Collection

Civil Justice statistics

Directorate: Safer Communities Directorate
Topic: Law and order

Statistics on civil law cases in the Scottish courts together with other related information, such as statistics from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.

Introduction

View all crime and justice statistics

Civil Justice Statistics in Scotland presents statistics on civil law cases in the Scottish courts together with other related information, such as statistics from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.

Civil law is concerned with the rights and obligations of people and organisations. One way of resolving civil law disputes between people and organisations is for a case to be brought to court. In Scotland civil law cases are usually conducted in a sheriff court or the Court of Session. Common types of cases where civil law is used include debt cases, family disputes, divorces/dissolutions, damages, repossession, evictions and claims for personal injury.

The statistical bulletin, in conjunction with its supporting documents, is designed to help people understand and use the civil justice statistics tables available on the this website. As well as information on the quality of the statistics, the bulletin also contains an overview of the civil court structure, a description of recent changes in legislation, a historical overview of the volume of civil law cases and a list of definitions.