Outline And Describe The Structure And Jurisdiction Of The Scottish Criminal And Civil Courts. Give Examples Of The Types Of Cases These Courts Will Hear And Indicate Which Scottish Legal Personnel You Would Expect To Find There.
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Report this essayOutline and describe the structure and jurisdiction of the Scottish criminal and civil courts. Give examples of the types of cases these courts will hear and indicate which Scottish legal personnel you would expect to find there.
Scottish courts are divided into two distinct and separate systems, each with its own jurisdiction and terminology. As stated above these are the civil and criminal courts.
First of all I will look into the structure and jurisdiction of the civil courts. The civil court deals with disputes between individuals, companies or public bodies and can be in extremely diverse areas of law. Civil cases are said to be adversarial. This means that the judge will hear legal argument and evidence from all parties and then make a judgement based on the Ðbalance of probabilities. It should be noted that the standard of proof required is not as high as that of in the criminal courts.
Regarding the structure of the civil courts it is split in to three different sections. We have The Sheriff Court, The Court of Session and The House of Lords.
The Sheriff Court is the busiest court as it deals with both civil and criminal cases. Scotland is divided into six areas known as sheriffdoms. Theses sheriffdoms are; Grampian, Highlands and Islands; Tayside, Central and Fife; Lothian and Borders; Glasgow and Strathkelvin; North Strathclyde and South Strathclyde Dumfries and Galloway. The sheriffdoms are further divided into 49 sheriff court districts. Each sheriffdom has a sheriff principal who administers the work and is assisted by the other sheriffs.
The sheriff court has very wide jurisdiction as regards the subject matter it can deal with. Jurisdiction concerns the subject matter of the claim and the geographical location of the parties. Firstly, jurisdiction is limited to persons who are resident within or have some association, e.g. business ownership, with the sheriffdom in which the court is situated. With regards to property the case will be heard in the court which has jurisdiction over the property. Similarly, with regards to contracts, the case will be raised in the court with jurisdiction over the geographical area in which the contract was to be performed.
Actions for debt and damages of any amount can be heard in the sheriff court and a claim of less than ÐЈ1500 has to be in the sheriff court. Other examples of areas of law that are seen in the sheriff court are as follows; separation and divorce, custody of children and maintenance, consumer complaints, personal injury claims, disputes regarding succession or trusts, breach of contract and defamation, bankruptcy and the winding up of companys which share capital less than ÐЈ120,000.
The sheriff court is said to be a court of first instance. This means that cases will be started and determined there. There are three different procedures in the event of an appeal. Small claims can be appealed directly to the sheriff principal. Summary causes are directed to the sheriff principal and passed onto the Court of Session if he deems it appropriate. Finally, ordinary causes can go directly to the Court of Session.
The Court of Session has jurisdiction over the whole of Scotland and sits only in Edinburgh. It is a court of first instance and appeal. The court is divided into what is referred to as the Outer and Inner House.
The Outer House is the court of first instance. There is a staff of 22 judges. Each case is heard by a single judge, known as Lord Ordinary. It is possible to seek a jury trial in the Outer House but is uncommon and is confined to narrow range of uncomplicated cases. The Outer House has jurisdiction over all the same matters as the sheriff for those over which the lower court has exclusive jurisdiction.
The Inner House is basically the appeal court. The Inner House comprises 11 judges and is divided into two divisions, simply called the first and second divisions. The two divisions have the same authority and jurisdiction. For most appeals, only three judges, called Lords of Session, will sit but if the matter is particularly difficult or important a bench of five or seven judges may convene. The Inner House seldom listens to evidence and determines appeals from the legal arguments presented to it. Decisions are determined by a majority vote of the judges. After this there is a right to further appeal and must be done so by means of petition to the House of Lords.
