Civil justice statistics in Scotland: 2011-2012

10. Appeals and Reclaiming Motions

10.1 The civil appeal process can be complex and so the following is a general overview only and is not intended to be a comprehensive description.

10.2 In the Court of Session:

• appeals from the Outer House of the Court of Session, known as reclaiming motions, are made to the Inner House;
• the Inner House also hears appeals from the sheriff courts, see below, and certain tribunals and other bodies.

10.3 In the sheriff courts:

• small claim appeals must be made to the sheriff principal, whose decision is final;
• summary cause appeals must also be made to the sheriff principal in the first instance, but the judgment of the sheriff principal may, if they certify the case as suitable, be appealed to the Inner House of the Court of Session;
• ordinary cause appellants may in some circumstances choose to appeal to either the sheriff principal or the Court of Session, and where the case is appealed to the sheriff principal it may in some circumstances be further appealed to the Court of Session.

10.4 Appeals against judgments of the Inner House of the Court of Session may be made to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which was established on 1 October 2009 and replaced the House of Lords in its judicial capacity. There is normally no requirement to obtain the Court of Session's permission, or leave, to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. Statistics on appeals from the Court of Session to the UK Supreme Court are not contained within this publication.

Sheriff Court Appeals

10.5 The number of appeals to sheriffs principal initiated during 2011-12 decreased by 29 per cent from 441 in 2010-11 to 313. Of the appeals initiated, 69 per cent were appeals of ordinary cause cases, 18 per cent were appeals of summary cause cases and 13 per cent were appeals of small claim cases.

10.6 The number of appeals to sheriffs principal that were disposed was almost static between 2010-11 (334) and 2011-12 (330). The original judgment was adhered to in 47 per cent of appeals disposed of in 2011-12 and was recalled or varied in 22 per cent of disposals, a decrease of 10 percentage points compared to 2010-11.

Court of Session Appeals and Reclaiming Motions

10.7 There were 56 reclaiming motions from the General Department initiated in the Inner House of the Court of Session in 2011-12. The original judgment was adhered to or accepted^[14] by the appellants for 71 per cent of the 32 reclaiming motions disposed of in 2011-12.

10.8 There were 34 reclaiming motions from the Petition Department initiated in the Inner House of the Court of Session in 2011-12, an increase of 89 per cent on 2011-12. The original judgment was adhered to or accepted¹⁴ by the appellants for 14 of the 21 reclaiming motions disposed of in 2011-12.

10.9 There were 55 appeals from sheriff courts initiated in the Inner House in 2011-12. The number of appeals disposed of was 68, with 74 per cent of appeals disposed of in 2011-12 adhering to or accepting the original judgement¹⁴.

10.10 The number of appeals initiated from other courts and tribunals increased by 25 per cent to 116. There were 92 appeals from other courts and tribunals disposed of in 2011-12, an increase of 37 per cent compared to 2010-11. Of the cases disposed of in 2011-12, 60 per cent adhered to or accepted the original judgement¹⁴.

Table 23: Appeals to sheriffs principal¹ initiated and disposed of², by type of procedure and final disposal, 2011-12

1. Excludes other appeals heard by the sheriff courts, e.g. appeals from tribunals and local authorities.
2. Figures for initiations and disposals do not necessarily refer to the same cases. See paragraph 11.9 for further details.

Table 24: Appeals initiated and disposed of¹ in the Court of Session, 2011-12

1. Figures for initiations and disposals do not necessarily refer to the same cases. See paragraph 11.9 for further details.