#16455 - Case Law And The Courts In Uk - Scottish Legal System

1. Case Law and the courts in UK

• Citations contain the court which the case was held in (UKSC, CSOH, CSIH, SC)

• Scots Law Times (SLT)

• Parties:

• Pursuer

• Defender

• Petitioner

• Reclaimer

• Respondent

• Decisions:

• Dismiss

• Affirm

• Reverse

• Overrule

• Declaratory theory that judges do not create the law, they discover it or simply identify the already-existing law

• Decisions made in one jurisdiction do not bind another jurisdiction

• Decisions made in higher courts bind those in lower courts

• Case reports:

• Morison’s Dictionary (until 1801)

• Session Cases

• Scots Law Times

• In civil courts, you will only get what you ask for, nothing more, by decision makers who make the decision based on what information is presented to them

• The defender will have prepared their case based on the parameters set by the pursuers in their document submissions

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The Scottish Court System

The civil courts-

Phases of a case:

1. Catalyst:

• Real world interactions which escalate and causes somebody to want to raise a court action

• Examples: debt, divorce, custody, eviction, neighbourhood dispute

• Direct catalysts: real life situation that forms the crimes (like assaults)

• Indirect catalysts: other things leading up to the action (he did not like the wallpaper and realised that he didn’t love her and wanted to get a divorce)

• Whether direct or indirect, the client will provide information that is or is not legally relevant, but it will all inform understanding of case and motivations behind the client and what they want

2. Getting into court:

• documents to fill depending on what action is wanted to raise, sometimes be accompanied with physical appearances

• The defender will be required to respond in paperwork

• Some actions will have notice periods before getting into court which have to be fulfilled

3. Lines in the sand:

• how the defender wants to respond: agree, disagree

• Served with documents from the other side, pleading guilty, notice to defend, disagreeing with other side, etc.

• this sets date for court

4. Are we in favour?

• Getting ready

• Procedural hearings are there to make sure everyone is ready, and to determine what aspects of cases have solicitors agreed (facts of the case)

• Documents: joint minutes, statements of uncontroversial evidence, etc.

• these are sent backwards and forwards between sides

5. I find in favour of:

• decision of the decision maker (judge)

• What parties cannot agree on, where you are asking the decision maker to make this decision

• Decision maker is very objective, caring about evidence and facts and what is presented in front of them

• One side will win and one side will loose

• Tends to generate appeals

6. Pay the man: facing consequences of decision

Institutional Writings

There are civil and criminal institutional writers

Custom

• Unwritten

• Must not contradict general law

• Generally accepted...