within five working days if we can.
If you are dissatisfied with our frontline response, you can ask us to investigate your complaint.
We will look into all complaints and those that appear to be complicated or serious may need a detailed investigation. We will also investigate if you are not satisfied with our frontline response.
We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days. We will give you our decision as soon as possible. This will be after no more than 20 working days unless there is clearly a good reason for needing more time.
If after receiving our final decision on your complaint, you remain dissatisfied with our decision or the way we have handled your complaint, you can ask the SPSO to consider it.
We will tell you how to do this when we send you our final decision.