Act of Sederunt (Rules of the Court of Session Amendment No. 4) (Miscellaneous) 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Act of Sederunt)

This Act of Sederunt amends the Rules of the Court of Session 1994 by—

(a) amending rule 14.5 (first order in petitions) to abolish the requirement that a petition appear in the rolls before the granting of a first order, and to provide that orders for intimation, service and advertisement should be made as soon as the petition is lodged (paragraph 2(2));

(b) inserting Chapter 28A (notices to admit and notices of non-admission) to provide that the procedure for intimation of notices to admit and notices of non-admission should be available at any time after the closing of the record (paragraph 2(3) and (9));

(c) amending rule 30.2 (intimation to party whose agent has withdrawn) to provide that when serving the prescribed notice on the party whose agent has withdrawn, it is no longer necessary to serve in addition a copy of the interlocutor (paragraph 2(4) and 2(38)(b));

(d) inserting Chapter 34A (pursuers' offers) to introduce procedure dealing with offers to settle made by pursuers (paragraph 2(5) and 2(38)(c));

(e) amending rule 35.3 (optional procedure before executing commission and diligence) to provide that documents recovered under that rule are sent direct to the party who obtained the commission and diligence, and to provide that the documents recovered be available for inspection or copying by every other party (paragraph 2(6) and 2(38)(d)); and inserting rule 35.3A (optional procedure where there is a party litigant or confidentiality is claimed) to provide safeguards in such cases (paragraph 2(7) and 2(38)(d));

(f) inserting rules 41.44 (appeals to be heard in Outer House) and 41.45 (reclaiming against decision of Lord Ordinary) to provide that appeals may be remitted by the Inner House to the Outer House to be heard by the Lord Ordinary in the first instance, and to provide that the Lord Ordinary’s decision may be reclaimed against (paragraph 2(10));

(g) amending Chapter 43 (actions of damages) to require the pursuer in an action relating to personal injury or death following personal injury to lodge in process along with the summons copies of all medical reports which are within his possession or control and on which he may rely (paragraph 2(11));

(h) inserting Chapter 45A (actions of removing) to make provision relating to service, time periods and applications to be sisted as defenders in actions against unnamed occupiers who are in possession of heritable property without right or title (paragraph 2(12) and 2(38)(e));

(i) amending Part VII of Chapter 62 (recognition, registration and enforcement of foreign judgments etc.) to remove references to the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (paragraph 2(15), (16), (17) and (18)); and amending rule 62.54 (applications for inhibition or arrestment) to specify the procedure for incidental applications and to extend this procedure to various other statutory provisions (paragraph 2(19));

(j) further amending Chapter 62 (recognition, registration and enforcement of foreign judgments etc.) by inserting Part X to provide procedure relating to the recognition, registration and enforcement of decisions under article 34.1 of the procedural rules on conciliation and arbitration of contracts financed by the European Development Fund and under article 20 of the United Nations (International Tribunal) (Former Yugoslavia) Order 1996 (paragraph 2(20) and 2(38)(f));

(k) amending Part I of Chapter 76 (causes in relation to confiscation of proceeds of crime) to replace references to the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1987 with references to the Proceeds of Crime (Scotland) Act 1995 (paragraph 2(21), (22), (23), (24), (25), (26), (27), (28), (29), (30), (31), (32) and (33)); amending Chapter 76, to extend the provisions of Part II to the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 (Enforcement of External Orders) Order 1995 (paragraph 2 (35), (36), (37) and (38)); and further extending Part II of Chapter 76 to the new provisions in the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 introduced by the Criminal Procedure (Consequential Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1995 (paragraph 2(38)); and

(l) making minor consequential and typographical amendments (all other sub-paragraphs of paragraph 2).