The House of Lords is the final court of appeal for civil cases from Scotland. It hears appeals from the Inner House of The Court of Session on questions of both fact and law unless the case was begun in the sheriff court, when the appeal must be on a question of law. There are twelve law lords of whom normally two will be Scottish trained judges. Although it is not a rule that a Scottish judge sits to hear an appeal from Scotland, it is usual for at least one of the five judges to be Scottish. After the House of Lords have passed judgement they relay the return the case to the Inner House of the Court of Session for them to give effect to the judgement.
Now we will move on the structure and jurisdiction of the criminal courts within the Scottish legal system. The first point I would like to highlight is that the Scottish criminal court system distinguishes between offences that can be tried without a jury, called summary procedure and those that are tried on indictment with a jury, called solemn procedure.
The criminal system is also subdivided into four different courts. These are the District Court or the Justice of the Peace courts, the Sheriff Court, the High Court of Justiciary as a trial court and the High Court of Justiciary as an appeal court.
With regards to whether a case is sent to the District Court or the Sheriff Court the decision is decided on the basis of the following. It depends on the seriousness of the offence; the sentence which can be imposed; whether the sheriff court is very busy and perhaps also on the proficiency of the judges.
The District Court is soon to be renamed the Justice of the Peace Court. So, it deals with minor crimes such as breach of the peace and drunkenness, as some road traffic offences. The crimes are tried by summary procedure. The judge in the District Court can be either a lay justice of the peace who will be assisted by a legally qualified clerk of the court, or a stipendiary magistrate, who is himself legally qualified. The area covered by the court is called the commission area and the justices are appointed to hold a commission for that area alone. There is a Justices Committee that oversees all court administration and makes sure that it is staffed in cooperation with the clerk of the court, who must be a solicitor or an advocate. The court has jurisdiction over any summary case which occurs
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The Public Safety Justice of the Peace
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The Public Safety Justice of the Peace is a civil trial court judge. Its job: to consider all the complaints made to the court and make suggestions on how to improve it.
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This is just the beginning of the term. It has three parts. You’ll see why in the introduction. Once again, the terms “civil trial” and “triest” are used for public safety.
Here are the steps:
In the name of justice of the peace, we propose that:
(a) the district court of the United States shall not hold any civil or criminal trial on, or in connection with, any civil or criminal proceedings in which the court shall have or may have the power to issue a summons or to cause to be presented to the court, a document containing a detailed record or a written account of the record, or a statement or a record maintained by the court, showing the names of the witnesses and the location of all persons to attend each of the trial proceedings and the names and addresses of their persons, who are also witnesses. (b) a court may, under subsection (a), order that all summons, record, or note concerning trial proceedings be maintained by the court with the knowledge that the summons, record, or note is confidential, confidential, or confidential information, and any testimony, questions or answers relating to the trial proceedings, questions or answers pertaining to the testimony, questions or answers relating to the statements or documents described in subsection (f), (g), or (h) shall be kept confidential as long as the court has a clear law enforcement interest in the record of the hearing or other records and records of record, when the record is available. Such order shall not be effective except through a written report and report to the clerk of the court, in which document it shall be kept.
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Let’s begin with the process:
The next step is public safety court oversight.
The Public Safety Justice of the Peace has a six-month pre-trial period, with any complaint, notice, report, or report to the public being forwarded to the office if the public has an interest on it. The office sends the complaint, notice or report to the Office of the Public Safety Prosecutor and the public is provided with court documents and court orders which provide the public with information on the court process and instructions and documents relating to the Court’s process for appointing the Public Safety Trial Attorney or for other administrative or legal services. The office also gives the public a copy of the court process, information on judicial procedure and the procedure of the courts, and reports a report to the attorney’s office concerning the filing and use of an administrative report in the case or as a substitute by the public. If the public requests a copy of the court processes, the court determines that the public good outweighs the public interest. The court also places an order that information about the process must be given to the Public Safety Trial Attorney or public information for the Public Safety Trial Attorney must be provided to a public. These orders, although