Civil cases initiated in 2016-17 lowest since records began

The latest civil justice statistics, published by Scotland’s Chief Statistician today also record a 48 per cent drop in cases at the Court of Session and a five per cent drop in cases at the Sheriff Court compared to the previous year.

According to the data, there were 73,640 civil law cases initiated across the Court of Session, sheriff courts and the Sheriff Personal Injury Court in 2016-17 (excluding summary applications), an overall drop of five per cent from the previous year.

There was a 74 per cent decrease in the number of personal injury cases initiated in the Court of Session as a consequence of the establishment of the Sheriff Personal Injury Court under the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. In comparison, the number of cases initiated in the sheriff courts also decreased although by a lower proportion of five per cent.

Following a consistent decrease since 2008-09, there has been a small increase in family cases of three per cent from the previous year. However, the long-term trend is a decrease of 11 per cent. Divorce/dissolution cases and parental responsibilities and rights cases together accounted for 95 per cent of family cases in 2016-17.

Debt cases made up 42 per cent of all civil court cases initiated in 2016-17. There were 12 per cent fewer debt cases than in 2015-16 and 54 per cent fewer than in 2008-09.

The number of personal injury cases initiated in the civil courts was four per cent lower than in 2015-16, but the number of personal injury cases has fluctuated markedly since 2008-09. Cases resulting from a road traffic accident made up the majority of personal injury cases (59 per cent in 2016-17).

The number of damages cases initiated increased by 22 per cent compared to the previous year. However, long-term they are on a downward trend, having fallen by 39 per cent since 2008-09.

There was a six per cent drop in initiated cases of repossession following a breach of a mortgage or loan secured on a property compared to 2015-16. This continues a long-term downward trend (83 per cent decrease since 2008-09).

Initiated cases involving eviction of tenants from a rented property decreased by three per cent in 2016-17, this was in contrast to a consistent increase in the previous three years. However, overall the number of cases are still 28 per cent lower than in 2008-09.