Scotland
Scottish courts and tribunals
Scotland is a separate legal system with its own courts, its own judiciary and its own rules of court.
What is different here
These are not regional variations. Naming them plainly is the point of a separate section.
- The courts
- Sheriff courts and justice of the peace courts locally; the Court of Session (civil) and the High Court of Justiciary (criminal) above them. Sheriffdoms, not circuits.
- The rules
- Scotland has its own rules of court. There is no CPR, no FPR and no CrimPR — the Civil, Family and Criminal Procedure Rules indexed elsewhere on this site do not apply.
- Sentencing
- Guidelines come from the Scottish Sentencing Council, not the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.
- Who administers it
- The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, not HMCTS — except for the reserved GB-wide tribunals, which HMCTS runs in Scotland too.
Venue types held
Sheriff Court 56Tribunal 14