Civil Judicial Statistics Scotland, 2010-11

8 December 2011

Contents

• Background

• Current publication

• Results from current publication

• Dissemination

• Work going forward

Background• Publication suspended after

Civil Judicial Statistics Scotland 2002 – lack of precision in the definition of data items – inconsistent across the 49 sheriff courts – data unreliable and potentially misleading

• Scottish Court Service and SG worked together to address data quality issues

• Publication reinstated in December 2010– Improved data quality– Consistent data recording– 2010 publication contained 2008-09 and 2009-10 data

2010-11 publication - What is different?

• Thematic layout and improved sign posting• Increased use of contextual information:

– Results from Scottish Crime and Justice Survey included • (2009-10 results, 2010-11 results published 1/11/10)

– Scottish Legal Aid– Mid-year population estimates – Court structure diagram

• Extra tables:– Supplementary time series tables (2008-09 to 2010-11)

published alongside publication– Interactive dataset published

• Consultation released with publication

Presentation issues addressed

• Accessibility requirements– Colour scheme chosen to maximise

accessibility – Text now left-aligned rather than justified– Publication made available as a Word file

• Improved presentation– Shading added to tables– Charts and diagrams added

Court of Session – 2010-11

• Court of Session– 5,176 cases initiated

(down 16 per cent)

– 4,291 cases disposed of

(down 1 per cent)

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

Initiated Disposed

Nu

mb

er

of C

ou

rt o

f Se

ssio

n c

ase

s in

itia

ted

.

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Sheriff courts – 2010-11

• Sheriff Courts– 92,308 cases initiated

(down 17 per cent)

– 87,504 cases disposed of

(down 17 per cent)0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

Initiated Disposed

Num

ber

of s

herif

f cou

rt c

ases

initi

ated

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Breakdown by case type

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

Debt Repossession Family Personal Injury Other

Nu

mb

er

of

ca

se

s in

itia

ted

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Differences across SheriffdomsNumber of cases initiated in 2010-11 per 1,000 population

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Grampian,Highlands and

Islands

Tayside, Centraland Fife

Lothian andBorders

North Strathclyde SouthStrathclyde,

Dumfries andGalloway

Glasgow andStrathkelvin

Sheriffdom

Legal Aid: 2010-11• Civil legal aid spending in the Court of

Session was £8.94m, an increase of 3 per cent since 2009-10

• Civil legal aid spending in the sheriff courts was £29.8m, an increase of 15 per cent since 2009-10

• The number of grants for legal aid has increased over the past three years due to the impact of the recession

Dissemination strategy

• E-mail notification went out to ScotStat users

• Statistical news release published on SG website

• Two twitter announcements on @SGJusticeAnalys went out with publication

• Presenting to internal and external colleagues, including Justice Analytical Services user day

• Picked up by various groups

Going forward?

• Collecting responses from users

• More contextual information

• Include results from other surveys and data collections

• Improved data – Working with the SCS

?

Ordinary procedure cases

• The number of ordinary procedure cases has continued to fall in 2010-11

• Largest drop in ordinary cause cases, but little change in the number of commercial and family cases initiated 0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Ord

ina

ry p

roc

ed

ure

ca

se

s in

itia

ted

Ordinary Commercial

Family Personal Injury

Overview of civil courts

• Court of Session - highest civil court in Scotland

• Sheriff Courts - local courts, dealing with both criminal and civil business, as well as commissary work

• Justice of the Peace (JP) courts - local courts, dealing with lower-level criminal and civil cases

• Court of Session based in Edinburgh

• 49 sheriff courts across Scotland, grouped into six sheriffdoms

Differences across sheriffdoms

• Fewer cases were initiated and disposed in each sheriffdom in 2010-11– Largest fall in Lothian and Borders (24% fewer cases

initiated, 24% fewer cases disposed)– Smallest change in cases initiated seen in Grampian,

Highlands and Islands (down 12%)– Smallest change in cases disposed seen in North

Strathclyde (down 9%)

• Glasgow and Strathkelvin has dealt with the most cases per 1,000 population, with around 30% more than any other sheriffdom

Debt cases

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Nu

mb

er

of

de

bt

ca

se

s i

nit

iate

d

Ordinary cause Commercial Summary cause Small claim

• The number of debt cases initiated and disposed of continued to fall across all procedural levels of the sheriff courts

• One possible reason for this is the economic downturn

Repossession cases• Ordinary cause cases

initiated down by almost half - due to new legislation

• Smaller fall in disposed cases partly due to RBS vs Wilson judgment

• The fall in summary cause cases is thought to be due to a change in the way that some local authorities deal with rent arrears

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

Initiated Disposed Initiated Disposed

Ordinary cause Summary cause

Nu

mb

er o

f ca

ses

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Family cases 2010-11

• Almost all family cases are raised in the sheriff courts

• Family cases account for 16 per cent of cases initiated in the sheriff courts

• Over three-quarters of cases initiated are for divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

Divorce /Dissolution

ParentalResponsibilities

& Rights

Other

Ca

se

s in

itia

ted

in s

he

riff

co

urt

Personal Injury• Personal injury cases make up more than half of the

cases processed in the Court of Session– New ruling on pleural plaques released after publication sent to

publishers

• Most personal injury cases are for something other than an asbestos-related condition or clinical negligence

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

Court of Session Ordinary cause Summary cause

Nu

mb

er o

f ca

ses

init

iate

d in

201

0-11

Asbestos Clinical Negligence Other

Commissary

• Ordinary estate figures for 2010-11 similar to those for 2008-09

• Number of small estates confirmed continues to fall

  Ordinary Estate Small Estate

  Confirmed Average Confirmed Average

2008-09 21,823 £204,000 4,161 £16,300

2009-10 20,537 £197,000 2,881 £18,500

2010-11 21,038 £203,000 2,553 £19,100

Scottish Crime and Justice Survey

• 28% of respondents had experienced at least one civil law problem in the last three years

• 49% of those who had experienced a problem had solved that problem - 7% had given up trying, while 6% were not doing anything towards solving the problem

2010-11 publication

• Published on 25 October 2011

• Based on the 2009-10 publication

• Several changes and improvements...